Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low
There are few things I hate worse than being patronized. I am smart. I am educated. I can understand nuance and gray areas. And, there are few things that bother me more than wasting 90+ minutes of my life watching a movie that patronizes me, that doesn’t think I am intelligent enough or knowledgeable enough to understand basic human emotion or not-so basic human motivations, that I don’t know about history or about the workings of society. I don’t like being preached to, I don’t like when plots are dumbed down at the expense of story in order to drive home a message, and I don’t like when characters are moralistic – working in black and white – when their motivations should be as complex as our daily lives.
Akira Kurosawa was a fan of American film noir movies, and adapted High and Low from an American pulp fiction novel, Kings Ransom, about a businessman who is faced with difficult moral choices after a kidnapping. What is on the surface a basic crime story about a kidnapping and the steps taken to recover the child and solve the crime is a much, much deeper movie – a sociological study on the differences, real and perceived, between rich and poor, employers and employees, husbands and wives. Were this just a crime story, this would still be a classic, must see film. But, it is a thinking person’s crime movie, one that is not dumbed down, and for the entire 2 ½ hours my mind was racing with everything that was happening, the basic outline, the underlying theme, and the beautiful cinematography.
The basic story is that of Kingo Gondo, a rich executive faced with difficult moral decisions after a kidnapping. His son was the target, but it is his son’s playmate (his chauffeur’s son) that was taken instead. The movie follows the kidnapping to the crime investigation to a not so obvious conclusion. The crime story itself is intriguing, moving from crime to investigation. But, partway through the film I became fascinated by the second story being told. This is a message movie, exploring the motivations of Gondo as he contemplates his plan of action when faced with saving the kidnapped boy at the expense of his fortune and his position in society, then exploring how the police working the case change their opinion of Gondo as the movie progresses. While exploring these motivations and the changing relationships and opinions of the characters, Kurosawa is looking outward and exploring these relationships in the larger context of what motivates all people, and how we relate to each other based on our social status. This movie addresses upward mobility, the relationships of men who hold power and have money with their peers and employees, how the preconceptions of class determine how people relate to and perceive people of their own class, and people of the “other” classes.
And, it is a message movie that is smart. At no time did the message overpower the movie, get preachy or dogmatic, or make me feel as if I was watching anything other than a well crafted crime film that used the themes of class differences to drive the plot, not to drive home the message that the rich and poor are different than you and I.
Besides the fact that it was a good film with a subtle message, it is a Kurosawa film, which means that technically it is wonderful to watch. The early scenes of the film that take place in Gondo’s home are seemingly influenced by Alfred Hitchcock’s usage of interior spaces to build suspense. I kept thinking of Rope, but rather than copy the formula of a closed space and long scenes to build tension, Kurosowa made this technique his own by adding the element of light and by making the house a metaphor for the differences between those who live in glass houses high on hills and those that live in squalor below.
Where the early scenes of the film take place in Gondo’s home, once the kidnapping is resolved the movie changes from the claustrophobic to the wide open. The second half of the film concentrates on the detective’s investigation of the kidnapping, and this half takes place throughout Japan; from gorgeous seaside villas to a working class nightclub to Junky Alley, where the heroin addicts sit and wait for a fix or something else. The switch in tone mirrors the changing attitudes of the characters toward each other, another remarkable and subtle shift in filming that mirrors the exploration of character, while also showing all aspects of society and how they interact – or don’t. The film ends in another claustrophobic room, like a well written three act play where the resolution ties back into the introduction.
Kurosawa uses some amazing filming techniques, from high speed exterior shots filmed from inside of a speeding train, to reflective shots against glass and water, to the use of colourized film (he shot in black and white for this purpose). I also found the forensic work done by the detectives in the second part of the movie fascinating. A lot of time is spent on case forensics, allowing us to get a glimpse of how crime investigations were conducted in a time before DNA and computers, and how the police use the press to help investigate crimes. And, how the press can make a hero or a criminal out of who they choose to.
I am finding it hard to write this review because I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, and it is difficult to tell this story without revealing too much. I will admit that I did not like the ending of this film. For a movie that is able to introduce strong social themes almost subliminally while telling a crime story, the ending is a disappointment. I didn’t buy the explanation, it was too easy a way to show how the motivations of the kidnapper, and the fact he seemed more crazy than calculating seemed to take away power and relevance from the questions that were addressed throughout the entire film.
Regardless, you should run to Netflix or your favourite video store and rent this movie. I may have been disappointed in the ending, but this in no way takes away from the fact that the story is fantastic (with few plot holes or distractions from the crime story at hand) with beautiful camerawork and wonderfully crafted scenes, and amazing acting. In an age where we are inundated with “message” movies, it is a treat to see how questions of societal relationships can be addressed in a subtle manner, the message taking a back seat to the story, because the story is powerful enough to address the class relations while still being entertaining. And, this movie doesn’t patronize the viewer or think that the viewer is not intelligent enough to understand the motivations of or the relationships between the characters. This is a thinking person’s crime film, and as a smart cinema fan, I clamour for more films like this to be made.
If you live outside of the US, this film was released in Britian as Ransom, and the international English title is Heaven and Hell. The Japanese title is Tengoku to jigoku.
Tags: Japanese
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
- You’ve broken another myth I held so long.
It’s called Raj N. Sippy’s Inkaar.
Released in the late seventies, I fell in love with the movie as I watched it again and again while growing up. A tight taunt thriller – I thought just showed how great a director Raj N. Sippy was, by making Inkaar – his very first movie.
Strangely I never found that punch/impact of Inkaar in any of his subsequent movies.
Today you’ve showed me the reason why?
Inkaar (starring Vinod Khanna, Amjad Khan, Dr. Sreeram Lagoo) is a blatant copy of Akiro Kurosawa’s High and Low…
So much for thinking Raj N. Sippy was a genius for more than 20 years of my life…8-|
A very nice review indeed! Although I must say that the first paragraph made me think that you didn’t like the film, and so I was already composing a long and detailed comment on why High and Low is not predictable and patronizing.
I was happy to find out that it was not necessary, in the end.
I always wondered why nobody talks about high and low when it comes to Kurosawa films.Now, finally, someone is talking about it.but, i have to disagree with your view about the ending.I think the ending is the best part of the movie.i remember saying ‘wow’ when i saw the reason for kidnapping.also, one will notice acting by mifune in this movie, low key and subtler than his usual over acting (japs style at that time) in other Kurosawa’s movies.i guess, obivioulsy, a film noir influence.
I recommend ’stray dog’, Kurosawa’s bicyle thief (gun in this case)..if you like high and low.
t!, i am assuming that you are american and if are..i think..its every film buffs especially americans obligation to pay homage to one of the greatest d
irectors america produced…Robert Altman.for fucksake, he made masterpieces like mash,mccabe and mrsmiller,nashville,longgoodbye,player,godford park,shortcuts.any website which considers to be passionate about movies, should atleast have some passing remark about this guy.
its like kubricks death in 1999.nobody had any idea what they lost.May be i guess kanye is right,
america dosent care for great directors.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/2006/11/robert_altman_19252006_moments.html
http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2006/11/robert-altman-february-20th-1925.html
t’ one more person whose myth was broken. While reading your article my mind was working extra time as I felt that I have seen this movie in a different langauge. Deja vu, you can say
Oz, another sady day. Just when I had put up an article about copied movies t’ hammers me with this one. Good post though. Enjoyed reading it.:((
I’ve been searching for that name for ages. I had seen that film with Ashok kumar when I was little but never remembered the name.
Oz: Inkaar:
Do you remember the laugh of Amjad Khan on telephone to send terrors to Dr Sri Ram Lagu?
Song sung by Usha Mangeshkar(perhaps most popular song se sung) and Helen’s dance on this song.
Sadhu Mehar’s trembling lips while repeating Saaab hamaar bitwa…..
A suitable role of Vinod Khanna.
Sometimes its good not to know the original source.
Thanks for this one T …. (u know why ;-) )
Another ‘must see’ kurosawa movie added in my list
@ Taxidriver – (Spoiler Alert)I didn’t like the end because the kidnapping was meant to be a personal attack agains the rich by a person who had nothing. The movie was about class conscousness and how society treats and reacts to others in different classes. And then, in the last scene, the character of Ginjirô Takeuchi comes off as half crazy, instead of the proto-revolutionary that I expected. It is as if the idea behind the movie was watered down for me in that one scene, I wanted him pissed, I wanted him making one final statement on behalf of the poor, to rage agains everything. Instead, he comes off as crazy until the point he gets scared….
That said, this scene is one of the most brilliant in the movie from a technical perspective, and you are right about Toshirô Mifune’s acting, he was subdued genius throughout this film.
Funny thing you should bring up Altman. You have no idea how saddened I am over his death. In fact, I recently introduced a PFC member to him as he is one of my favourite all-time directors (as well as my late father’s favourite). I have a draft, just need the time to finish it…..