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Nabaza.net-The MarketPlace - High and Low - Criterion Collection
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List Price: $39.95
Our Price: $35.99
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Manufacturer: Criterion
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyoko Kagawa, Takashi Shimura, Tsutomu Yamazaki
Directed By: Akira Kurosawa
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Image Entertainment
EAN: 0715515030922
Format: Black & White
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2008-07-22
Running Time: 143
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: 1963-11-26
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Editorial Reviews:
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Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in Akira Kurosawa's highly influential domestic drama and police procedural High and Low. Adapting Ed McBain's detective novel King's Ransom Kurosawa moves effortlessly from compelling race-against-time thriller to exacting social commentary creating a diabolical treatise on class and contemporary Japanese society. Criterion is proud to present High and Low (Tengoko to jigoku) in this new high-definition digital transfer.SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:New restored high-definition digital transfer with newly restored original four-track surround soundNew audio commentary by Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen PrinceA 37-minute documentary on the making of High and Low created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to CreateRare archival interview with Toshiro MifuneNew video interview with actor Tsutomu Yamazaki who plays the kidnapperTheatrical trailers from Japan and the U.S.New and improved English subtitle translationPLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien and a reprinted essay by Japanese film scholar Donald RichieMore!System Requirements:Running Time: 143 minutes Language: Japanese Subtitles: EnglishFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:Â ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating:Â NR UPC:Â 715515030922 Manufacturer No:Â CC1760DDVD
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: An eternal classic
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: High and Low
Comment:
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.
I discovered High and Low early in my exploration of Kurosawa mainly overlooking it because it wasn't a samurai period film something I thought He had excelled in and only that. It happened by chance that I borrowed the orginal Criterion disc from a friend at work and quickly became engorged in any film made by the master. This film has the earmarks of Kurosawa film with social commentary, great characters, amazing black and white photography (the liner for the dvd makes mentions of lighting on the killers mirrored sunglasses during the finale), and scenes that are almost acted without any dialogue. Plus its just a great damn thriller.
High and Low was adapted from a 87th precinct novel from the late Ed McBain (Evan Hunter). It transplants the story from America to Yokohama in the middle of the summer. As the film begins shoe maker executive Gondo is having a meeting with subordinates where he outlines his plans to take over the company. The others are flummoxed as they want to create flimmsier shoes at cheaper prices and plan ..ping Gondo. Things come to a head when Gondo gets a phone call from a man who says He's kidnapped his son who was recently playing with the chauffers son around the house. Unfortunately his son comes in and as it turns out the chauffers son has been the one kidnapped. The Kidnapper discovers this also but won't budge on the ransom demand so Gondo is set up with a moral choice. He calls the cops despite the danger it poses but trys whatever He can to figure out a way not to pay the ransom.The cops arrive and then begins the first half of the film as a plan is devised to get back both the boy and the money. The second half of the film involves the police investigation trying to find out who the kidnapper is ending with a chase through the city in the night through back alleys and bars filled with foreigners all with as little dialogue as possible depending mainly on the emotions of the actors to sell the intensity. While the first half is more character driven the last half of the film is more procedural which of course is what appealed to me more.
Being the fan that I am the only way to describe High and Low would be to use the word impeccable. Its not the most loved Kurosawa film (something I'd disagree with) but it has the hallmarks of greatness in my opinion. While I love the procedural half of the film, the first set only in the Gondo house is intense thanks to the acting and directing talent. One of the great things that I've always loved about Kurosawa is his use of long takes and this helps build the intensity of the scenes as the camera flows around the living room watching the characters. On the acting side you have the two of Kurosawa's main group. Toshiro Mifune is always able to play intensity with bravado and flair but as the film progresses you can see him begining to falter in his plans not to pay the ransom demand. At the end He's given up everything He gained, all his riches gone until He's back to mowing his own lawn in one of the famous images of the film like He's trying to hold back the inevitable. The second actor is Tatsuya Nakadai as Chief Detective Tokoda. Nakadai worked on the last of Kurosawa's masterpieces (being Kagemusha and Ran) and this was a great almost simple performance. Tokoda heading up the investigation isn't a renegade cop character mostly simply dressed and handsome. But Nakadai has a commanding presence that demands you to watch him. I can't really describe what makes Nakadai Mifune's perfect accomplice in the film.
In the end its a perfect film in my mind, one of the few I wouldn't hesitate to brand it as such.
I was speaking on my original experience with the film which was Criterions orignal release. Around the time Criterion double dipped Seven Samurai and gave it the treatment it deserved I hoped they'd do the same for High and Low as the picture on the original disc was slightly cropped at the sides. On this set they've thankfully corrected that issue while adding some great features like a commentary from Stephen Prince and more of the It Is Wonderful to Create series that they've included on almost all of their Kurosawa releases. Its strange that original Criterion is still listed for sale as this is the only set worth buying in my opinion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: the latest Criterion release
Comment: 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 clear as the former Criterion release of this film?
That last version was a revelation; I saw things (background, details and all that)that I'd never noticed before, in astounding clarity. This version seems darker and not as high quality. It was tough rating this one. I'm not sorry I bought it, but I'll probably go back to watching the original Criterion version when I want to see this film. Disc One rates 3 stars. Disc 2, with the extras, rates 5.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Truly Complex Social Commentary
Comment: 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 his entire fortune, including his large house that sits on top of a hill (the "High" in the title).
Right in the middle of all this, Takeuchi Ginjiro, a very angry medical intern, has engineered his own plan. He plans to kidnap Gondo's young son, Jun, and demand a huge ransom. Two of his drug-addicted coherts perform the kidnapping and Takeuchi makes the call to Gondo. The amount demanded is such that it would completely ruin Gondo if he were to pay it. He would even lose his large house, and would most likely lose his job and income. Gondo is willing to do this for his own son. However, it turns out that the kidnappers have made a mistake. They have kidnapped Shinichi, the son of Gondo's chauffeur, who is a widower of very modest means. The moral dilemma poses itself: will Gondo sacrifice his entire fortune to save the son of his chauffeur?
I don't want to "spoil" the film for viewers with the answer. However, there are many aspects that can be discussed without putting in a "spoiler." The "High" refers to Gondo's mansion, perched upon a high hill. It also refers to Gondo's position as a wealthy company executive. On the surface, the "Low" refers to the slums where poor people and drug-addicts inhabit and where the kidnapper lives and most likely comes from.
However, as it turns out, the "Low" can also refer to Gondo and his background. During the discussion about how to handle the kidnapping, he reminds his wife about how he had been born of poor and humble origins and has had to work his way up the National Shoe hierarchy by his own efforts. Gondo's background is a factor that can go well over the heads of Western viewers who aren't very familiar with Japanese culture, history, and sociology. In order to understand it, some historical aspects must be studied. The craft of shoe-making, along with other crafts involving leather has been a traditional occupation of the burakumin (outcast) sector of the population.
The burakumin, as a people (and as a political/cultural issue) come from the feudal class system, where there were samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants. There were also two different outcast categories: hinin ("non-human"), and eta ("abundant filth"). The hinin were involved in begging, street-entertaining, and related occupations. The eta were involved in dealing with butchery, handling the dead, and making leather objects and implements (related to dead animal carcasses). People in these outcast classes were considered inferior, not quite human, ritually impure. They were forced to live in segregated neighborhoods and defer to the "normal human beings" around them. Killing an eta or a hinin was not considered a crime because they weren't considered to be "people."
During the Meiji restoration in the late 19th century, the classes were abolished. The former outcasts were supposed to be welcomed into regular society as "new commoners." Instead of being "abundant filth" or "non-human," they were referred to as "burakumin" ("hamlet people"). However, the discrimination and violence against these people continued and continues to this current day. As the years went by, the scorn and discrimination has become hidden, unmentioned, and kept out of view. Some people have said that they don't even know what a "burakumin" is, other than something that relates entirely to historical times. However, there have been secret (now-illegal) lists kept of suspected burakumin families, so that companies and marriage brokers could consult these lists and avoid hiring or marrying a person from this "outcast" class. There have been writings and studies circulated that burakumin populate most of the violent yakuza gangs and that they even cause AIDS.
Now we get back to the film, HIGH AND LOW. Even though this factor isn't explicitly mentioned, it is strongly implied that Gondo Kingo, the self-made shoe-craftsman who has risen to executive, is a member of the burakumin. He started life as a shoe-maker, a leather craftsman. In Japan, very few, if any, people who are not burakumin would enter these leather-crafting professions. No one in the film mentions the burakumin, no one calls Gondo a "burakumin" or "dirty eta" to his face -- or even openly behind his back. No one would dare. However, one can plainly see a divide between Gondo and the other executives during the entire film. So though Gondo represents the "high", he also represents the "low." There is a parallel implication that Takeuchi (the kidnapper), though coming from humble origins, is not a burakumin. So though he is the "low", he is also the "high" compared to Gondo. There are so many ironies that run through this film.
I found this film to be quite compelling. If nothing else, the film is a quality "police procedural." However, it is far more than that. The film addresses issues of individual moral choices as opposed to materialism. It also addresses issues of class, in very subtle and ironic ways; class distinctions are far more complex than simplistic "high/low" concepts.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 2008 Criterion edition
Comment: High and Low centers on a kidnapping drama. A child is kidnapped by an unknown man who wants 30 million yen to let him live, and factory boss Kingo Gondo is put in a dilemma. Through the film we get glimpses of several different parts of 1960s japanese society: the police, drug addicts, wealthy industrialists and so on. The film is quite long (143 minutes) but never gets boring. We follow the police investigation in detail which is very well done. Also the visuals are remarkable. The look of the kidnapper when he sneaks around in Tokyo by night, wearing huge sunglasses that reflects the neon lights, made me think of bug-eyed monsters from japanese popular culture (Ultraman etc). The title refers to the different layers of society, and also to the moral dimension: being a killer vs being a person willing to make a sacrifice to save a human in need and thereby saving his own soul.
The DVD from Criterion (2008) is fantastic, the transfer is superb (I wathed it on a projector) and there's a lot of extras and a thick booklet. Highly recommended to everyone interested in cinema.
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