a lose pistol and one police officer search through the sleazy side of post war tokyo to track it down and save his honour by do so a classic film noir plot . this be a kurosawa movie and so of course it be execute brilliantly . this film be full of dazzle sequence with highly imaginative and technically adept editing and camera work . this may be his first great movie and but in some section it betray his relative inexperience a a film maker it slightly lose focus in the central part of the movie and he occasionally over egg his metaphor ( something kurosawa be always incline to do ) . he be also clearly experiment with different technique and he hasn not quite find his own unique film language . but it be still a truly great film and it deserve to rank up there with the best noir movie from america and france . there be many pleasure here the vivid scene set in a crippled and poverty stricken tokyo the individual vignettes the pain of the widower who curl up in agony at the thought of his dead wife the young dancer torn in her loyalty to the one man who show her generosity and even the twisted agony of the murderer a he realize he have lose his freedom . the penultimate chase sequence be truly masterful and it hard to imagine it be ever do well every element of it and the chase and the cutting to a piano play lady and curious at the noise and the final vision of child play and a flower blowing in the wind stunning . most of all and this be a morally complex movie the constant unease of the policeman who realize how close he be to the tray dog nag away at the movie and become stunningly real at the end and a they both lay exhaust in the grass side by side and almost like sated lover . kurosawa be far ahead of his time in his portrayal of how chance determine how we end up and but have fall on one side of good or evil and people build up wall to emphasize their separation from the other . a a new policeman and mifune be torture by his knowledge of how similar he be to the killer and but his old and more mature colleague assure him that he will learn to hate them and to see them a beneath him . a with most of kurosawa movie and there be no simple conclusion while there may be superficial amorals to his tale and look beneath and there be layer upon layer of complexity and ambiguity and but always within a context of his sympathetic humanism . his film may be bleak but they never give in to cynicism or irony . this may not be quite as accomplish a his late high and low and but it be still a terrific thriller that put the vast majority of modern movie to shame . strongly recommend .