Review – High and Low

The beginning of this non-samurai Kurosawa picture poses a fascinating moral dilemma. A businessman (Toshiro Mifune) risks everything he owns on a desperate attempt to keep rivals from taking over the shoe factory where he works. But no sooner has he converted all his assets to cash in order to make a big stock purchase than his son is seized by a kidnapper who wants an exorbitant 30 million yen. As he’s preparing to ruin himself by paying the ransom, it turns out that the kidnapper goofed up and made off with his chauffeur’s kid instead. Now the protagonist must decide if he’s willing to give up life as he knows it to rescue the child of a servant. This conflict keeps things rolling nicely for the first hour or so. Unfortunately, once it’s resolved the rest of the picture becomes a standard crime drama. It’s still good stuff. It just isn’t as gripping as the set-up. Worth seeing