High and Low

Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in High and Low, 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 class and contemporary Japanese society.

Japan
1963
143 minutes
Black and White/Color
2.39:1
Japanese
Spine #24

Special Features

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 4K digital restoration, with 4.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
Audio commentary featuring Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
Documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
Interviews with actors Toshiro Mifune and Tsutomu Yamazaki
Trailers and teaser
PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and an on-set account by Japanese-film scholar Donald Richie

Cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang

Coming soon, available Sep 9, 2025

4K+Blu-ray 2 Discs $39.96 SRP: $49.95

Blu‑ray 1 Disc $31.96 SRP: $39.95

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

AK 100: 25 Films by Kurosawa

DVD Box Set

25 Discs

$319.00

Out Of Print

Digital Options

Watch Now On

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 4K digital restoration, with 4.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
Audio commentary featuring Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
Documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
Interviews with actors Toshiro Mifune and Tsutomu Yamazaki
Trailers and teaser
PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and an on-set account by Japanese-film scholar Donald Richie

Cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang

Cast & Credits

Cast

Toshiro Mifune: Kingo Gondo
Kyoko Kagawa: Reiko
Tatsuya Mihashi: Kawanishi
Tatsuya Nakadai: Inspector Tokuro
Yutaka Sada: Aoki
Takashi Shimura: Director
Susumu Fujita: Commissioner
Kenjiro Ishiyama: Detective Taguchi
Isao Kimura: Detective Arai
Takeshi Kato: Detective Nakao

Credits

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka
Producer: Ryuzo Kikushima
Screenplay: Ryuzo Kikushima
Screenplay: Hideo Oguni
Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa
Cinematography: Asakazu Nakai
Production design: Yoshiro Muraki
Lighting: Ichiro Inohara
Sound: Hisahi Shimonaga
Music: Masaru Sato
Screenplay: Eijiro Hisaita
Cinematography: Takao Saito

Related Films

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A scene from High and Low

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Explore

Akira Kurosawa

Writer, Director

Arguably the most celebrated Japanese filmmaker of all time, Akira Kurosawa had a career that spanned from the Second World War to the early nineties and that stands as a monument of artistic, entertainment, and personal achievement. His best-known films remain his samurai epics Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, but his intimate dramas, such as Ikiru and High and Low, are just as searing. The first serious phase of Kurosawa’s career came during the postwar era, with Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, gritty dramas about people on the margins of society that featured the first notable appearances by Toshiro Mifune, the director’s longtime leading man. Kurosawa would subsequently gain international fame with Rashomon, a breakthrough in nonlinear narrative and sumptuous visuals. Following a personal breakdown in the late sixties, Kurosawa rebounded by expanding his dark brand of humanism into new stylistic territory, with films such as Kagemusha and Ran, visionary, color, epic ruminations on modern man and nature.