High and Low

Now available from the Criterion Collection is the company's newest sparkling addition from the Akira Kurosawa catalogue, High and Low (1963). Previously available in a single-disc edition, with very little extras, Criterion has given this underrated Kurosawa film a fitting and handsome two-disc DVD edition. The DVD includes a new, restored high-definition digital transfer with original four-track surround sound, audio commentary track featuring renowned Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince, and a new English subtitle translation that is an improvement from the previous edition. The second disc is devoted to theatrical trailers from Japan and the U.S., plus a 37-minute documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful To Create. This documentary goes into great detail behind the making of the vastly important sets, the shooting of a celebrated bullet train sequence, and the various difficulties in shooting long takes in deep focus Cinemascope. The second disc also includes a 1981 interview with High and Low star Toshiro Mifune from the talk show Tetsuko's Room. Mifune appeared on the popular show to promote the miniseries Shogun, in which he co-starred. The interview does not delve at all into High and Low, nor does Mifune talk much about Kurosawa, but it is a rare chance to see the famously guarded superstar talk about his experiences during World War II and his entry into the Japanese film industry. Rounding out the supplements is a new video interview with actor Tsutomu Yamazaki, who plays a pivotal role in High and Low. This interview with the actor, who also appeared in Kurosawa's Red Beard (1965) and Kagemusha (1980), was shot exclusively for the Criterion Collection in Tokyo in 2008. In High and Low, Toshiro Mifune is Gondo, a wealthy industrialist who has worked his way up from the bottom of a shoe manufacturing company. On the eve of making an extremely risky (but potentially lucrative) business decision, Gondo is contacted by a gang of kidnappers, who inform him that they've kidnapped his son. They demand a huge ransom for the boy's return -- an amount so huge that it will utterly bankrupt Gondo. But just as soon as he has received the initial phone call, he and his panicked wife discover that their son is safe at home: the kidnappers have accidentally snatched the son of his chauffeur. The central moral dilemma: does Gondo secure his own financial future, or does he use that money, roughly $130,000, to do the honorable thing and rescue his employee's son? High and Low is based on the 1959 novel King's Ransom by hardboiled fiction writer Ed McBain, who also worked under the nom de plume Evan Hunter, screenwriter behind The Birds (1962). Kurosawa was attracted by the concept blackmail was possible for anyone because kidnapping was such a potent emotional weapon. He paid out $5,000 for the rights to McBain's story. In Japan, the film was called "Tengoku to jigoku," which is translated as "Heaven and Hell." Some Kurosawa critics and biographers maintain that that is a more evocative title, compared to "High and Low." But "Heaven and Hell" suggest a more spiritual conflict between Gondo and his kidnapper that isn't as obvious as the conflict rooted around class differences, which makes High and Low--those of a higher class, like Gondo, vis a vis those of a lower class, like the kidnappers-a more appropriate title. Regardless, what either title suggests is a bifurcation of the film's narrative. The first half is a tense chamber room suspense drama as Gondo and the accompanying detectives try to draw a bead on the whereabouts of the kidnappers. The second half of the film follows the step-by-step process the detectives follow in ensnaring the elusive kidnapper. While the first half of the film is structured like a stage play, the second half could not be more different. Not only is Gondo a secondary character in the second half, Kurosawa shoots it like a semi-documentary police procedural, along the lines of Jules Dassin's The Naked City (1948). It's a narrative structure similar to today's television crime drama, Law & Order. One of the major changes the Kurosawa made from McBain's novel, and one of the reasons why Kurosawa wanted to make the film in the first place, was to contrast the American penalties for a kidnapping (possible execution) with the Japanese's rather lax punishment: as little as three years in prison if the child is not killed. Ironically, a wholly unintended consequence happened with the release of the film. The film actually prompted an increase in the number of kidnappings in Japan. Kurosawa himself, according to biographer Stuart Galbraith IV, began receiving telephone calls threatening to kidnap his nine-year-old daughter Kazuko. She recounts a similar threat in Galbraith's biography, The Emperor and the Wolf: "He usually didn't answer the phone himself, but one day I saw him answer the phone and, as I was listening, I heard him say, 'Don't says such an unreasonable thing!' He said it quietly, but I could feel the tension in his voice." Kazuko later found out that the voice on the other end had threatened to blow up a commuter train if Kurosawa did not bring a hefty ransom to the station immediately. The man was never caught, nor a bomb ever found on any train. Kurosawa said years later, "Kidnapping is the most heinous, unforgivable of crimes. With High and Low I wanted to inspire tougher sentences on kidnappers. Instead, I was criticized for their increase." For more information about High and Low, visit The Criterion Collection.To order High and Low, go to TCM Shopping. by Scott McGee