High and Low
(Tengoku to jigoku)
Dir. Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1963, 143 mins, Japanese with English subtitles, Cert: 12
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Mon 21 July // 19:30
Tickets: £5
A child is kidnapped. A ransom is demanded. But the victim isn’t who the criminal intended. In High and Low, Kurosawa transforms Ed McBain’s American crime novel King’s Ransom into a taut, morally complex thriller that doubles as a scathing critique of class divisions in modern Japan.
Toshiro Mifune is electrifying as Kingo Gondo, a shoe executive whose life—and conscience—are thrown into turmoil when he must choose between personal ruin and doing what’s right. From its claustrophobic opening act in a hilltop mansion to its descent into the gritty streets below, High and Low is a masterclass in suspense and social commentary.
Reissued by the BFI earlier this year and newly resonant in light of Spike Lee’s recently Cannes-premiered adaptation, this is Kurosawa at his most exacting and profound.
We kicked off 2025 with the epic grandeur of Seven Samurai. This summer, we turn to a different side of Kurosawa’s genius, his mastery of the crime drama. With Stray Dog and High and Low, Kurosawa proves that his humanistic vision transcends any single genre or historical setting. These two gripping films explore crime, class, and moral complexity in postwar Japan, trading period spectacle for contemporary social realism and presenting Tokyo as a pressure cooker where tensions simmer just beneath the surface.
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