The Cinematheque

New Restoration

“The masterpiece of Kurosawa’s modern-day movies.”

Elliott Stein, Village Voice

Kurosawa Akira’s extraordinary High and Low, remixed this year in Spike Lee’s newest joint, is a morally complex thriller adapted from a novel by American crime writer Ed McBain. Gondo (Mifune Toshiro), a self-made tycoon in financial straits, receives word that his young son has been kidnapped. Paying the ransom demand will clearly sink him—but when it is learned that the kidnapper has actually grabbed the chauffeur’s son by mistake, yet is still demanding the huge ransom, Gondo faces a terrible dilemma. The first half unfolds mostly within the suspensefully static confines of a single room; the second half explodes into a frenetic noir police procedural. High and Low is one of Kurosawa’s most impressively formal works, with taut CinemaScope framing, marvellous deep-focus compositions, gripping set pieces, great use of mirrors and reflections, and ironic point-of-view interplay between high and low—or, as the Japanese title has it, heaven and hell.

In Japanese with English subtitles

“Undoubtedly the most complex detective film of all … It contains so many nuances of narrative, photographic technique, and acting, that it demands seeing far more than once.”

William K. Everson, The Detective in Film

“Kurosawa Akira’s best non-period picture.”

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader