High and Low

Akira Kurosawa is usually remembered as a director of stately yet thrilling historical samurai pictures such as Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. In 1963 though, he adapted a pulp novel from American crime writer Ed McBain about cops and kidnappers. This was his version of those pictures and it is clear when watching that this is a director interpreting a genre as he sees fit and not adhering to the filmmaking rules that come with material like this.

The plot itself is relatively straightforward. A successful businessman, Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), on the eve of a pivotal moment in his career, becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped and held to ransom. The opening act is Kingo negotiating with the kidnapper over the phone, assisted by the police. The problem is that the ransom essentially destroys his career and his family's future in the process. The central conceit of the opening act is a fascinating one. Would you do the right thing to save a life if it meant destroying your own? Gondo too is not some personification of selfish industrialism. He is torn between two families, his own and his chauffeur's. It poses a lot of food for thought when our prominent businessman is not a monster. Without giving away what happens the second half of the film is the police investigation and search for the kidnappers.

Kurosawa shoots the first act in stationary wide shots and long takes. You rarely leave Gondo's living room in the early stretch. The first act could honestly work as a one act play, and it has that visual quality to it. It makes for uncomfortable watching as you are left to ponder in realtime over Gondo's dilemma as he does. The problem is that these takes grow tiresome and rather boring. You are left with forty minutes of almost tableaux. It might be artful and have something to say, but it does not make for entertaining viewing.

It is in the second, more traditional act that the film picks up pace. A train sequence is truly gripping as police try to identify the kidnapper without having the first clue what they look like. The camerawork is handheld (hardly Bourne but you get the gist) and you are crammed into tight corridors. It is a tense set-piece that serves as the film's highlight, made all the more gripping viewing it as a contemporary audience knowing that 'secret cameras' are the size of speakers and the police are trying to hide them. It also presents us with the inner workings of a police investigation - how one man can be located inside a city as sprawling as Tokyo seems like a daunting task - but the breadcrumbs are laid out neatly and it is impressive how believable and satisfying the process is to watch.

It is a far more intimate piece of work than Kurosawa's samurai films and it is nowhere near as essential  but High and Low has enough to grip you and leave you thinking long after it finishes.