The Magnetic Mifune
April 01, 2014
Film Info
- Japan
- 1963
- 143 minutes
- Black and White
- 2.35:1
- Japanese
- Spine #24
Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in High and Low (Tengoku to jigoku), the highly influential domestic drama and police procedural from director Akira Kurosawa. Adapting Ed McBain’s detective novel King’s Ransom, Kurosawa moves effortlessly from compelling race-against-time thriller to exacting social commentary, creating a diabolical treatise on contemporary Japanese society.
Cast
| Kingo Gondo | Toshiro Mifune |
| Reiko | Kyoko Kagawa |
| Kawanishi | Tatsuya Mihashi |
| Inspector Tokuro | Tatsuya Nakadai |
| Aoki | Yutaka Sada |
| Director | Takashi Shimura |
| Commissioner | Susumu Fujita |
| Detective Taguchi | Kenjiro Ishiyama |
| Detective Arai | Isao Kimura |
| Detective Nakao | Takeshi Kato |
Credits
| Director | Akira Kurosawa |
| Producer | Tomoyuki Tanaka and Ryuzo Kikushima |
| Screenplay | Ryuzo Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Akira Kurosawa and Eijiro Hisaita |
| Cinematography | Asakazu Nakai and Takao Saito |
| Production design | Yoshiro Muraki |
| Lighting | Ichiro Inohara |
| Sound | Hisahi Shimonaga |
| Music | Masaru Sato |
Disc Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with original four-track surround sound, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary by Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
- Thirty-seven minute documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
- Rare video interview with actor Toshiro Mifune, from 1984
- New video interview with actor Tsutomu Yamazaki
- Theatrical trailers and teaser
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and an on-set account by Japanese film-scholar Donald Richie
New cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang
Current Posts
Photo Galleries
Film Essays
High and Low: Between Heaven and Hell
By July 21, 2008
Akira Kurosawa’s propensity for adapting European classics—Dostoyevsky (The Idiot), Shakespeare (Throne of Blood), Gorky (The Lower Depths)—earned him a label, both abroad and at home, as the . . . Read more »
Film Essays
High and Low
By October 12, 1998
Are there cultural purists still remaining who would argue that the “Westernized” title of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 masterpiece—High and Low—throws polluted water on the cosmological fire of its . . . Read more »
Film Essays
High and Low: Between Heaven and Hell
By July 21, 2008
Akira Kurosawa’s propensity for adapting European classics—Dostoyevsky (The Idiot), Shakespeare (Throne of Blood), Gorky (The Lower Depths)—earned him a label, both abroad and at home, as the . . . Read more »
Film Essays
High and Low
By October 12, 1998
Are there cultural purists still remaining who would argue that the “Westernized” title of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 masterpiece—High and Low—throws polluted water on the cosmological fire of its . . . Read more »
Photo Galleries
News
Higher and Lower: Nichols Takes Up a Classic
October 27, 2008
Variety reported today that Mike Nichols is getting ready to direct a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s beloved 1963 thriller High and Low, from a new screenplay by David Mamet, and likely to be . . . Read more »
Film Essays
High and Low: Between Heaven and Hell
By July 21, 2008
Akira Kurosawa’s propensity for adapting European classics—Dostoyevsky (The Idiot), Shakespeare (Throne of Blood), Gorky (The Lower Depths)—earned him a label, both abroad and at home, as the . . . Read more »
Film Essays
High and Low
By October 12, 1998
Are there cultural purists still remaining who would argue that the “Westernized” title of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 masterpiece—High and Low—throws polluted water on the cosmological fire of its . . . Read more »
