High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

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High and Low
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[/font]1963 / b&w / 2:35 Tohoscope flat / 142m. / Tengoku to jigoku
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Yutaka Sada, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Hiroshi Unayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Susumu Fujita, Kenjiro Ishiyama, Kyoko Kagawa, Takeshi Kato, Isao Kimura, Tatsuya Mihashi
Cinematography Asakazu Nakai, Takao Saito
Production Designer
Art Direction Yoshiro Muraki
Original Music Masaru Sato
Writing credits Eijiro Hisaita, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni from the novel King's Ransom by Evan Hunter
Produced by Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, Tomoyuki Tanaka
Directed by Akira Kurosawa

[/font]I saw this movie last night,and liked it quite a bit. The camera work is amazing - Kurosawa manages to make largely static scenes, in a wealthy man's living room, in a police conference room and at a press conference, pulse with drama and suspense. When actual action kicks in, none of the character focus of the more talk-y scenes is lost. A sequence in the junky-infested underground of a Japanese city is masterfully creepy and claustrophobic, worthy of a really good zombie flick.

The movie was part character study/moral dillema, part police procedural as the cops search high and low for a kidnapped boy, and finally a comment on Japan's stratified social system and the wide, seemingly insurmontable divides between the high and low of society. I personally found this last aspect a little heavy-handed, in the way it was played out in the final scene. The villain of the piece is a poor medical student who, observing a wealthy businessman's house on a hill from his own dingy room, develops a hatred of this man and resolves to torment him by kidnapping his son and demanding a crippling ransom. What didn't sit so well for me was the fact that the young man is a medical student - in India, at least, someone who studies medicine and is an intern in a hospital is, at least, well on the way to a moderately secure life, and that doesn't strike me as a position of such extremity as to breed the sort of pathological hate and despair that this character expresses.

The movie never looses its footing elsewhere though. The actors all match up to the brilliant direction, delivering performances that are both immediate and convincing and stylised in a highly effective way. Has anyone else seen this one? What do you think?

 

[GOLLUM]

No but after your description I'd like to...

No real surpise here, Kurosawa is one of the 20th century's greatest directors IMO....

 

[ravenus]

...in India, at least, someone who studies medicine and is an intern in a hospital is, at least, well on the way to a moderately secure life, and that doesn't strike me as a position of such extremity as to breed the sort of pathological hate...

Not necessarily so. Given that in the metros there is a huge surplus of doctors and not enough patients that can afford to disburse their expenses, doctors, at least those with the basic MBBS degree, are not guaranteed the cushy life. Post-war Japan probably was in a similar sort of condition. Perhaps the young man was not able to do his PG because of not being able to afford the tuition and thus came about his rage. It is not necessary that our antagonists' feelings have an entirely rational base.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I guess that's a fair point. Still, that aspect of the movie seemed painted in overly-archetypal terms.

Your avatar-character's performance in this movie was brilliant.

 

[ravenus]

ANyway, here's my review which I had done long ago for another place...

HIGH AND LOW - Akira Kurosawa

Although Kurosawa is more known for his medieval epics, he has made a number of (lesser known, except for Ikiru) contemporary films. One of these, High and Low, is worked in the fashion of a crime thriller.

A rich businessman, Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), has mortgaged all his assets in a bid to take control of the shoe company in which he holds a stake. He is just about to send his right-hand man to catch a Tokyo flight to close the deal when a phone call informs him that his only son has been kidnapped for a huge ransom. But almost immediately it is discovered that his son is safe at home and the chauffeur's boy, who is a playmate to his son, has been erroneously picked up. The kidnapper realizes this but still insists that Gondo pay the ransom or have the blood of the chauffeur's child on his head. The film focuses on Gondo's dilemma over paying a ransom that would surely ruin him and then the police's effort to track down the kidnapper.

High and Low's biggest strength is an exquisitely gripping screenplay, constructed with all the precision and polish of a good R.L. Stevenson yarn. The events of the plot unfold in a neat sequence, never flagging, and the film, even though mostly shot indoors, gives a sense of being in constant well-oiled motion. This is a textbook example of how to construct a story on screen.

Within the thriller format, Kurosawa puts up some interesting archetypes of a protocol-bound Japanese society. The chauffeur after realizing that his son has been kidnapped reminds his boss that his Man Friday needs to be driven to the airport. In the course of the investigation, whenever Gondo and his wife argue about paying the ransom, everyone else in the room looks away from he argument in a deliberately casual and unaware manner. The police investigations are presented as a believable team-work as opposed to the lone heroic lawman stereotype that we're used to. The character of the cold-blooded kidnapper is also quite nicely etched, his resentment of Gondo's prosperity symbolized by the "High" penthouse that looks down upon his "Low" dwelling.

Toshiro Mifune does an excellent turn as Gondo and save for his characteristic guttural tone is unrecognizable from his earlier work in Kurosawa films. The rest of the cast provides able and ample support, with an especially uncharacteristic but brilliant turn by Tatsuya Nakadai. The actor who plays the villain does a fine job and is especially memorable in the last scene of the film where he confronts Gondo. The camerawork isn't flashy but helped by surgical editing does a solid job of capturing the vitality of the screenplay.

Kuro-san's writing and direction speak volumes of his control over the film's content and format. High and Low may not be as famous as Seven Samurai or Yojimbo but is no less well made than these. A definite recommendation for the Kurosawa fan, the thriller fan or in general anyone who can appreciate a tightly made film.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Excellent review. Incidentally, I see that this movie was partly based on crime-thriller author Ed McBain's novel, King's Ransom. Some McBain films compare Kurosawa's adaptation to other Hollywood vesions of McBain novels, and concur that this may well be the best cinematic rendition of his work. I don't think the moral and social concerns of the movie are as pronounced inthe book, from what I can see, however.