High and Low

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

Cast

Toshirō Mifune

as Kingo Gondo

Tatsuya Nakadai

as Chief Detective Tokura

Kyōko Kagawa

as Reiko Gondo

Tatsuya Mihashi

as Kawanishi, Gondo's secretary

Isao Kimura

as Detective Arai

Kenjirō Ishiyama

as Chief Detective 'Bos'n' Taguchi

Takeshi Katō

as Detective Nakao

Takashi Shimura

as Chief of Investigation Section

Jun Tazaki

as Kamiya, National Shoes Publicity Director

Nobuo Nakamura

as Ishimaru, National Shoes Design Department Director

Reviews

CinemaSerf

I didn't take to this initially. The scenario reminded me a little of an episode of "Columbo" - a rather sterile, studio-set environment that came across as quite limiting. Once it gets going, though, it's one of the best crime thrillers I've seen in ages. It all centres around the kidnapping of a s...

Zak_Jaggs

A well worked, high stake crime thriller. The stakes are deeply personal to our main characters and puts them in an impossible situation. The performances and direction are very solid, the story is engaging and ultimately, it's a simple yet enjoyable film. Kurosawa comments on modern corporate greed...

Brent Marchant

I’m always amazed at how a single film can be fundamentally characterized in multiple ways, but that’s understandable when the picture combines an array of diverse elements, each of which has a validity all its own that can subsequently lead to different overarching interpretations. Such is the case...

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