Stakeout

When a pair of a detectives lose the trail of a murder suspect, they camp out across the street from his ex-lover (Hideko Takamine) in hopes that she will lead them to their man. It’s the beginning of an extended surveillance operation that gradually reveals as much about the woman they are watching—and the oppressive marriage she is trapped in—as the case they are investigating. Adapted by regular Kurosawa screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto (RASHOMON, SEVEN SAMURAI) from a story by Seicho Matsumoto and directed with cool precision by noir specialist Yoshitaro Nomura, this slow-burn procedural blends a Hitchcockian study of voyeurism with an empathetic look at the circumstances of women in postwar Japan.