HIGH AND LOW: THE CRITERION COLLECTION - DVD review

This is a re-issue of an early Criterion release from way back in 1998. It still has the original Spine Number 24.


According to "The Film Snob's Dictionary," Akira Kurosawa is the kind of director that a true film snob "generally scoffs at… deeming (him) to be a mere name-drop for bourgeois losers wishing to seem cultured."

It's funny ‘cause it's true.

It can often be frustrating to convince an audience that "doesn't go to movies to read" to take a chance on foreign films. Equally exasperating, however, is hearing back from a formerly foreign-language-averse viewer who says "I finally watched ‘Seven Samurai' and you were right; foreign movies rock! Next I'm gonna check out ‘Das Boot.'"

Why does the film snob breathe a heavy sigh at this display of excitement? Because the film snob thinks, "Yeah, ‘Seven Samurai' is great, but it's just an adventure movie that happens to be in another language. It's not really a foreign movie at all! Go watch ‘Last Year in Marienbad' instead, you bourgeois loser!" Well, maybe not quite like that, but Kurosawa's perception as a "Western" director of genre films worked against him not just among film snobs, but also in Japan where he struggled so hard to gain acceptance that he had to turn to outside funding for most of his later films, including "Ran" (1985).

I plead guilty to being a film snob, and to having a huffy reaction to the "Seven Samurai phenomenon" despite the fact that I think it's a phenomenal movie. It's hard to resist the temptation to pooh-pooh Kurosawa because he's so "Western," but it's really a false impression that makes it easy to categorize and thus dismiss this extraordinary director. Even if we accept the (incorrect) description of Kurosawa as a "Western" director, it's fair to ask "So what if he is?" We (film snobs) celebrate Jim Jarmusch as a "European-style director" after all.

If Kurosawa wanted to shed the "Western" label, he did himself no favors by adapting American mystery writer Ed McBain's novel "King's Ransom." Kurosawa and his team of screenwriters relocated the action to Japan but kept the book's basic premise. An executive in a shoe company has grand plans to take over the corporation, but is blindsided when a kidnapper calls to inform him that his son has been abducted and then demands an outrageous ransom. Of course, he has to pay to get his beloved son back, but there's an immediate twist. It turns out the kidnapper nabbed the son of the executive's chauffeur by mistake, and the main tension of the film shifts abruptly. How much will you pay to ransom someone else's child? Is the life of a child of a lower class worth any less than one from a wealthy family?

The executive's name is Kingo Gondo, played by the great Toshiro Mifune. At first he refuses to pay the ransom for Shinichi, the kidnapped boy. It's not his child, after all, so how dare the kidnapper expect him to pay 30 million yen for him! But the kidnapper doesn't care, and suspects he knows Gondo's weakness: a guilty conscience. Gondo must decide whether to spend his entire fortune, squandering his life's work and his family's well-being, to prevent someone else's child from being murdered. It's a moral quandary that would do a Dostoevsky novel proud.

"High and Low" benefits from a great story and a truly great screenplay. The focus of the narrative shifts at several key points. Just when you think you know where the entire film is going, the central tension is resolved, only to introduce a new one. Even more remarkable is the way that different characters rise to prominence during different sequences. With Mifune's star power, you would expect him to be in front of the camera invirtually every scene, but Gondo disappears from the film for extended stretches. In some cases, Shinichi and his father Aoki (Yutaka Sada) are the main characters. More often, it's the police who occupy our attention.

Like David Fincher's surprisingly sober and adroit "Zodiac" (2007), "High and Low" is a police procedural in which we watch law enforcement officials dot every "i" and cross every "t." Merely locating Shinichi isn't enough. Merely determining the identity of the kidnapper does not suffice. They have to make the charges stick, and they have to do everything by the book. There are really no surprises left by the end of the film: we know who did what, where and why, but we are completely riveted as we watch the authorities methodically pursue their suspect, and the final result of the chase is never a certainty.

The English title of the film is "High and Low," but the more proper translation would be "Heaven and Hell." Both provide an allegorical framework for the film's central theme, the great divide between classes. The English translation works better in a literal sense. Gondo's mansion crouches on a hilltop overlooking the town below, as if he and his privileged family were in the clouds staring down at the ant-sized commoners scurrying on the ground.

Gondo isn't spoiled, however, probably because he worked his way to the top. He's a cold, calculating businessman but a devoted craftsman and a basically good soul whose morality is anchored by his loving and quietly assertive wife Reiko (Kyoko Kagawa.) One of the most fascinating developments in the story is the manner in which the policemen's perception of Gondo changes. The rough-and-tumble bald-headed "Bos'n" (Kenjiro Ishiyama) admits that he was prepared to despise the rich executive, a sentiment shared by the other working class Joes on the force. But he grows to respect him, and the police are inspired to work all the more vigorously on Gondo's behalf. Still, you have to wonder how the entire police force can devote themselves to one case for so long. Are there no other crimes going on? Perhaps this is just another manifestation of the power of wealth and privilege: Kingo Gondo needs justice, he's gonna get justice. Tough luck for any poor people who dial ‘911' while the hunt for the kidnapper is on.

"High and Low" is a thriller par excellence, built on a great premise and crafted into an authentic and gripping story that doesn't seem the slightest bit overlong at 143 minutes. Mifune is superb as always, but the entire cast delivers strong performances, even supporting characters who only get a few moments on screen. Ishiyama is great, and Tatsuya Nakadai outshines just about everyone as the implacable Inspector Tokura.

Even a film snob has to admit, you don't have to be a bourgeois loser to think that "High and Low" is a great movie.

Video

This is a re-issue of an early Criterion release (it still has the Spine Number 24). Back in the early days, Criterion produced their share of turkeys mostly because they had no competition in the high-end DVD market. The transfer on the original release was a mediocre one with plenty of debris from the source print visible. The registration was poor, though the image quality was generally clear.

This new version more than compensates for the shortcomings of the original. The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and the restored transfer is very sharp though in scenes with a lot of white, the image sometimes looks a little blown out (the whites in the foreground and background blend together). I suspect this is what the film looked like in theaters too, so it's not exactly a weakness of the transfer.

We finally have a worthy version of "High and Low" on Region 1 DVD.

Audio

The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital 4.0. Optional English subtitles support the Japanese audio.

Extras

The first release of "High and Low" only offered the ubiquitous Criterion color bars as an extra. This 2-disc set offers a bit more.

Disc One features a full-length commentary track by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince.

Disc Two sees Criterion dipping once again into the seemingly bottomless well of the Toho Masterworks series "Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create." This 37-minute excerpt from the series covers the making of "High and Low." (you probably knew that already.)

Mifune didn't give many interviews, but Criterion has unearthed one from 1981 (30 min.) for the talk show "Tetsuko's Room." This was recorded shortly after his appearance in Spielberg's "1941" and he seems to have recovered from the trauma quite nicely.

The final extra is a new 2008 interview (19 min.) with actor Tsutomu Yamazaki who plays the kidnapper in the film.

There are three trailers provided as well, one of which shows a scene cut from the final film.

The insert booklet includes essays by Geoffrey O'Brien and, of course, an on-set report by Donald Richie who I believe has witnessed the shooting of every Japanese film since 1906, or maybe it's 1806.

Film Value

"High and Low" is my second favorite Kurosawa after his gritty Macbeth adaptation "Throne of Blood." Only a late scene set in an alley lined with drug addicts feels like it strikes a false note in this otherwise near-pitch perfect effort. Few movies have ever depicted an entire police force with such vitality: they are brought to life both as an efficient unit and as individuals. It's really a remarkable achievement for so many characters to shine brightly in the shadow of Mifune's stardom.

If you own the original Criterion release, you should burn it and rush out to buy this re-issue. The extras are good, not great, but the improvement in the transfer is substantial. It's more than worth the upgrade.