Non Samurai Guy 1: High and Low

OK, I'll admit it, I've graduated from being a film buff to being a nerd. The distinction, other than the whole nerdy blog you're reading, is that a film buff has seen some Kurosawa movies; a nerd has seen non-samurai ones. Since seeing Seven Samurai at about age 16/7, I watched all of the Samurai ones first (even 'Kagemusha', which isn't great) and have been a little obsessed ever since. However, Kurosawa also directed some great non-Samurai movies (though not great from the point of view of women, it's pretty clear that he was a misogynist, but which great director isn't?). The following are reviews of the non-samurai movies I have seen. There will be spoilers, but if plot tips to 60 year old movies offend you, I think you need to take a breather. First up is 'High and Low'.

Another of those interesting Japanese promotion posters [source]

High and Low (1963) - The reason I made this feature (as well as loneliness), is a terrific movie in its own right. A business executive Gondo ( Toshiro Mifune) is in the middle of a Machiavellian deal to gain control of his company (National Shoe, pronounced 'nashional shu'). However, his plans are scuppered when he is informed that his child has been kidnapped. His initial decision, to save the child at all costs, is compromised when his own child walks through the door: it was the boy's friend who was kidnapped, the son of the lowly chauffeur. The amount will bankrupt him, and prevent his takeover of the company. Will he still pay the ransom when it is not his child? Which is more important, his livelihood, or his humanity? The decision takes most of the first half of the movie.

An intense, nearly unrecognisable Toshire Mifune, cultivating a shoe fetish [source]

  This first half is filmed primarily in the Gondo family's living room. A successful show manufacturer, he can afford to live in a fancy palace on a hill above one of the the teeming slums of the city. The high of the title could reflect the Gondo's position in the higher echelons of Japanese society, as well as the more literal, geographical high of the hilltop house. The first half of the movie has very few characters. Other than some rival executives, there is only Gondo, his wife, his lackey (A Japanese Smithers), the chauffeur, the two children (before one is kidnapped), and then the crew of police brought in to solve the crime. The character asks for enough to bankrupt Mifune, skuppering his plans for overthrow of the company. The characters come and go, but the movie centres on darkened front room, the characters fanning themselves to stay cool in a heat wave, tensely waiting for the telephone to ring. The police sleep there, and when the kidnapper calls, they huddle around the phone like wild animals. Characters pace the room, which is kept dark and shaded both to keep cool and to hide the fact from the kidnapper that the police are there. This first half of the movie, taking place in mostly a single room mostly, and with little action, would also work well as a play.

Gondo with his wife, and his lackey (to the left) talk to the kidnapper. [source]

A middle section covers the recovery of the boy and the handover of the ransom, most of which takes place on a busy Tokyo train. The setting of the train is equally claustrophobic, and suggests for the first time that Gondo is more than a mere cold-hearted businessman. The police, already beginning to respect him in his house, now refer to him as a fine man for his bravery and decisive action. A frantic scene, where Gondo crams cash-filled suitcases out of the train's windows, at the same time that the police officers desperately try to video the kidnappers accomplices, is a beautifully filmed scene.

The child recovered safely, the second half of the movie primarily follows the policework in recovering the money, and finding the kidnapper. It deals primarily with the police, and their dealings with people in the 'low' areas of society, deep in the valley below Gondo's house. The introduction of the kidnapper transforms him from being an unseen monster to something a little more understandable and sympathetic; simultaneously, Mifune's character is relegated to a secondary character for most of the second half, at least until the two meet at the film's conclusion.

This second half also has a moral problem at heart: namely, how far should the police go to prove guilt? The detectives must navigate their own moral conundrums. For example, the kidnapper, alongside the kidnap, has killed his co-conspirators, two wretched heroin addicts. However, the police team, headed by Tatsuya Nakadai  (the guy from Sanjuro and Harakiri), know that because of technicalities, they don't have enough evidence to have the kidnapper put in jail for any longer than 15 years. Instead, they decide to get enough evidence to have him exectued by the state, no matter what it takes.

To do this, they set to frame him into making the same actions as he has before, by forging letters from the now-dead addicts. They also must make a moral decision to misinform the press about this, so that the kidnapper believes that his accomplices are still alive. The lengthy following of the kidnapper, where he hunts down heroin, takes place in seedy bars, a ghetto, the dregs of society. At the end of a lengthy but engrossing scene, a pitiful junkie is left dead, mourned by no one, but now conclusive evidence of the kidnappers actions. The hunt, following the kidnapper as he scores heroine in a jazz bar, and tries out the heroine on the aformentioned junky, had been argued to go on too long, but I think adds a genuine sense of procedural detective work. The scene in the heroin addict filled alley, however, is unrealistic, as zombie-like creatures wait in silence for their death. However, the scene is both surreally filmed, and a little unsettling.

A 'highly believable' heroin alley, which is still pretty tense, despite being ridiculous [source]

Kurosawa has said that he made the kidnapper a little too sympathetic. However, I think that someone willing to kill, kidnap, and humiliate Gondo through the exorbitant ransom money, for the motive of jealousy, is not particularly sympathetic to me. Despite this, Gondo himself is not entirely sympathetic, his house juts above the sweltering valley, an ostentatious reminder of the barriers of Japanese hierarchy. Importantly, one of the police officers, scrabbling around the sweltering valley on a fruitless search for clues, looks up to the grand house, and mentions understanding as to why people would resent the Gondo house. At the film's conclusion, Gondo and the kidnapper meet in jail. Here, the kidnapper suggests that his life has been one of absolute misery and pity, and that he wants no sympathy before he is killed by the state. However, he is a medic student, learning to become a doctor, which suggests that he has climbed a little way up the social ladder already. A theme of wasted talent is evident throughout the movie.

Gondo and the kidnapper finally meet, both of them ruined from their experiences [source]

Alongside the police work and a very dignified, convincing performace as Gondo by Mifune, the whole movie is about compromise, both moral and physical. Mifune's character Gondo, struggles with his conscience, as he decides between saving his chauffeur's son, or keeping up his business status. Initially unsympathetic, he is eventually regarded by both the public and the police as an honourable man. It is a relief when we learn that he is back and shoe making his own (small) firm at the conclusion: this is a man of honour. This becomes especially clear when we see his fellow executives rejoice at his downfall, their positions safe, Gondo is fired from the company. Gondo's lackey is quick to cut himself a deal with them, leaving after ten loyal years to preserve his own status. Gondo is offered to keep his job to stop the negative publicity the firm is receiving, not from any sense of loyalty or fidelity to him. These actions show that Gondo's decision to keep his soul, rather than his fortune, was a brave one. The film's conclusion shows his house repossessed, which is at odds with the fact that the money had been recovered from the kidnapper. However, it is clear that he has made a great sacrifice and lost a lot throughout the movie. The police themselves are faced with moral problems, they must lie to the press, request press blackouts, and sacrifice a woman's life in order to ensure capitol punishment on the kidnapper. The result is a movie which is thought provoking and tense.

The police scope out the kidnapper, while the Japanese 1960s unfolds around them. [source]

The movie has many of the famous Kurosawa scenes, for example, the frantic scene on the train, leading to the recovery of the child, is rightly held as great. The scene where Gondo runs to hug the boy is genuinely touching. Furthermore, there are also the usual small touches which make a Kurosawa movie worth watching. To illustrate, the pure fear visible on the police officers face when the child goes missing for a second time near the accomplices villa is terrific. As is a small scene where Gondo lifts his own child to take him to bed, with a swift and effortless movement that leaves the kid looking a little terrified, dangling over his father's shoulder. Another great scene, which I have heard described as overlong, is the scene in the police station where a parade of detectives show the rest of the group their findings, all the while fanning and mopping up their sweating brows: it's amusing, and entertaining, and if you think it's overlong, you're as stupid as you are pretty. Most obviously, the scene with pink smoke was a pleasant surprise in a black-and-white movie.

 Also interesting to me were the use of Gondo's wife and child in the first part of the movie. Although Gondo's wife is  far from the main character, she is sympathetic and seems to have influence over both her husband and his lackey. This is interesting in comparison to, for example, the unsympathetic wives in his Shakespeare adaptations 'Ran' and 'Throne of Blood,' or the meek, token love interests of 'Drunken  Angel.' Importantly, it was her dowry which allowed Gondo to start the road to success in the first place.

'The Road to Success,' and to Gondo's house. [source]

From a cultural perspective, I think that it's interesting that the the kidnapper gets his heroin from a Philippino girl in a Jazz club. The 'gear' is passed over during a dance to a frantic song, (which brings to mind the debauched dancing in 'Drunken Angel'). The Jazz itself, and the majority of people in the club, are Americans, including a huge black guy, dancing up a storm (possibly the only black guy in a post-war Kurosawa movie). Is this a condemnation of the decadence of Western culture in Japan? Or merely a reflection of the source material, taken from Ed McBain's '87th Precinct' series?

On a lighter note, one of the police officers under-cover in the jazz bar, is made to wear a Hawaiian shirt which he has tied the bottom around the waist, exposing his chest. I found it interesting that there was ever a time when that would not be considered at least camp. Nonsense aside, this is a wonderful work, and one with material which would require only minor changes to be remade today, but which definitely shouldn't be.

Rating: Highly Recommended, obviously