Product Notes
Toshiro Mifune (Seven Samurai) 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 Kurosowa (Rashomon). 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.
Product Reviews
Based on King's Ransom, an "87th Precinct" novel by Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter), High and Low stars Toshiro Mifune as Gondo, a wealthy industrialist. Gondo is contacted by a gang of kidnappers, who inform him that they've kidnapped his son. The crooks demand a huge ransom for the boy's return -- an amount so huge that it will utterly bankrupt Gondo. As the harried businessman prepares to pay the ransom, he discovers that his son is safe at home: the kidnappers have accidentally snatched the son of his chauffeur. Does Gondo drop his payoff plans, or does he do the honorable thing and rescue his employee's son? This dilemma is but one aspect of the multilayered character study from the unbeatable team of star Toshiro Mifune and filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, who directs this superb film with his usual depth and impeccable eye for detail and character. As a man forced to make impossible decisions, Mifune gives a nuanced, perceptive and psychologically convincing performance. While not one of Kurosawa's master works, High and Low, with its grim reality and moral ambiguity stands as a superb example of film noir at its best. High and Low was originally released in Japan as Tengoku To-Jigoku. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
|
Toshiro Mifune |
|
High & Low |
|
Mystery / Suspense / Thrillers |
|
Mystery / Suspense |
|
26 July 2011 |
|
Toshiro Mifune(Kingo Gondo), Kyoko Kagawa(Reiko, Gondo's Wife), Tatsuya Nakadai(Inspector Tokura) |
|
Akira Kurosawa |
|
Not Rated |
|
Blu-ray Disc |
|
2039 |
|
715515085915 |
|
HVD508591 |
|
26 July 2011 |
|
CRITERION COLLECTION ( CTIN ) |
|
143 |
|
A: Americas, E Asia |
|
2.35:1 (Cinemascope), Black and White, Color, Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV |
|
English |
|
Dolby Digital Surround, Japanese |
|
Discs:1 ~ Format:Blu-Ray ~ Region:A |
|
Hiroshi Unayama(Det. Shimado), Kenjiro Ishiyama(Detective Taguchi), Ko Kimura(Detective Arai), Koji Mitsui(Reporter), Kyoko Kagawa(Reiko, Gondo's Wife), Susumu Fujita(Commissioner), Takashi Shimura(Director), Takeshi Kato(Detective Nakao), Tatsuya Mihashi(Kawanishi), Tatsuya Nakadai(Inspector Tokura), Toshiro Mifune(Kingo Gondo), Tsutomu Yamazaki(Ginji Takeuchi), Yoshio Tsuchiya(Detective Murata), Yutaka Sada(Aoki) |
|
Art Director:Yoshiro Muraki, Cinematographer:Asakazu Nakai, Cinematographer:Choichi Nakai, Cinematographer:Takao Saito, Composer (Music Score):Masaru Sato, Director:Akira Kurosawa, Producer:Ryuzo Kikushima, Producer:Tomoyuki Tanaka, Screenwriter:Akira Kurosawa, Screenwriter:Eijiro Hisaita, Screenwriter:Hideo Oguni, Screenwriter:Ryuzo Kikushima |
|