Kurosawa Noir Watch: High and Low (1963)

Watched:  05/25/2024

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Akira Kurosawa

The Kurosawa journey continues!

So, this was up in my queue when M.Bell wrote to say "if you're watching Kurosawa, you should watch High and Low soon."  So, I *did*.  

I dug this movie.  It's fascinating to see the then-nascent genre of the police procedural from a Japanese perspective and from the eye and hand of Kurosawa.

I've not read Ed McBain's King's Ransom, the novel on which High and Low (1963) is based.  And I doubt this is a 1:1 match for that novel - also, I've never read any Ed McBain, and maybe I should?

The movie stars an army of Toho players, topped off by Toshiro Mifune as an executive with a shoe company that would like more profits.  As we enter the story, he's being recruited by fellow executives to turn against the company president and take over the company.  But Mifune's character has his own plans, and has mortgaged everything against it - and is already millions in debt to make his plan work out.  But, then, his chauffer's son is kidnapped by accident (they intended to take his son, of similar age and build), and Mifune must make the decision to save the boy or himself.  

People:  this is drama.  I loved this part of the film, even if it was just a 1-act play.  The entire cast is incredible, including Kyôko Kagawa as his well meaning wife, Yutaka Sada as Aoki the chauffer, and Tatsuya Nakadai as the lead detective.  

The first part of the story focuses on whether or not they'll pay the ransom as the cops get involved.  The next how they'll pay the ransom.  Then the section of trying to figure out who committed the crime, and locating them.  And then circling the criminal for capture.  And, finally, a face-to-face between Mifune and the criminal.

It's a lot, and then the run time reflects that.  Modern films or American films would likely shorten the capture of the criminal, but here we circle for quite a while.  And part of that is the descent from a literal house on a hill where we start into the worst of Japanese modern life, wandering back alleys full of addicts.  The drama on the hill becomes the work of the cops in the second half, and we get a view of Japanese society, high and low, and the choices and decisions made.  

SPOILERS

I was curious what critics thought about the movie, and there's more to find from modern critics than reviews from 1963, which is not a shock.  In general, reviews are excellent.  People like the movie.  Folks tend to like the first part and seem puzzled by the shift to the police procedural in the second half, but enjoy it as well as it's well written, feels like a fly-on-the-wall procedural as the cops work the case and we get to see it all unfold.  

And part of that feeling about the first half comes from the amazing writing, direction, blocking and performances by everyone involved.  Mifune is unbelievable as Gondo, and as the pressure of first the shoe business and then the kidnapping spiral, we learn more and more of who he really is.  

Similarly, we learn who the cops, Aoki the chauffer, and, eventually, the kidnapper throughout the film.  It's not a mistake that Mifune's character came from less than what he has now, perhaps nothing, and has worked his way here - and the reflection of Mifune against the kidnapper in the final confrontation should tell us why we've spent this time with criminal and seen what he's willing to do to pursue what he sees as unfairly had by Gondo, without thinking about how he got it.  Or who he's damaging - including three murders to his name, and exploiting those without power.  Meanwhile, we learn everything thinks Mifune is a hard-ass, but they can't find anyone who has a grudge against him, per se.

Anyway, nice layers and layers of plot and character mixed with bits of social commentary.  And it's kind of there in the title of the film, if you're looking.

The procedural portion feels like it's coming out of the Naked City school of crime movies, but less "YOU ARE THERE" punch to it.  And it really is good thriller stuff watching the cops go about their business, compiling and cross-referencing and trying to learn things, bit-by-bit. 

This thing has such rich characters - even Aoki the chauffer, who has few lines, is incredibly well defined simply through action and expression.   And  

Honestly, there's so much to talk about in this film, visually, textually and subtextually, I think I'll wrap it up here.  There's likely whole articles on the film.  Maybe more.  But I was kind of knocked over by the film.  Good stuff.