Yellow Dog

The script credits list Kurosawa's writer Shinobu Hashimoto, Professor Alan Turney, and John Bird - which just about sums it up. This is a highly eccentric spy fable about a 'yellow dog' (Japanese private eye) who comes to London on a mission, only to find himself working in rather strained tandem with MI5. Kimura is given to making rice balls, moving into his superior's garden shed, and running round (literally) in small circles. The film is directed with much amiable if incoherent humour by Donovan, image maker of the '60s, who apparently gave in to his passion for things Japanese and even financed it himself; but somewhere along the line the original thread of Hashimoto's story seems to have got lost. Which doesn't help anyone follow the plot, but does make for a strange experience.