I just finished watching this. It is excellent! I also want to add that the sound design and Kurosawa's flair for visual story telling is just awesome. Plus the heat/sweat theme really goes well with the tension surrounding the characters.
Oh I absolutely agree. Because of little touches by Kurosawa, what could have been a good if formulaic plot-boiler ends up being an underrated great movie. Too bad it came out a year before RASHOMON.
