High and Low

1963 crime movie

Rating: 17/20

Plot: A wealthy shoe executive has a tough decision to make after somebody attempting to kidnap his son accidentally kidnaps his chauffeur's son instead. Then, the police try to solve the crime.

Kurosawa's detective fiction has a little to say about class and, I believe, the role of women in Japanese society. The latter might be more accidental. For the majority of the movie, there is only a single female character, and she's cast to the side. At one point, Mifune's character even says something about how she "wouldn't understand" something, essentially telling her to back off and know her place. I can't recall any other female characters of any significance until the action moves to a location called Dope Alley, a greasy black and ghostly white locale filled with dope fiends and whores, a setting that very well could have been the inspiration for the Village of the Crazies in Gymkata. There, the women are there to be pawns, and one is seen writhing and scratching at the walls as if she's trying to break her way into the story in a more significant way.

The class struggles are evident in the possible inspiration for the crime and our protagonist's fears. Mifune's character lives on a literal house on a hill looking down on everybody else, the exact description one of the coppers uses. I'm not exactly sure what Kurosawa wants to say about class if he wants to say anything at all, but it's worth noting that Mifune's character is never at all unlikable. I kind of thought this would be a little more about class and that his character would become a little more difficult to root for after the chauffeur twist came into play.

Structurally, there are three distinct parts to this. The first is stage almost like a play, taking place almost entirely in Mifune's family's house as the off-screen crime occurs and they talk and talk and talk about what to do about the whole thing while waiting for phone calls. It threatened to get a little doll, but the characters were positioned with such purpose in those early scenes, and once the moral dilemma comes in, things get more intriguing.

Next, the film transforms into a police procedural with sweaty cops fanning themselves. My favorite shot shows the police discussing heroin addiction with serious tones while you can almost feel the black and white heat emanating from the screen, and in the background is Mifune's character's son's childish painting of the kidnappers' hiding spot. Later, there's a painting of the kidnapper that made me laugh.

Another bit of levity--a guy imitating trolleys.

Finally, a trap is set and a chase is on after some pink smoke cuts into all that black and white. There's a great scene in a crowded club while the police are waiting for a drug dealer. There's dancing and frivolity and the audience is scanning the faces of every person who enters to club to try to figure out if he or she looks like a drug dealer or not.