Presented as part of Cinematic Century: Milestones From 100 Years of Film

"One of the best detective thrillers ever filmed."—A.O. Scott, The New York Times

This late period noir from director Akira Kurosawa's is deeply rooted in the origins of the style. A masterpiece on any level, the film is a bridge for the Japanese New Wave that would arrive soon after ushering in the era of neo noir. Toshiro Mifune plays a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in a film that moves from domestic drama to a race-against-time police procedural with exacting social commentary, creating a diabolical treatise on contemporary Japanese society.