Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
***Very Special Thanks to matt the movie watcher for Selecting This Film for This Month's Filmspotters Dictator Club***
After the dual samurai features of Yojimbo and Sanjuro that both starred Toshiro Mifune in the lead roles, Akira Kurosawa took a break from his samurai-driven features to go back to contemporary storytelling. For his 1963 film Tengoku to jigoku (High & Low), Kurosawa tells the story in two acts about an executive who tries to stage a coup to get rid of greedy executives from a shoe business as his son was supposedly kidnapped for ransom. Instead, his chauffeur's son was kidnapped as an investigation happens where two detectives interrogate the kidnapper.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa, the film is a loose adaptation of Ed McBain's King's Ransom. Scripted by Kurosawa along with Eijiro Hisaita, Ryuzo Kikushima, and Hideo Oguni, the film is an exploration of morality and sacrifice. Starring Kurosawa regulars Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Takashi Shimura, Kyoko Kagawa, Isao Kimura, and Tsutomu Yamazaki. Tengoku to jigoku is a marvelous, character-study driven masterpiece from Akira Kurosawa and company.
King Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) is an executive for the National Shoe Company as he is currently battling other executives over the quality of shoe products for sale. With his aide Kawanishi (Tatsuya Mihashi), Gondo decides to not go for the coup to get of rid of his boss whom he had worked with for 30 years since the age of 16. With Gondo's wife Reiko (Kyoko Kagawa) looking on, Gondo reveals to Kawanishi and Reiko about shares he bought from the business as he hopes to take over the company and rid of the corrupt executives. Meanwhile, Gondo's son Jun (Toshio Egi) and Shinichi (Masahiko Shimazu), the son of Gondo's chauffeur Mr. Aoki (Yutaka Sada) are playing cowboy where Gondo receives a phone call that Jun had kidnapped.
The kidnapper wants a $30 million ransom, which is everything Gondo has as he had already mortgaged everything he owns for his shares. Jun suddenly appears at home where it's revealed that the kidnapper had taken Shinichi instead as Gondo and Kawanishi call the police. Leading the investigation is Chief Detective Tokura (Tatsuya Nakadai) along with his aide ‘Bos'n' Taguchi (Kenjiro Ishiyama) and two other young detectives, Arai (Isao Kimura) and Nakao (Takeshi Kato). The kidnapper calls again still wanting the ransom as Aoki feels guilty for putting his boss in a position. Kawanishi reveals that he told the other executives his plight as a move to protect himself as Gondo reaches a decision that he knows would risk the security and lifestyle of his own family. With Tokura's help, the exchange for the money and boy succeeds with Gondo becoming a hero to the public despite his troubles with his business.
The kidnapper (Tsutomu Yamazaki) now has the money but keeps a low profile as he looks at Gondo's home from above his own, small little home. Tokura meanwhile, decides to lead the investigation with help from his superior (Takashi Shimura) to find out if the money is spent or anything else from Shinichi's own testimonies. Aoki decides to conduct his own investigation that leads to a big clue from Shinichi's own recounts where Taguchi makes a horrifying discovering about the kidnapper's accomplices. Feeling that they will go nowhere and Gondo already dealing with a debt and being ousted by his own company despite public support for him, Tokura refuses to quit where he and his team make another breakthrough thanks to a drawing Shinichi made.
They learn of the kidnapper's identity to be Ginjiro Takeuchi, a medical intern with a scar in his left hand. Tokura learns that the accomplices were people on withdrawal from heroin as he hopes to find justice. Yet, the kidnapping and everything else would not be harsh enough for Takeuchi as Tokura and company decide to go after him eventually leading to showdown between Gondo and the kidnapper.
The film is really about morality and what a man should do when everything he's worked has to be sacrificed at great risk. That's what the first act of the movie is about while the second act is about the investigation, the aftermath of the sacrifice, and trying to capture the kidnapper leading to a meeting between criminal and victim at the end of the film. There's definitely motivation from Takeuchi into why he put Gondo in such a big dilemma. What he didn't know is how much Gondo is willing to reclaim his life, even if he has to start over. At the same time, how much public sympathy Gondo would get as he faces his own exile from the company he worked with for so long.
The script Kurosawa and his co-writers create is part-character study for the first act and part-noir for its second act. Kurosawa's direction though is entrancing from start to finish. The first act is done mostly in the home of Gondo in the living room as if it's theater. With the actors in a position to figure out the drama through Kurosawa's composition, it's clear that the first act plays like a theatrical play. The second act becomes different yet works to figure out the motive of the kidnapper. Kurosawa becomes interested in how the kidnapped victim tries to recollect things while staging scenes where one character is in view while a smaller character is trying to watch what's going on.
The direction of Kurosawa is sublime as it's all shot in black-and-white with one notable special effect shot that plays to a huge dramatic moment of the film. The level of suspense and momentum Kurosawa creates is truly unique as he sets up scenes of the investigation for Tokura and his men to figure out what Takeuchi is going to do. The film in some ways does play like a cat-and-mouse type of game in both acts since Takeuchi is a strategist in the kidnapping thing. Yet, when he becomes the target, he tries to remain non-existent only until a recollection from his victim causes a major break in the investigation. Overall, it's a stylish film from Kurosawa that blends both film noir and character-driven drama.
Cinematographers Asakazu Nakai and Takao Saito do great work in the black-and-white photography with wonderful grey colors for the film's interior shots of Gondo's living room while the night-time exterior shots of Tokyo in the film's second act has this great, noir-like look. The notable shot of the pink smoke coming out of a factory is a great visual effects shot as the look of the film is exquisite. The editing by Kurosawa himself is wonderful in building its momentum and dramatic tension with his trademark, side-swipe style of transitional cuts and rhythm to give the film a smooth yet engrossing feel in its pacing.
Production designer Yoshiro Muraki does amazing work in the look of Gondo's living room in all of its traditional and contemporary mix of walls, floors, and appliances which is in great contrast to the shabby home of the kidnapper. Costume designer Miyuki Suzuki does fantastic work with the costumes, notably for Mrs. Gondo with her styles of clothes ranging from traditional to contemporary dresses. Sound effects editor Ichiro Minawa, mixer Hisashi Shimonaga, and sound recordist Fumio Yanoguchi do great work with the film's sound, notably the phone recordings and what appears in those tapes. Longtime collaborator and music composer Masaru Sato creates unique, traditional Japanese drum-style music for the film's opening credits along with light, bass-driven orchestral music for the dramatic tension along with use of Franz Schubert's Die Forelle for more dramatic moments.
The film's cast is unique with small but memorable roles from Jun Tazaki, Nobuo Nakamura, and Yunosuke Ito as the corrupt executives, Minoru Chiaki as a reporter, Toshio Egi as Jun, and Masahiko Shimazu as Shinichi. Other notable small roles like Kurosawa veteran Takashi Shimura as the chief investigator, and Isao Kimura and Takeshi Kato in their respective roles as the young detectives Arai and Nakao. Yutaka Sada is excellent as Mr. Aoki, the chauffeur who goes to panic when his son is captured while carrying the guilt as he feels responsible for Gondo's loss of power. Tatsuya Mihashi is also excellent as Kawanishi, Gondo's aide who betrays him only for his own gain and protection as a man who is a catalyst for the decisions Gondo makes. Kenjiro Ishiyama is superb as Tokura's aide Taguchi, a man who is filled with a lot of moral while questioning about the motives of the kidnapper and the world of Gondo.
Kyoko Kagawa is great as Gondo's wife, a woman who watches everything while wanting to know what's going on as she is aware that the decision her husband makes will change her life. Kagawa's performance is wonderfully subtle and understated as she's the person that grounds Gondo while remaining the traditionalist, Japanese housewife. Tsutomu Yamazaki is excellent as Takeuchi, the kidnapper with a real motive as he tries to destroy the life of Gondo.
Tatsuya Nakadai is brilliant in a great supporting role as Tokura, the detective leading the investigation as he tries to figure out how to bring justice. Nakadai's performance is very understated and done with such class, it's basically the best performance of the film. Finally, there's Toshiro Mifune in a great role as King Gondo. Mifune's performance is filled with a lot of tension, conflict, and despair as a man whose life is about to change by a decision aware of its consequences. Mifune brings a lot of drama and sadness to the role as a man who becomes victimized and coping with possible loss.
Released in 1963 to critical acclaim, the film became another of Kurosawa's great films as continued his winning streak as his next film Red Beard released two years later would mark the beginning of the end for the legendary Japanese auteur. Tengoku to jigoku is an engrossing yet provocative masterpiece from Akira Kurosawa and one of his essentials thanks to Kurosawa's direction and its ensemble cast led by Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai. Fans of Kurosawa will no doubt see this film as essential while seeing it as a great translation to the work of Ed McBain. In the end, for a film that mixes character study and film noir, Tengoku to jigoku is the film to see.
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