Akira Kurosawa's "High and Low"

I watched Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film "High and Low" on DVD today. When I think of Kurosawa I usually think of his famous samurai films like "Seven Samurai", "Yojimbo", "Sanjuro" and "The Hidden Fortress" but I've never seen any of his contemporary films before so I've rented a few. "High and Low" is a long film in two parts. The first part is almost staged like a play in one room with a businessman called Gondo who we see at first on the eve of taking over a business but then having to cope with police and the moral dilemma of paying out ransom money for a kidnapped child or ruining himself financially.

After much debating the ransom is finally paid and the film then shifts its focus and concentrates on the police force and how they gather their evidence and piece together all the clues to find out who the kidnapper is. This part is filmed in almost a documentary style and is in sharp contrast to the earlier part, both in style and setting. The japanese title is "Tengoku to Jigoku" which also translates as "Heaven and Hell" and the screenplay was loosely based on "King's Ransom", an 87th Precinct police procedural by Evan Hunter (written under the pseudonym Ed McBain).

I really enjoyed this film. It's unusual film because Kurosawa took on a forties Hollywood detective film and transposed it to Japan in the sixties, clearly illustrating the divide between the rich and the poor in his country at that era. Ultimately, it is revealed that the kidnapper's sole motive for his crime is his hatred for Gondo which stems from jealousy. He has no other connection with his victim and the last scene where the kidnapper Takuchi asks to meet Gondo ends with the following exchange:

Kingo Gondo: "Why should you and I hate each other?"

Ginjirô Takeuchi, medical intern: "I don't know. I'm not interested in self-analysis. I do know my room was so cold in winter and so hot in summer I couldn't sleep. Your house looked like heaven, high up there. That's how I began to hate you."