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Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9780780021181 Format: Black & White, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Subtitled, NTSC ISBN: 0780021185 Label: Criterion Collection, The Manufacturer: Criterion Collection, The Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Criterion Collection, The Release Date: June 06, 2000 Running Time: 142 minutes Sales Rank: 27709 Studio: Criterion Collection, The Theatrical Release Date: November 26, 1963
Description: Akira Kurosawa's (Rashomon, Stray Dog) exquisitely crafted adaptation of an Ed McBain mystery is one of the greatest suspense films ever made. Featuring two of Japan's greatest stars, Toshiro Mifune (Seven Samurai) and Tatsuya Nakada
Amazon.com essential video: Although best known for his samurai classics, Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa proved himself equally adept at contemporary dramas and thrillers, and 1962's High and Low offers a powerful showcase for Kurosawa's versatile skill. The great Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy industrialist who has just raised a large sum of money to execute his planned takeover of a successful shoe manufacturer. Fate intervenes when he receives a phone call informing him that his son has been kidnapped, and by unfortunate coincidence the ransom demand is nearly equivalent to the amount Mifune has raised for his corporate coup. A philosophical dilemma emerges when it is revealed that the executive's son is safe, and that it is actually his chauffeur's son who has been taken. What follows is both a tense detective thriller, as the police attempt to track down the kidnapper, and a compelling illustration of class division in Japan--the "high and low" of the title. Far be it from Kurosawa to make a mere thriller, however; this loose adaptation of the Ed McBain novel King's Ransom provides the director with ample opportunity to develop a visual strategy that perfectly enhances the story's sociological themes. The Criterion Collection DVD of this extraordinary film is presented in the original "Tohoscope" aspect ratio of 2.35:1. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Masterpiece
High And Low (Tengoku To Jigoku; literally Heaven And Hell) is a film that is so perfect in every detail it shows how utterly silly similar Hollywood takes on the matter are, and were: think Ron Howard's and Mel Gibson's silly 1996 flick Ransom, or any of Alfred Hitchcock's crime dramas from the 1950s or 1960s. Yes, critics often resort to the copout that Hitchcock was not deep, but technically was great. True, to a degree, but one need only watch the rail car sequence in this film to see how staid, old fashioned, conservative, and utterly quaint Hitchcock's ideas on crime were. The truth is that ... Read More
Rating: - An eternal classic
Nowdays they don't do films like this.More than an inspiration for Mel Gibson's Ransom. The film is a masterpiece from beginning to end. Not a single moment wasted.Toshiro Mifune shows why is consider by many the most important japanese (or even asian) actor of all time.
Kurosawa ranks for me at the top of the best directors just sharing his place with John Ford.
The Criterion release is just great. Image and surround sound are clean and clear. I wish we have in Spain that marvelous catalog.
Rating: - High and Low
While I generally view Kurosawa's original Stray Dog as another in long line of his genre setting triumphs, High And Low is his masterpiece of the crime genre. High and Low was made in the middle of his career before Kurosawa's decline when his failure with Dodeskaden and getting kicked off of Tora, Tora, Tora caused him to go on hiatus for nearly ten years and drove him to attempt suicide. Thankfully Russia came along with a chance to adapt Dersu Uzala a film I wish was given the respectable double dip that Criterion is doing with their earlier releases.
Rating: - the latest Criterion release
This is one of my top 5 best movies of all time. And I'm old enough to have seen it in several incarnations, starting with impossible to own, to a grainy VHS version with impossible-to-read subtitles, to the first Criterion release to this one. This latest version has all the bells and whistles a Kurosawa fan would want. Interviews with Mifune (and the actor who plays the kidnapper), a documentary on the making of the film and an interesting (if intrusive) commentary track from Stephen Prince.
But did anyone but me notice that this latest version of the film itself is not as crisp and ... Read More
Rating: - Truly Complex Social Commentary
This film starts out with Gondo Kingo, a wealthy, self-made man who has risen from a humble shoe maker inside the National Shoe factory to an executive and minority owner of National Shoe (yes, that is the name, it's the English name, "National Shoe"). Having been a craftsman, Gondo wants to make sure that National Shoe will continue to make quality, well-made shoes. His fellow executives want to save money by switching to cheaply-made products that will fall apart soon. Gondo has engineered a plan to take over the company to maintain the shoe-crafting quality. To implement his plan, Gondo has mortgaged ... Read More
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