Jeanskynebu
the audience applauded
Breakinger
A Brilliant Conflict
Twilightfa
Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.
mukherjeesubham93
Kurosawa made such good movies, even gems like these get ignored. Though filmed in 1963, it holds up really well even today and doesn't feel like a old movie because it was way ahead of it's time. The Kidnapping itself was orchestrated so well, it led to rise in Kidnappings in Japan post the movie's release. The movie must be watched for another reason, the Police procedure. It's depicted with realism, intensity, yet it never becomes complex for an average viewer. The best thing about Kurosawa, much like Ray, is the fact, his movies are simple yet so powerful, and are accessible to everybody. Highly recommended.
classicsoncall
Up till now I've only seen Toshiro Mifune in Kurosawa's samurai movies, so it was kind of comical to see and hear him in this film when he stated "Shoes are my life". It just struck me as rather funny, but then, almost on a dime, Mifune's character Kingo Gondo reacted to his young son playing cowboys with a friend by stating that in a tense situation, "Man must kill or be killed". That had to be a subliminal rationale for Gondo's decision to wrest control of his National Shoe Company away from the owner and executive board. Borrowing against everything he owned, he was about to make a business deal that would have set him up for life.The first half of this movie sets up a moral dilemma for Gondo after a kidnapping gone awry puts him in the position of having to come up with a thirty million yen ransom, not for his own son, but for the son of his chauffeur. Without having knowledge of the Japanese mindset, I had trouble understanding why Gondo would have refused to pay the ransom if it meant his son's friend might be faced with death at the hands of a maniacal kidnapper. Granted, we had insight on the strings Gondo had to pull in order to put together the takeover plan for his company, but to my mind, the scales were balanced in favor of saving the kid. It was interesting to see how it was Gondo's wife and chauffeur who appealed to his better nature and not the police detectives assigned to the kidnapping case. Chief Inspector Tokura (Tatsuya Nakadai) remained emotionally detached during these confrontations, which struck me as somewhat odd.What's also intriguing is how the film switches gears in the second half after the ransom demand is finally met, and the police begin their work to solve the crime and capture the kidnapper. The forensic work of the detectives is quite significant in scope, taking into account such features as train schedules, landscape, locations of phone booths near Gondo's home, and the recollections of the young kidnap victim who was released after the ransom was paid. Having identified the perpetrator however, I was left stymied as to why the detective team failed to make an immediate move on Ginjiro Takeuchi (Tsutomu Yamazaki) when they had a chance more than once on the street. Since the apprehension was eventually made at a hideout location identified by Tokura, it didn't make sense to me why the police waited, other than as a concession to the script. Nothing of significance occurred with the kidnap suspect to suggest the cops should have delayed.The final sequence in which Takeuchi requested a face to face meeting with Gondo reminded me of a similar scene in the 1938 film "Angels With Dirty Faces". Only in that movie, Cagney's Rocky Sullivan went 'yellow' at the request of his childhood friend Father Jerry, whereas Takeuchi transformed from an arrogant and smug wise guy into that of a cowardly punk in the face of execution for the murder of his two associates in the kidnapping case. Except for Gondo appearing at the meeting with Takeuchi, the disappearance of Mifune's character in the second half of the story almost made it feel like one is watching a different movie.
sandnair87
One of the all-time-great "procedurals," High and Low is a combination of immensely powerful psychodrama and exquisitely detailed police procedural - a movie that illuminates its world with a wholeness and complexity you rarely see in film. The images populate the widescreen frame like a pressure cooker that is ready to blow up. And in High and Low, blow up they do!The opening action is entirely set in Gondo's claustrophobic luxurious house, high up in the hill above the city, overlooking its industrial slums. High and Low tells the story of powerhouse shoe executive Kingo Gondo (Toshirô Mifune) battling the greedy board of directors to see what direction the company is going, as he resists their scheme to make a shoddy shoe to buildup profits. On the eve of pulling off the big coup of taking over the company-a proposition that throws him in hock down to his own furniture, he's hit by a huge ransom demand, with a twist -- the kidnapper mistakenly takes, not his own son, but his chauffeur's. Paying the ransom will ruin him financially; not paying it will ruin him as a human being. As Gondo struggles with his dilemma, the movie acquires an almost allegorical profundity, while Gondo is forced to decide between the life of an innocent and fealty to an abstract code. The second half of the film changes moods considerably, as it moves outdoors into the bustling and tawdry metropolitan area and becomes a police procedural film; it becomes nail-biting as it follows through on the money exchange and the manhunt for the kidnappers. As Gondo, Mifune sheds his samurai garb to play the modern-day millionaire in a suit and tie and conveys all the terrible rage of his ambition as well as the indestructible germ of compassion that lives inside him with remarkable effortlessness. But the real hero of the movie is Akira Kurosawa, who weaves together character study, social commentary and police procedure and combines what might have been a whole series of movies for another, lesser director. Nothing compares to the experience of watching a movie where every scene, every sequence, every shot are alive with confidence in the medium. Your complaints with Kurosawa (if any) would dissolve in the backwash of pure film pleasure High and Low offers, as you're introduced once again to the master.
avik-basu1889
High and Low is one of the few widely acclaimed Akira Kurosawa films which don't tell stories about samurais. But even then, Kurosawa's mark is apparent in every frame of this tremendous movie. A hard working businessman named Gondo faces a huge morality test when a kidnapper kidnaps the son of his chauffeur. If he pays the huge ransom demanded, he will lose everything in his life which he has worked very hard to earn, on the other hand, if he refuses to pay the money, he will forever remain guilty in his own eyes and lose his humanity. The first half of this film primarily takes place in Gondo's top notch modern building which stands elevated from the rest of the city on top of a hill, making it visible to all the average city dwellers. The second half is more of a procedural account of the gritty and relentless police work in the heart of the city and in the dirty streets to catch the kidnapper. So the first half is the High, while the second half is the Low.The acting is good all across the board. Mifune and Nakadai deserve a special mention. Akira Kurosawa does not leave any stone unturned in making the police work in the 2nd half of the film seem as realistic as possible. We follow the police force in their attempt to bring down the criminal in a steady step by step process. The cinematography in a particular train sequence is absolutely masterful. The camera moves at the frantic pace of the train, but we see everything that we need to. The main theme of the film is the inequality that clearly exists between the haves and the have-nots in our society. The morality involved in making the humane choice and being selfless is also a critical aspect of High and Low.In a nutshell, this is a movie which on the surface is a procedural crime drama, but beneath its surface it is a commentary on the inequality in everyday society. An enthralling watch from start to finish.
