Review of High and Low (1933) by Tonypolito — 22 Nov 2010

The title refers to the socioeconomic sweep of the film ... from the pinnacle of wealth, success & status ... down to the very underbelly of society. And, high or low, each socioeconomic tier bears its own special brand of misery.

"High and Low" (or alternatively "Heaven and Hell") is certainly filmed well by Kurosawa; he visualizes the underlying themes beautifully. Example: The chauffeur, representative of the working class, is constantly haunched over, eyes groundward, a posture that drips with the emotions of helplessness and despair that Kurosawa wants to bear down so heavily upon viewers.

But a major portion of kudos is due to the underlying novel by Ed McBain. McBain authored well a lot of high drama, such as "Blackboard Jungle" as well as the screenplay for Hitchcock's "The Birds." And it's that drama, as much as Kurosawa's camerawork, that is captivating viewers herein.

The film does play out in two very distinct acts, acts that feel as though they are almost two different films.

Act I is inside the isolated, pinnacled home of wealthy shoe executive Mifune, as he wrestles with his dilemma, whether to complete his buyout of the shoe company, thereby saving his own job, be positioned to run the company as it ought be run, and preserve the workers and their jobs in the long-term. Or to use the money to pay the ransom for the kidnapped child not his own - and to ruin himself and let the company fall in the process. Living high, you see, comes with the responsibilities of both modeling appropriate behavior for the rest of society ... as well as acting to ensure its preservation.

Act II is excellent pure police procedural, clever work tracking down the kidnapper after the child safely returns home, peppered with occasional glances back at Mifune, to see how his Act I decision has affected him and his family. It is in this act that the viewer gets the up-close look-see at the sufferings and dilemmas of those who live at the other economic end of society.

By deep into Act II, viewers are almost sympathetic to the poverty of the kidnapper living in the slums below the windows of Mifune's mansion ... until the kidnapper takes a stroll down Yokohama's Heroin Alley, looking to victimize a nameless, souless, empty-eyed addict as part of his scheming. And by the time viewers walk down that alley with him, they will be finding it quite unclear as to who, of all of these characters, is really the worse off among them.

Watching Mifune wrestle ... and coppers chip away at the crime ... is plenty tasty enough. But watching how those living high, low and inbetween stuggle to survive within their places in society, well that's really the best part of this feast.

RECOMMENDATION: Without reservation.