Criterion Collection DVD
High and Low (1963)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Criterion Collection / 1998
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writer: Eijiro Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima & Evan Hunter
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyoko Kagawa & Tatsuya Mihashi
Review by James Garfield
Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) is a shoe company executive planning to buy a majority share and change the company’s direction. His plan falls apart when a kidnapper calls claiming to have kidnapped his son—although, Gondo soon discovers, it was actually his chauffeur’s son who was abducted. This still leaves Gondo with a major ethical dilemma—does he ignore the kidnapper’s ransom request, likely leading to the child’s death, or does he sacrifice not only the bigger future he had planned, but his current lifestyle (as paying the ransom would leave him in heavy debt)? Gondo eventually decides to go the self-sacrificial route, and so it is up to the police to locate the kidnapper and get Gondo’s money back.
High and Low, a title which refers obviously to the geographical and economic distance between Gondo and the kidnapper, is an atypical thriller. The first hour takes place mainly in Gondo’s living room, as we learn of his future plans and of the kidnapping, and watch as he mulls over his options, with family and friends trying to convince him to do the right thing. Viewers bored over pondering ethical dilemmas will be grateful when the second hour turns into more of a standard police procedural (the film was adapted from a novel written by Ed McBain/Evan Hunter as part of his “87th Precinct” series). The stakeout sequences, conducted in proper near-silence, are particularly absorbing.
The lack of extras on this release is rather disappointing, given what we’ve come to expect from the Criterion Collection. We are left with nothing to contemplate but the movie itself, which, with its ethical quandaries and not too blatant social commentary, provides more depth than the usual crime thriller. Kurosawa, known mainly for samurai films, showed here what an amazingly versatile talent he had.
