We kicked off 2025 with the epic grandeur of Seven Samurai. This summer, we turn to a different side of Kurosawa’s genius, his mastery of the crime drama.

With Stray Dog and High and Low, Kurosawa proves that his humanistic vision transcends any single genre or historical setting. These two gripping films explore crime, class, and moral complexity in postwar Japan. Trading period spectacle for contemporary social realism and presenting Tokyo as a pressure cooker where tensions simmer just beneath the surface.