This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

just watch it!

Boring

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

High and LowThe key to being a successful kidnapper is never targeting families with twins or triplets. However, the dimwitted abductor in this thriller can't even swipe the correct kid.Just as capitalist Kingo (Toshiro Mifune) is about to use his enormous wealth to acquire a company, he receives a phone call from a mysterious man informing him that his son has been kidnapped and that a ransom is demanded.While Kingo agrees to put his purchase on hold to save his son, that all changes when it is learned that the captors took Kingo's chauffeur's son by mistake. Worse, they still want Kingo to pay the ransom.A classic kidnapping caper elevated by an impossible moral quandary, director Akira Kurosawa's black-and-white 1963 adaptation of the American novel is beautifully shot, briskly pace and dynamically performed by Kurosawa's main muse Mifune. Nevertheless, abducted Japanese children are still expected to maintain a respectful GPA. Green Light vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

One of the all-time-great "procedurals," High and Low is a combination of immensely powerful psychodrama and exquisitely detailed police procedural - a movie that illuminates its world with a wholeness and complexity you rarely see in film. The images populate the widescreen frame like a pressure cooker that is ready to blow up. And in High and Low, blow up they do!The opening action is entirely set in Gondo's claustrophobic luxurious house, high up in the hill above the city, overlooking its industrial slums. High and Low tells the story of powerhouse shoe executive Kingo Gondo (Toshirô Mifune) battling the greedy board of directors to see what direction the company is going, as he resists their scheme to make a shoddy shoe to buildup profits. On the eve of pulling off the big coup of taking over the company-a proposition that throws him in hock down to his own furniture, he's hit by a huge ransom demand, with a twist -- the kidnapper mistakenly takes, not his own son, but his chauffeur's. Paying the ransom will ruin him financially; not paying it will ruin him as a human being. As Gondo struggles with his dilemma, the movie acquires an almost allegorical profundity, while Gondo is forced to decide between the life of an innocent and fealty to an abstract code. The second half of the film changes moods considerably, as it moves outdoors into the bustling and tawdry metropolitan area and becomes a police procedural film; it becomes nail-biting as it follows through on the money exchange and the manhunt for the kidnappers. As Gondo, Mifune sheds his samurai garb to play the modern-day millionaire in a suit and tie and conveys all the terrible rage of his ambition as well as the indestructible germ of compassion that lives inside him with remarkable effortlessness. But the real hero of the movie is Akira Kurosawa, who weaves together character study, social commentary and police procedure and combines what might have been a whole series of movies for another, lesser director. Nothing compares to the experience of watching a movie where every scene, every sequence, every shot are alive with confidence in the medium. Your complaints with Kurosawa (if any) would dissolve in the backwash of pure film pleasure High and Low offers, as you're introduced once again to the master.

"High and Low" is a Japanese hostage police drama that follows Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), the executive of a successful shoe manufacturer who is extorted for 30 million yen when the son of his chauffeur is kidnapped and held for ransom - the only problem is that he can't risk losing the money, otherwise he'll slump into debt, having put all his possession up for collateral in order to buy the majority of shares and maintain order in his company.The movie is over two hours long, split into two parts and is masterfully directed by Kurosawa, using deep focus photography, multiple camera setups, long takes (the longest being 9 minutes and 50 seconds) and his skillful blocking of the actors to get the most out of their performances.The first 50 or so minutes take place inside Gondo's house, the kidnapper on the phone making demands and the police trying to reason with him. Toshiro Mifune has a difficult choice to make and you can really see why he's one of the great actors in film with these scenes - his facial expressions and body language tell you everything about his internal struggle to choose between the safety of his employee's son, or the well being of his family.The movie's then followed by a brilliant train sequence that was done in two takes, had eight cameras filming at once and a hundred extras on board! Kurosawa definitely knew how to stage a scene to make the most out of his resources cinematically.The final part is a police procedural, with every finite detail being included in the large scale investigation. Just like the rest o the movie, it's all very exciting and expertly crafted."High and Low" is one of Akira Kurosawa's best films and one of the best movies ever made, crime flick or otherwise.

Though High and Low is a great film in its own right and a shining example of Akira Kurosawa's genius and the success of this structural experiment, the stunningly canvassed characters with their layers and depth, wonderful performances, fluid camera-work and beautifully lit sets. The film does not rank amongst the best of Kurosawa's body of work; the ending in many ways felt unresolved or at least resolved to an extent but in an unsatisfying manner. Gondo makes the choice which he feels is the moral decision and gives away all he owns to save another's child and forgoes his opportunity to own the company he has given his blood, sweat and tears to. Even though the boy lives, they catch the kidnappers and most of Gondo's money is recovered and returned to him, it's not enough. His house and all of his belongings are repossessed and he has to start all over again. But in saying that isn't that Kurosawa's point? How much do we actually need, how much is enough and how much of what we own and posses is just overindulgence? The social commentaries made by Kurosawa fifty years ago still ring true today in the modern economic climate. Lessons can be taken from the film through both perspectives of the class spectrum; the rich would not exist without the poor and vice verse. But if equality is ever to be reached society must find a way to bridge the gap between the class', perhaps if the wealthy took a a page from Gondo's book and made a sacrifice that would be a start.