High and Low

High and Low (1963) begins with an executive at a shoe company believing his son has been kidnapped. Gondo has mortgaged everything he owns to take control of the company; the night he commits to it, a call comes saying his son has been taken. Then his son walks in. The child taken is his chauffeur's son; the kidnapper took the wrong boy. He demands the ransom anyway. If Gondo does not pay, the child dies; if he pays, the company and his fortune are gone. The first half takes place entirely in his house and plays almost like a stage work: one room, a few people, a decision. Kurosawa barely moves the camera and arranges the characters by their position in the frame. The second half is entirely outside: the police investigation, streets, traces, heat, crowds. There are two different genres in one film. The title is a metaphor: Gondo's house is on the hill and the city is below; the kidnapper lives in one of the hot neighbourhoods down there and sees that house every day. It is adapted from a crime novel by Ed McBain. The ransom handover on a train is the technical peak: it was shot on a real express within a short window using many cameras running at once, because the scene could not be repeated. There is one element of colour in a black and white film: at one point a chimney emits pink smoke. Kurosawa had those frames hand tinted and it is the only colour in the film. Toshiro Mifune stars. The last scene takes place in a visiting room and resolves nothing. It runs 143 minutes. Good for: Kurosawa, crime films, and films about class. Less good for: the first half is very still and the second is heavy with procedure.