野良犬 (Stray Dog) 

Nora Inu (1949), directed by Akira Kurosawa and distributed by Toho, stars Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. The poster features a gritty close-up of Mifune’s face overlaid with a gun silhouette, capturing Kurosawa’s noir aesthetic. The warm sepia tones and weathered texture evoke moral struggle rather than glamour, while the large white brush-style kanji communicate seriousness and gravity, framing the film’s psychological tension. Culturally, Stray Dog was released during Japan’s postwar reconstruction and reflects the nation’s social anxiety and loss of order. Its visual language shaped the future of crime-drama poster design, shifting from prewar elegance to raw realism.