Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in High and Low, the highly influential domestic drama and police procedural from director Akira Kurosawa. 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 contemporary Japanese society. The film has recently been reimagined by Spike Lee in 2025's Highest 2 Lowest.
As Kingo Gondo (Mifune) finally gathers all his assets to become the majority shareholder of his company, he receives shocking news: his chauffeur’s son has been kidnapped, and a huge ransom is demanded. Gondo is faced with a moral dilemma: can he sacrifice his entire fortune to save another man’s child?
Reviews
"From McBain’s tight little paperback thriller, Kurosawa fashioned one of his most expansive and symphonic works, a film that immerses itself in the minutiae of the modern metropolis—pay phones, streetcars, garbage-disposal centers—while at the same time often approaching pure visual abstraction." – Criterion
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