In the late 50s and early 60s Kurosawa's pictures began to get increasingly pessimistic and depersonalised. High and Low pretty much represents the peak of this trend, a film noir every bit as cynical and universal in its condemnations as Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly or Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.
Kurosawa's style is sometimes hard to categorise, because he was always adapting it to suit the story. Here, we get very contrasting styles within the one film, which is informally divided into three "acts". The first, set in millionaire Gondo's mansion is composed in whites and lights, with few cuts or close-ups. The middle section, in which the detectives track down the kidnapper, is constructed with point-by-point technicality, and a sense of urgency with short scenes and plenty of cross-cuts. The final act is the titular "low" a look at Tokyo's seedy underbelly, with low key lighting, agonising close-ups and awkward angles.
This structure is perhaps where the problems of High and Low lie. It's occasionally uneven and doesn't flow well as a whole. The first act is the best - a tight, confined drama like Hitchcock's Rope. Kurosawa's handling of his characters' emotional turmoil is expertly choreographed in the placement of actors and cameras for example, you often have everyone looking in opposite directions as if unable to face each other. The middle section has some good tension to it, but is a little too technical and formulaic. The final act looks great, but that is its very problem. There is so much going on particularly in the sleazy nightclub that you end up caught up focusing on all the background details rather than the actual plot. It's great as a kind of realist expose, but doesn't sit well in a thriller.
The biggest trouble with the structure of High and Low is that we never really get to grips with any of the characters. There is no consistent hero or anti-hero, no single individual whose eyes we see the story through. The businessman played by Mifune is the closest thing we have to a protagonist, but he is all but dropped from the storyline after the first hour. There is not much depth to the detective characters. The kidnapper is a complex character but the focus on him is constantly shifting.
While certain aspects of the picture seem really well thought out, others simply appear to be nothing more than Kurosawa going through familiar motions. Like his previous noir-ish thriller Stray Dog (1949) High and Low takes place during a heat wave, but this is not so fully emphasised as in the earlier picture and so has little real effect. Kurosawa returns to his theme of blurring social status (the chauffeur's boy being mistaken for Gondo's son despite their differing "values" reminds me of the disguised princess in Hidden Fortress or Mifune's wannabe-Samurai in Seven Samurai), but any emotional depth is stifled under the picture's tone of selfishness and sleaze.
High and Low's score seems deliberately weird and minimalist, and perhaps just a bit too simplistic. There is great sound design though, particularly the eerie distant noises of the city as heard from Gondo's house. This is one of High and Low's best features, and its interesting to note the picture was made around the same time as Hitchcock's The Birds, which experimentally uses a sound design of bird noises in place of a musical score.
Like some of Hitchcock's thrillers, High and Low is gripping when watched for the first time, but loses its appeal on repeated viewings. Kurosawa was to follow it up with Red Beard, which is heavy-handedly optimistic and humanist, perhaps to make up for the cynicism of its predecessors. Red Beard and High and Low are my two least favourite Kurosawa pictures and for me this was a real low point in his career, where his message making got in the way of his ability to tell a good story.
Kurosawa's style is sometimes hard to categorise, because he was always adapting it to suit the story. Here, we get very contrasting styles within the one film, which is informally divided into three "acts". The first, set in millionaire Gondo's mansion is composed in whites and lights, with few cuts or close-ups. The middle section, in which the detectives track down the kidnapper, is constructed with point-by-point technicality, and a sense of urgency with short scenes and plenty of cross-cuts. The final act is the titular "low" a look at Tokyo's seedy underbelly, with low key lighting, agonising close-ups and awkward angles.
This structure is perhaps where the problems of High and Low lie. It's occasionally uneven and doesn't flow well as a whole. The first act is the best - a tight, confined drama like Hitchcock's Rope. Kurosawa's handling of his characters' emotional turmoil is expertly choreographed in the placement of actors and cameras for example, you often have everyone looking in opposite directions as if unable to face each other. The middle section has some good tension to it, but is a little too technical and formulaic. The final act looks great, but that is its very problem. There is so much going on particularly in the sleazy nightclub that you end up caught up focusing on all the background details rather than the actual plot. It's great as a kind of realist expose, but doesn't sit well in a thriller.
The biggest trouble with the structure of High and Low is that we never really get to grips with any of the characters. There is no consistent hero or anti-hero, no single individual whose eyes we see the story through. The businessman played by Mifune is the closest thing we have to a protagonist, but he is all but dropped from the storyline after the first hour. There is not much depth to the detective characters. The kidnapper is a complex character but the focus on him is constantly shifting.
While certain aspects of the picture seem really well thought out, others simply appear to be nothing more than Kurosawa going through familiar motions. Like his previous noir-ish thriller Stray Dog (1949) High and Low takes place during a heat wave, but this is not so fully emphasised as in the earlier picture and so has little real effect. Kurosawa returns to his theme of blurring social status (the chauffeur's boy being mistaken for Gondo's son despite their differing "values" reminds me of the disguised princess in Hidden Fortress or Mifune's wannabe-Samurai in Seven Samurai), but any emotional depth is stifled under the picture's tone of selfishness and sleaze.
High and Low's score seems deliberately weird and minimalist, and perhaps just a bit too simplistic. There is great sound design though, particularly the eerie distant noises of the city as heard from Gondo's house. This is one of High and Low's best features, and its interesting to note the picture was made around the same time as Hitchcock's The Birds, which experimentally uses a sound design of bird noises in place of a musical score.
Like some of Hitchcock's thrillers, High and Low is gripping when watched for the first time, but loses its appeal on repeated viewings. Kurosawa was to follow it up with Red Beard, which is heavy-handedly optimistic and humanist, perhaps to make up for the cynicism of its predecessors. Red Beard and High and Low are my two least favourite Kurosawa pictures and for me this was a real low point in his career, where his message making got in the way of his ability to tell a good story.