Kurosawa's High and Low
Many filmgoers recognize Akira Kurosawa films for their beautifully painted war scenes, as you can see in such movies as Kagamusha and Ran. Even though no one does epic battle scenes as artistically as Kurosawa, I actually prefer his more intimate black and white dramas like Ikuru and High and Low (Tengoku to jigoku) .
While these movies don't contain the wide vistas or the action content of Kurosawa's most famous films, our hero still confronts a moral dilemma and invokes his internal code to resolve the situation. High and Low essentially intertwines two stories-businessman Gondo's story followed by the police investigation and tracking of the kidnapper-to expertly weave a police tale with social commentary while remaining a character study above all.
Longtime Kurosawa mainstay Toshirô Mifune (Yojimbo, Rashomon, The Seven Samuri, and others) effectively plays Gondo. The ensemble cast is outstanding as well and helps the film work. Especially notable is Tatsuya Nakadai, who must carry the second half of the film.
The first half of the film takes place mostly in Gondo's apartment, opening with a meeting with business associates from National Shoe Company, who plan a coup of the company because the founder has fallen behind the times in style and profitability. Gondo wants no part of their scheme due to his own sense of honor, rejecting their stylish cardboard-based shoes quite dramatically-ripping their cheap glued-together models to shreds. He insists that the company must remain respectable and can only maintain its success by continuing to produce high quality shoes though he does agree that they have to get away from the "army boot" style that is no longer marketable.
This is only one scene that reveals Gondo's business ethics and shows that the man truly loves his lifelong craft of making quality shoes. Watch for another poignant scene on the streets where the veteran businessman gazes at a storefront window of shoes.
The business associates leave disappointed and angry; additionally, Gondo has showed his contempt and disrespect for them by not even showing them out the door-an act that shocks Gondo's wife Reiko (Kyôko Kagawa). Gondo has his own plan for a coup, and has mortgaged everything he has to arrange for a business deal. Lest you think this another Shakespearean Throne of Blood adaptation, Reiko is no Lady MacBeth. She will plead with her husband to re-arrange his priorities: "What good is success if you lose your humanity?"
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