Stakeout (1958) is a police procedural crime story scripted by the recently deceased Shinobu Hashimoto (also responsible for Rashomon and Seven Samurai) with expert direction from Yoshitaro Nomura. Two Tokyo cops, Yuji Shimoka (Miyaguchi Seiji) and Takao Yuki (Ohki Minoru) go to Saga prefecture in Kyushu during the the middle of a summer heatwave to operate a stakeout on the former girlfriend, Sadako (Hideko Takamine) of a thief/murder suspect-Ishii (Tamura Takahiro). It is one of those great stifling summer heatwave films like Stray Dog or The Big Heat-in this film the cops are constantly moping their brows as the cicadas scream in the background. Nomura employs "wipes" like Kurosawa when switching scenes and employs classical framing and the on location sets throughout. I thought it was a well-made and entertaining film.
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