High and Low

directed by Akira Kurosawa

at the Brattle

October 14

I actually found myself marvelling out loud at the sheer virtuosity with which this movie was made.

Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, arguably Japan's greatest director and actor, teamed up once again to make the mystery High and Low, which stands out even among their many classics. Thirty years old, the film remains a revelation for lovers of cinema.

Mifune plays National Shoes executive Kingo Gondo, a man looking out from his house high on a hilltop overlooking the city of Yokohama. In charge of manufacturing, he has just rejected the plan of the three executives of sales, design, and publicity: to pool their stock and take over National Shoes. After throwing them out, Gondo reveals to his assistant that he has borrowed on everything, including the house, in order to acquire enough stock to leverage his own takeover. The assistant is to take a check for 50 million yen to Osaka to complete the transaction, but the phone rings. A voice tells Gondo that his son has been kidnapped: the ransom is 30 million yen. Ready to pay any price for his own son, Gondo then learns that the son of his chauffeur was taken by mistake, but the kidnapper wants the money, anyway. At stake is the lifestyle and financial future of Gondo, his wife, and his son.

Based on Ed McBain's 87th Precinct mystery novel, High and Low does not neglect McBain's trademark: the details of police procedures. The account of the police's efforts to catch the kidnapper turned killer is as fascinating as Gondo's conflict.

As Gondo, Mifune's performance performance in the first half of the movie dominates the whole, even though he has three short scenes in the second half before the denouement. Tatsuya Nakadai (of Sword of Doom, as students in Heroes for Zeroes may realize) radiates competence as the police in charge of the case. He resembles Dale Cooper, of Twin Peaks fame, complete with slicked back hair and stylish, dark suits.

The title of the film is startlingly apt. The film is structurally divided into two halves, connected by a moving transition. The first half is filmed exclusively on the hill and mostly in the house.

The second half, where the police search for the murderous kidnapper, is more dynamic, moving from the police station to the house to the streets. Also, the police literally search high and low, from the executives of National Shoes to the withdrawal zombies of Dope Alley.

Filmed in gorgeous black and white (with one epiphanic use of color), the cinematography features many exquisitely framed shots, where each actor is posed as if in a theater performance. The camera needs every inch of horizontal space it can get; some characters speak to each other from the far edges of the screen.

Another technical note is the striking use of music. After the jazzy and eclectic music of the opening credits, we do not hear music again until halfway through the movie. Using music sparsely but effectively, Kurosawa did not make the movie with money-generating soundtracks in mind, and the purity of his intent shows.

I cannot recommend High and Low highly enough. Though the movie lacks mind-numbing violence, exploitative sex-appeal, and flashy special effects, viewers will find High and Low a rewarding experience.