‘Stray Dog’ at Monica 4-Plex

Akira Kurosawa’s 1949 masterpiece “Stray Dog” (at the Monica 4-Plex Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m.), so similar in theme, impact and style to De Sica’s “Bicycle Thief,” stars Toshiro Mifune as a young Tokyo police detective whose service pistol is stolen on a crowded bus.

His search for his .38-Colt automatic to save face becomes a necessity when it falls into the hands of a killer; yet the closer he gets to his man the more he finds he has in common with him. The detective’s search becomes a quest for identity, and by extension, that of a nation reeling from military defeat.

Information: (310) 394-9741.