High and Low

Plot

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

About High and Low

High and Low (Japanese: 天国と地獄, Hepburn: Tengoku to Jigoku; lit. 'Heaven and Hell') is a 1963 Japanese police procedural film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It was written by Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Eijirō Hisaita, and Ryūzō Kikushima as a loose adaptation of the 1959 novel King's Ransom by Evan Hunter. Starring Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa and Tatsuya Mihashi, it tells the story of Japanese businessman Kingo Gondō (Mifune) struggling for control of the major shoe company of which he is a board member. He plans a leveraged buyout of the company with his life savings when a kidnapper mistakenly abducts his chauffeur's son to ransom him for ¥30 million. The film is viewed as influential on police procedural cinema, and has been remade multiple times internationally. The film was produced by Toho, which bought the rights to Hunter's novel in 1961 for $5,000. Working on a production budget of ¥230 million, High and Low began filming on 2 September 1962, taking place on location in Yokohama and on set at Toho Studios. Only one attempt could be made to film the ransom exchange. The shoot required multiple cameramen, leading to all other film productions being shut down for the day. Filming ended on 30 January 1963. Kurosawa worked with Masaru Satō to score the film in their eighth collaboration; the film's soundtrack contains a variety of influences, including mambo…

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