(NORA INU, Akira Kurosawa, Japan 1949, 122 min., Japanese with subtitles)

A young detective (Toshiro Mifune) loses his gun on a crowded bus. In an effort to track it down, he submerges himself in the gritty, crime-ridden urbanscape of post-war Tokyo. Kurosawa’s masterful entry in the detective/film noir genre is a film about heat, conveyed through a mise-en-scene of exhausted bodies covered in sweat, fans, cool drinks, and American servicemen listening to jazz.