In response to the reviewer who said the disc would not play on his player, I contacted Criterion and found out there are 2 pressings of the disc available. According to them, "You can distinguish the original pressing from the second pressing by looking at the back of the package. The second pressing is Region 1 encoded and CSS and Macrovision encrypted. The original pressing does not have either feature.". Last January I tried 2 copies of the original pressing and neither would play in my Panasonic A110 player. I just bought a copy of the second pressing from Amazon and it plays fine! Now I can watch this masterpiece as much as I want in the comfort of my own home!


morality play and social commentary in gripping thriller   May 11, 2001
 9 out of 12 found this review helpful

High and Low (Japanese title translates as Heaven and Hell), is simultaneously about many things. On the surface, the title refers to the emotional roller coaster ride that the main chracter, Kingo Gondo(played by the great Toshiro Mifune) goes through when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped and is demanded to pay an enormous ransom. The title also refers to the geographic setting, contrasting Gondo's palatial house on the top of the mountain (the setting for the entire first half of the movie) and the sizzling slum in the harbor of Yokohama (where the second part of the movie takes place), on which Gondo looks down from his high place. Lastly, the title is refered to in the final scene, in which the condemned kidnapper expresses his fear to Gondo that he might go to heaven instead of hell. Likewise, the story takes three different dimension as a thriller, social commentary on wealth and poverity, and moral commentary on good and evil.

A short summary of plot is as follows. A wealthy shoe-manufacturer, Kingo Gondo has just mortgaged everything to raise 50 million yen to launch an office intrigue that will give him the total control of the firm, but just at this critical moment, receives a call from a kidnapper that his son is kidnapped. As he decides to pay the ransom of 30 million yen, it is found that actually his chauffeur's son is kidnapped. At first, Gondo refuses to pay the ransom, but finally gives away his fortune, which gives him public admiration but results in bankrupcy. After much investigation through the slums of Yokohama, police captures the kidnapper. The kidnapper, who has murdered his accomplice, is setenced to death and few hours before execution, confronts Gondo and blames his wealth for his crime.

As a thriller, this is a first-rate fare that will please many though some may feel the first part is too static and second part too detailed. Even though the first part of the film takes place almost entirely in the confines Gondo's living room, camera movement and placement of chracters as they move to and fro (mise-en-scene), are so skillful that our interest does not bog down. In the second part, we are shown the details of police work as they track down the kidnapper, which was very reminiscent of Fritz Lang's movie, M. Both the kidnapping and investigation are carried out intelligently and as the clues are discovered one by one (one of them in fact with blurt of color in this otherwise b&w film. Remember Schindler's List?), we discover the millieu of the "low/hell" slum in stark contrast to the "high/heaven" residence of Gondo. Should he pay and ruin himself to save the chauffer's son? This is also an intense internal thriller as we watch Gondo agonizing over how far his responsibility extends. He is confined in his living room, under costant eyes of police and entreating chauffeur and family. He is mostly shown either surrounded by all these people or cornered to the curtained, claustrophobic living room.

Gondo's moral dilemma is very engrossing one, as we watch him coming closer to the final decision little by little. In the very beginning, Gondo appears as someone who once had a high degree of integrity, which was eroding in the dog-eat-dog world of corporate intrigue. He is still sincere enough to care about the quality of his products, which is the reason why he wants to kick out other profit-hungry executives. But he is not above resorting to the their means, and this cynicism is apparent in his advice to his son about how to play an outlaw. This remark prompts his wife to worry that his attitude to life has changed. At first, he absolutely refuses to pay the ransom. However, in this crisis, the deep humanity that has since laid dormant in him arises as he, after much torment, comes to the decision to pay the random. By the end of the film, when he confronts the man who tormented him so much, Gondo has reached the understanding that he must accept resonsibility not only for his chauffeur's son but even for the kidnapper and social condition that creates antagonism between himself and the kidnapper. In not many films do we see such deep character change as that of Gondo. And we also see poignantly how his action affects his chauffeur, wife, detectives, and the kidnapper....


Humanity and compassion triumphs-for the life of one boy   February 2, 2004
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

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.


All highs -- no lows.   March 21, 2002
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

It seems absurd at first that Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece *High and Low* is based on an Ed McBain potboiler. But it's actually typical of Kurosawa, who, perhaps believing that an Occidental-invented art-form like cinema probably benefits from Occidental-type stories, endlessly drew inspiration from popular, even shoddy American tales. His genius was to take our Westerns and detective novels and put them in a specifically Japanese milieu, while at the same time transforming them into universal works of art with his wisdom. All that being said, *High and Low* also happens to be an expertly constructed police procedural / suspense picture. Some of the best scenes in the movie are on the bullet-train with Toshiro Mifune throwing the ransom money out the window, as well as inside the cavernous police station with the masterfully choreographed revelations, one by one, of the details of the kidnapping case by the indefatigable cops. But what makes those scenes fly is the moral urgency behind them . . . something you almost never get from movies of this type. The pacing is brilliant: the aforementioned bullet-train scene breaks the mounting tension from the first hour, but Kurosawa immediately introduces us to the psychopathic kidnapper, setting up some more excruciating tension as the madman tries to lose the scent of the very clever cops on the case. The plot is devilishly complex: we no longer know what to expect when, early on, it's revealed that the kidnapper has taken the wrong child, the son of the industrialist's chauffeur instead of the actual son of the industrialist. We give up trying to figure things out and simply let the director give us the info on a need-to-know basis. The performances are all good: Toshiro Mifune gives a nuanced performance as the anguished shoe manufacturer on the verge of losing his humanity . . . but Tatsuya Nakadai (*Yojimbo* fans will recognize him as the pistol-wielding villain in that movie) as the top cop perhaps impresses more with his absolute refusal to showboat, even though he's given ample opportunity to do so. It's a thoroughly real portrayal. -- Some of my fellow American reviewers here have adopted a "tsk-tsk" stance with regards to the rampant capitalism presented in the movie. Phrases like "a fascinating study of post-War industrial Japan" are slightly redolent of patriarchal superiority, to my ears. Well, yes, the brutal obsession with making money in *High and Low* has a uniquely Japanese flavor, perhaps; but ask yourself this: Who provided the model? Has American capitalism ever been more "humane"? The scene in the Yokohama bar with its drunken, leering Americans (who were unwittingly filmed, btw) reveals Kurosawa's concerns about the capitalist mindset as whole, not just the Japanese version of it. As I said earlier, this director, like all the great ones, transcended his milieu. -- Basically, if someone had a gun to my head or whatever and said, "You can have only ONE Kurosawa in your collection," *High and Low* would probably be the one.


Gut-wrenching internal drama   June 5, 2002
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Like most Americans, I am more familiar with Kurosawa's period films (Samurai flicks!) than with his modern dramas. "High and Low" was my first venture into this aspect of Kurosawa, and it is very rewarding indeed.

Toshiro Mifune's commanding presence dominates the first half of the film. He is every bit the in-control general, trying to find a strategy that allows him to keep family, fortune and face. His fortress has been breached by the enemy, and he must first defend then counter-attack. The enemy is invisible, hiding in an area of Japan that Mifune knows nothing about. The drama is tangible.

Most of Kurosawa's troupe is here, with familiar faces at every turn. Yoshio Tsuchiya (the gun-slinger from "Yojimbo") is one of the good guys this time as a police detective. Takashi Shimura (Kambei from "Seven Samurai") is the police director.

"High and Low" opened up whole new Kurosawa worlds for me. "The Bad Sleep Well," "Stray Dog," "Drunken Angel,"...I will never again limit myself to swords and top-nots. Great film!