High and Low [Tengoku to Jigoku] ***** (1963, Toshiro Mifune) – Classic Movie Review 13,733

Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese police procedural thriller film High and Low stars Toshiro Mifune as a businessman who finds a kidnapper has abducted his chauffeur’s son in mistake for his own boy.

Director Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese black and white thriller film High and Low [Tengoku to Jigoku] stars Toshiro Mifune.

Having found out that his chauffeur’s son has been kidnapped in mistake for his own son to ransom him for 30 million yen, a rich shoe manufacturer (Toshiro Mifune) is torn between financial ruin and guilt.

Japanese businessman Kingo Gondo (Mifune) is planning to use his life savings for a leveraged buyout of the company where he is a board member, when he is called by someone claiming he has kidnapped his son. Gondo is prepared to pay the ransom, but then the boy returns home from playing outside. However, Gondo’s chauffeur’s child is missing, apparently kidnapped by mistake.

The kidnapper phones to say he has discovered his mistake but is still demanding the 30 million yen, and Gondo faces the dilemma of whether to pay the ransom or complete the buyout.

Kurosawa’s thrilling, haunting and wonderfully paced police procedural thriller, loosely based on a 1959 novel by Evan Hunter, profitably explores this central moral dilemma. Kurosawa favourite Mifune gives another commanding performance, as the wealthy businessman executive Kingo Gondo. Tatsuya Nakadai also stars as Inspector Tokura, the chief investigator in the kidnapping case.

It is written by Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Eijirō Hisaita and Ryūzō Kikushima.

Tengoku to Jigoku apparently translates as Heaven and Hell.

Running time:143 minutes.

Filming took place from 2 September to 30 January 1963 on location at Yokohama and on set at Toho Studios.

It was released on 1 March 1963 in Japan, where it became that year’s highest-grossing film.

Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa, Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamakazi, Yutaka Sada, Isao Kimura, Takashi Shimura, Jun Tazaki.

It is a successor to Kurosawa’s police procedural thriller Stray Dog (1949).

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