High and Low was the first non-samurai Akira Kurosawa film I saw, and it was the film that raised him even higher in my esteem. Granted, his samurai films are masterpieces, but before I saw this film I wondered if, like John Ford westerns, his best work was specifically locked into this one genre. (Before you start complaining...yes, I know John Ford made great non-western films. His name just happens to be synonymous with the genre). High and Low is Kurosawa's take on film noir, and it further solidifies his reputation as a master of the craft, not just one genre in it.
Toshiro Mifune plays Kingo Gondo, a high-class Al Bundy who's the executive of a company that makes women's shoes. His values clash with the other execs who want to vote him out of the company, unaware that he's been secretly working on a buyout, and has just one last payment to make before he can accomplish this. Lo and behold, at that point his son's best friend gets kidnapped, and the plot kicks into gear with Gondo debating on paying the ransom, paying it, and then watching financial life fall apart while the cops search for the kidnapper. The plot then turns to murder, drugs, rock and roll clubs, and a horrific walk down Junkie Alley.
There are two films here, and Kurosawa's switch from Gondo's personal turmoil to the cops searching for the killer works remarkably well. In fact, you get so sucked into it that you hardly notice Gondo's absence for large parts of the second half, which is a pretty impressive feat when you consider it's Toshiro fucking Mifune we're talking about here. Usually I'm more into the personal tragedies involved in most noirs and care less about the search for the criminal, but right here everything is tied together, and you spend some time with the kidnapper seeing his day to day life, as well as his resentment of Gondo's wealth. Even though he's a criminal and a killer, you can't help but feel a bit sorry for him at the end of the film.
Given my own tastes, my favorite scenes involved the kidnapper's trip through junkie alley, with the junkies played as Night of the Living Dead-style zombies that slowly walk and grab at anyone who walks by. This scene is thick with atmospheric horror, and is the creepiest thing I've seen yet in a Kurosawa film. It feels nightmarish enough that you want to get out of there as soon as possible, and wonder what kind of reputation the kidnapper has since he's able to walk his way though this area without being bothered, while strangers are told to go away.
High and Low is one of my favorite Kurosawa films, one that I enjoyed watching much more than other classics like Rashomon and Ran. I love the shift of focus in this film, the bittersweet ending, Gondo's personal and professional torments, and hell, I even liked the detective scenes. This one's not too hard for me to rank, since as much as I love it I can't place it higher than Grand Illusion, but have no problem putting it above Shock Corridor. Therefore Kurosawa becomes the first director in my ranking to have two films in the top ten, with High and Low coming in at #7.
1. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. Robocop (1987)
3. Seven Samurai (1954)
4. The Seventh Seal (1957)
5. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
6. Grand Illusion (1937)
7. High and Low (1963)
8. Shock Corridor (1963)
9. Hard Boiled (1992)
10. Sid and Nancy (1986)
11. The 400 Blows (1959)
12. Walkabout (1971)
13. The Killer (1989)
14. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
15. Dead Ringers (1988)
16. The Naked Kiss (1964)
17. A Night to Remember (1958)
18. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
19. The Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956)
20. Amarcord (1973)
21. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
22. Summertime (1955)
Next time: I try to put my personal opinion of the man aside and give Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville another shot.
No comments:
Post a Comment