High and Low (1963)
1963 · Feature film · 143 min · dir. Akira Kurosawa
Stark, intense drama almost beyond belief!
- Drama
- film noir
- police procedural
Synopsis
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
Synopsis from TMDb
Details
- Director
- Akira Kurosawa
- Writer
- Akira Kurosawa
- Composer
- Masaru Satō
- Cinematography
- Asakazu Nakai
- Studio
- TOHO, Kurosawa Production
- Released
- 1963-03-01
- Original title
- 天国と地獄
- Running time
- 143 minutes
Cast & crew
Akira Kurosawa Director
Takeshi Katō
Kyōko Kagawa
Kin Sugai
Susumu Fujita
Eijirō Tōno
Kamatari Fujiwara
Tsutomu Yamazaki
Minoru Chiaki
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★★ · THE BEST MOVIE · moviesam · 2021-08-24
I really love this movie, it's a must if you like films or filmmaking
★★★★★ · High and Low · Okello Ogemba · 2022-08-20
A masterpiece!
★★★★★ · Classic Kurosawa. · Salpro · 2023-04-11
Just terrific.
★★★★★ · Hawaii Five O · David Carberry · 2024-09-25
I wonder if the film inspired the tv series Hawaii Five O.
★★★★ · Very Engaging film · vsoundar · 2023-08-26
It's a kind of different from others by Kurosawa. The film moves on like a real time happening. The detections by the police are a great treat. Starting with seemingly useless data, they, slowly and diligently, integrate them into a fruitful catch. All this under the layer of a, casually displayed, humane act.
Watching thanks to Spike Lee’s 2025 reimagining set in NYC · theman2017 · 2025-08-13
At the time of this, Spike Lee’s reimagining of Kurosawa‘a 1963 noir set in 1960’s Tokyo is what brought me here. A film that probably only World Cinema aficionados as well as hardcore fans of Kurosawa will be familiar with. Now thanks to the cinematic release of HIGHEST 2 LOWEST, starring Denzel Washington, a new generation will come to appreciate the 1963 original with the great Toshiro Mifune.
