High and Low

This intense thriller is yet another highlight of Akira Kurosawa's career. This is Akira Kurosawa's fine thriller about the wealthy industrial magnate Gondo, who is told that his son has been kidnapped for ransom. It turns out, however, that Gondo's son is safe: through a misunderstanding, the kidnappers took the son of Gondo's chauffeur instead. Gondo now knows what the chauffeur must feel, and while he finds himself in a precarious situation at the company, he pursues the case as if it involved his own son. As the title suggests (and as we also find in the Japanese original title Tengoku to jigoku, which literally translates to heaven and hell), the dualistic aspect is central to the film. We find it in the characters' personalities, costumes, editing and photography. To build inner tension, the formalist Kurosawa this time chooses to disregard the unwritten rules of film composition, making a number of bold choices to surprise the viewer and throw them off balance. All to make the many seemingly hopeless dilemmas visible to us and let us take part in the inner turmoil Gondo feels. At first Gondo appears as a ruthless businessman, with the classic capitalist's self-centered gaze. His motto is probably close to the advice he gives his son: "You either strike or are struck by others." But gradually we come closer to the core of his personality and his past, and thus his actions become easier to understand. High and Low is a moral fable without a pointing finger and one of Kurosawa's most complex works.