High and Low

Toshiro Mifune plays a top executive in a shoe company who is secretly planning to take over the company. He wants to keep making quality shoes and gradually expand the market. The other executives want to make cheaper shoes and take advantage of the company's reputation. Mifune has raised every yen he can, including using his house, for the buyout, but his son is kidnapped. For the ransome he'll need all the money he's raised. He's prepared to do this for the sake of his son.

Then he finds out that the kidnappers made a mistake. They kidnapped his driver's son, who is the same age as his own. What a terrible moral dilemma. Would you or I give up every dime we had to save a neighbor's or an employee's son? Mifune does, and this act has a great effect on the police and the public.

The first half of the movie takes place in his house on a hill while all this unfolds. The second half is the chase to find the boy before he's killed and to capture the kidnapper. We move from the intensity of the dilemma unfolding in Mifune's home to the gritty business of the search which takes us into some of the lowest parts of the Japanese underworld.

Mifune is powerful in the role of the father, at first torn by the decision he has to make, then commited to finding his driver's son. Tatsuya Nakadai plays the detective, handsome, smooth, professional, and ultimately deeply touched by Mifune's integrity. Years later Nakadai played the leads in Kurosawa's Kagemusha and Ran. And it was good to see Mifune out of samurai costume.

High and Low is the work of a master. The DVD has the quality and extras one has come to expect from Criterion


Delivers the excellence we expect from Kurasawa   June 6, 2004
paul_howard (San Ramon, CA United States)
Those from high and low positions in modern industrial Japanese society clash in this drama. While I don't easily commit to watch a long subtitled movie, this one kept my eyes glued to the screen through an effective suspense that grabs early and never lets go. The main story line comprises related subplots that are realistic and gripping without overwhelming. The acting is consistently excellent in portraying a full gamut of human emotions and difficult situations. Select this when you're ready for real entertainment from masters of their craft.


a great movie and one of Kurosawa's best.   March 30, 2004
Ted M. (Pennsylvania, USA)
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD version of the film.

This film is well written and based on the Novel "King's Ransom" by Ed McBain. Having not read the novel, I cannot determine how faithful the film is to the book.

In the film a wealthy man's son is the target of a kidnapping and ransom. The ransom is 30 million (Yen) which in those days was a lot of money, but today is little over a quarter million US dollars.

The movie itself has some cinematography that has been imitated or is an imitation of. Most of the first 30 minutes of the film take place exclusively in a single house, similar to the film "12 angry men" and it having taken place almost exclusively inside a jury room.

The film is in black and white with a single scene in where part of the film is hand colored. I would go into further details, but it might be considered a spoiler. This scene immediately reminded me of the scenes in Schindler's list involving the girl in the red coat.

The film has some well photographed scenes and is impressive.

The Criterion DVD has no special features which is a bit dissappointing.


Humanity and compassion triumphs-for the life of one boy   February 2, 2004
Daniel J. Hamlow (Chikusei City, Japan)
Based on King's Ransom by Ed McBain, High And Low (original title Heaven And Hell) tells the story of Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), head of National Shoes' factory production, who believes in producing quality shoes that are expensive but durable. He is ready to take a controlling interest in his company to prevent from being kicked out of the company when he receives a phone call saying his son has been kidnapped and to fork over 30 million yen. His son Jun, fortunately, returns from playing outside with Shinichi, the chauffeur's son, who is now nowhere to be seen. That changes nothing, as the kidnapper still demands the ransom.

He calls the police, who come in discretely in one of the cleverest methods I've ever seen. Led by Inspector Tokura and aided by Taguchi, a burly bald man known as the Bo'sun, they prove to be ideal policemen, dedicated, rational, and clever.

Gondo adamantly refuses. He has mortgaged everything, including the luxurious house on the hill he and his family live to get the shares. Paying the ransom will put them all out on the street. The police are accomodating, saying that it's important to rescue the child, but not by sacrificing Gondo. However, Gondo's right-hand man Kawanishi has sold him out, informing his colleagues of his plans. Gondo's dreams have been destroyed, so he agrees to pay the ransom.

The drama can be divided into three parts. First, the kidnapping, Gondo's refusal then agreeing to pay, and the police coming over to advise him. The second part has Shinichi being released and goes into high-level detective drama mode as the police use evidence, deductive reasoning, and clues that will help them catch the kidnapper, and three, the trap the police set out for the killer. It's part two that's the best. The Japanese police's teamwork, skills in chasing down and analyzing clues, and the cooperation shown by the public, denotes that the Japanese police are truly dedicated servants of the people, compared to the American police (q.v. Rodney King, Malice Green, Amadou Diallou). The police in this movie are likable and honorable. And when each development or clue is found, the excitement ratchets up a notch.

Water is twice a symbol in this movie. Gondo is taking a shower, the water running full blast after Kawanishi has betrayed him. After this scene, he calls the bank to get the money per the kidnapper's demands. Also, once he tosses the money again per the kidnapper's demands, he washes his face in a sink. It's a cleansing; the first scene denotes his washing away the cold businessman for someone with humanity. Indeed, when Shinichi is released, he rushes towards him as if he were his own son. This was first touched on when his wife Reiko berates his worsening attitude. "Success isn't worth losing your humanity" and she is right. Gondo is thus reborn as someone with compassion, humility, and a soul, while being his own man as opposed to being a cog in the corporate wheel. His sacrifice makes him a hero to the Japanese public. And the scene where he refuses his post back at National Shoes after the media backlash at the company for firing him, elicits a secret smile from the Bo'sun, who usually wastes on love on the rich, but ends up admiring Gondo.

Gondo also represents the ideal of quality goods Japan has become famous for. In the opening, he is dead set against the cheap quality of shoes his colleagues propose making. He says in response to his colleagues that shoes must wear out and are accessories just like hats and handbags that "hats are decoration. Shoes carry all your body weight." He advocates making shoes that are durable yet stylish, expensive but profitable in the long run. It's the Japanese business ideal versus America's disposable merchandise attitude. Thus Kurosawa also advocates quality in material things as well as quality of the soul.

High And Low is proof enough of Kurosawa's ability to film gendai-geki (or contemporary drama) as opposed to jidai-geki (stories that take place in the feudal, samurai era in the warring pre-Tokugawa period.) Some will argue that it's nothing compared to The Seven Samurai or Throne Of Blood, but for its values of compassion, humanity, dedication, and ideal quality in spiritual and material things.


Mostly For Kurosawa Fans   October 19, 2003
Greg Goebel (Loveland, CO USA)
* Akira Kurosawa's 1963 thriller movie HIGH & LOW begins with
Mr. Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), more or less the vice-president
of manufacturing of Japan's biggest shoe company, engaged in
a takeover bid for the company. At the worst possible time, he
is forced to deal with a devious and ruthless kidnapper who is
determined to ruin him. Gondo calls on the law for help and
a team of detectives helps him deal with the kidnapper.

HIGH & LOW, based on the Ed McBain novel KING'S RANSOM, is clearly
one of Kurosawa's lesser works. Kurosawa films tend to be
slow-moving, and of course Kurosawa fans accept this, but that is
not such a problem with an epic such as, say, KAGEMUSHA, as it is
with a thriller. HIGH & LOW is over 140 minutes long and by
modern standards it simply drags, and it is less successful at
promoting tension than it is at demanding patience.

This is not to say that this is a bad movie. Even a lesser
work by Kurosawa is still far from mediocre, and HIGH & LOW
particularly shines with Toshiro Mifune's strong performance
as Mr. Gondo, an aggressive and proud man who proves to have
a conscience, in contrast to his jackal-like peers at the
shoe company. The viewer also gets a subtle, possibly not
deliberately drawn, sense of Mr. Gondo's impressive self
confidence, in that he can accept reversals because he knows
that he will prevail over the long run. The detective they
call the Bosun also puts on a good performance, though not

with anywhere near the prominence of Mifune's; overall the
detectives are a nondescript lot.

The production values of HIGH & LOW are mixed as well. It
is competently put together (in black and white) but only
infrequently becomes striking, for example in the Tokyo night
life scenes at the end. The general feel of an early 1960s
Japan -- where housewives still wear kimonos as a semi-regular
practice -- is interesting.

Overall, I would recommend HIGH & LOW mostly to someone who
is a Kurosawa fan, as it would make a good if not spectacular
addition to a collection of Kurosawa works. I would not
recommend HIGH & LOW to a general movie viewer who wasn't
all that specifically interested in Kurosawa. Probably
YOJIMBO or THE SEVEN SAMURAI would be a better introduction.