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Plot Summary
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.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
93%- Reviews Counted: 15
- Fresh: 14
- Rotten: 1
- Average Rating: 7.9/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: One of the best detective thrillers ever filmed.
Fresh: High and Low illuminates its world with a wholeness and complexity you rarely see in film.
Fresh: While not a masterpiece on par with Kurosawa's best work, High And Low is a fine example of his craft, and further proof that it's not a few masterpieces but the overall scope of a career that defines a great director.
Customer Reviews
High and Low
High an Low is one of Kurosawa's finest films. iTunes needs to get more of his films on here. (Kagemusha, The Bad Sleep Well, Ikiru, Red Beard, Drunken Angel, and Stray Dog just to name some).
Deep Crime Drama
Kurosawa’s adaptation of Ed McBain’s "King's Ransom" crime novel, with a heavy american style of storytelling, but set in 1960’s Japan. A rich man, living up “high", is forced to deal with a poor man, living down “low", who mistakingly kidnaps his servants son instead of his own. The plot unravels nicely with wonderful characters and believable action. It draws you in and holds your attention to the very end.
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