Review of High and Low (1963) by Al M — 29 Jun 2010

While my knowledge of the Japanese language is almost non-existent, I do know that the word "jigoku" means "hell," so "Heaven and Hell" is probably the more literal translation. Heaven and Hell also fits with the speech at the film's end, but High and Low also works well as a title to this film. For starters, High and Low functions as a film noir type title that refers to the the police searching "high and low" for the kidnapper in the film. But, even more importantly, High and Low refers to the social classes at odds with one another throughout the film.

Whatever title you give it in English, Kurosawa's kidnapping thriller is a taunt potboiler of a police drama as well as a philosophical parable. For the entire first hour of the film, Kurosawa keeps the film in the same room as the kidnapping is revealed and the father speaks on the phone with the kidnapper. In this lengthy opening sequence (and throughout the film), Kurosawa proves himself to be a master of blocking and triangulation as characters' positions to one another becomes a crucial visual embodiment of the underlying tensions and themes of the films.

After leaving the apartment of the opening hour, High and Lows features a breathtaking variety of locations, characters, and situations: a money exchange on a moving train, double homicides, junkies, dance clubs, the 1960s Japanese equivalent of crack houses, etc.

Aside from being a thoroughly engaging thriller, High and Low is also an excoriating look at the nature of class hierarchy and capitalist business practices. Indeed, if there is a true villain in the film, it is the rapacious greed that underlies big business and causes it to act without any regard to ethics, duty, friendship, family, or emotion. High and Low portrays the cold, dead, mathematical heart that drives the heartless body of such businesses. Like all great Kurosawa films, High and Low functions as a piece of pure entertainment while also harboring a deep and complex series of themes and social critiques underneath.