Being only a semi-serious film buff, I knew all about Rashamon and The Seven Samuri and the other classic films from the masterful Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. I didn’t know much about his other films, however, and thus it came as a wonderful surprise to see High and Low, a contemporary crime thriller made in 1963, which has just been released on DVD.
The film, which is about the kidnapping of the son of an ambitious business executive and the hard-edged police investigation that follows, is based on one of the 87th Precinct novels by Ed McBain, and the story survives its transplant from Manhattan to Osaka in great form. The hunt is suspenseful, the moral dilemmas posed are affecting, and Kurosawa’s direction is dazzling. The payoff to the kidnapper that takes place on a speeding train, the manhunt in a dance club, and the pursuit through a drug den are especially thrilling scenes.
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