High and Low (1963)

Kingo Gondo is a high level executive within a shoe company about to make a large deal to take on controlling interest in the firm. To do so he has had to loan a significant amount of money. After his chauffeurs child is kidnapped, mistakenly instead of his own, Gondo must choose whether to put aside his future for that of the child.

King Gondo is played commandingly by Kurosawa regular, Toshiro Mifune, here with a pencil moustache, heavier set, and seemingly playing older. Mifune lets his emotions fill the screen, when angered, when filled with shame, or guilt, he is masterful in his approach. A lot of this is down to being surrounded by an excellent cast and Kurosawa’s impeccable staging. Calm, cool and collected, Tatsuya Nakadai as the Chief Detective Tokura is another standout, him and Mifune work brilliantly together as they did previously in Yojimbo and Sanjuro. Also, Takashi Shimura appears briefly, pretty much a cameo, as a police chief.

The first hour in the apartment is very much like a play. Each character hits their marks, most shots are wide so we can see that even when a character speaks, those in the background still exist. Tokura sits calmly, the father of the missing child wrings his hands, Gondo sits in guilt and so on. The father’s presence in the room sits like Gondos conscience. Withdrawn and desperate countered with Gondos conflicted feelings of guilt, doing the right thing, or saving his own future.

An obvious point to make when relating the title to the film is Gondo sits up high in his hillside villa. It shows his climb from down low, he can now look down on a world he was once apart of. He is now detached. At one point the kidnapper says “it’s an inferno down here, 105 degrees” it’s a sweltering summer. Up high the cool air of the apartment, heaven. Down below the heat rages, hell. The Japanese title for the film translates as Heaven and Hell. The first half, 55 minutes, we sit in heaven, the second descend to hell.

Midway through, the films standout is a masterful train sequence as it all comes together. Seeing the boy, the money, the back and forth. From here the film switches. No longer a tense chamber piece, now a police procedural as the detectives hunt down the kidnappers, we follow all strands and minutiae. Here we see the kidnapper, learning his motivations. We see him jealously reading the newspapers and listening to the radio as Gondo is praised and he is loathed. They both came from nothing, one remained, the other rose up. They could be the same person and Kurosawa shows this in the merging of their faces in the glass at the end.

The film is outstanding and sometimes it gets lost in the Samurai works. But the direction and acting leave this a cut above. It will be interesting to see Spike Lees remake this year.