High and Low (Tengoku to jigoku)

A glimpse of heaven and hell

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“High and Low” is the English title given to the great Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film “Tengoku to jigoku” which when translated literally means “Heaven and Earth”. After watching the movie I felt that the Japanese title is more apt for the movie than its English one. Kurosawa showcases the conflicts between the haves and have-nots.

The plot opens with a business executive Kingo Gondo, played by the Kurosawa’s long time muse Toshiro Mifune, engaged in a takeover meeting with his other fellow board of directors of the National Shoe Company. The other directors want Gondo to join them in taking over the company from the hands of the owner referred to as “The old man”. They are not happy with the old man’s way running the business as they want to mass produce low quality cheap shoes. However Gondo is not inclined to do so and want to take the company forward in a totally different direction. He wants to produce good quality modern shoes. The other directors threaten to get him thrown out of the company.

What the directors do not know is that Gondo is on the verge of finalizing a deal that would make him the single largest share holder of the company. To do that, he has put his entire life’s earnings on the line. However just as he is about to settle the deal he gets a phone call where the caller claims to have kidnapped his son. Gondo is horrified and is willing to pay any amount to save his son. But soon he as well as the kidnapper realizes that there has been a mistake and the boy kidnapped is in fact his chauffeur’s son.

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From then on Gondo’s attitude completely changes. While earlier he was unwilling to get the police involved now the first thing that does is to inform them and get them actively involved in the case. He also doesn’t want to pay the money to save someone else’s life. Especially when he knows that he and his family would be financially ruined if he pays the ransom. But Gondo is raked by the pain and sorrow of the boy’s father. He is raked by guilt whenever he sees the boy’s father trying to plead with him to save his son. Gondo is not even able to look into the chaffeur’s eyes. But Gondo doesn’t have much time to decide as he has to make his decision the next day.

High and Low is one of the master’s experiments with narrative. The movie is clearly split into two halves. The first half is all about Gondo’s moral dilemma and his struggle to cling on to both his future as well as his humanity. He knows that he will have to let go of one of them. The second half however deals completely with the police investigation into the case to bring the mastermind to justice. If the first half is a crime thriller which asks pertinent moral questions off the individual, the second half is a detective movie which asks the same questions about the society. Both these halves or acts are interlinked by a train sequence which serves as a bridge between the two worlds.

Without a doubt however the best part of the movie is the first part. Kurosawa masterfully creates the required tension and anxiety in us about the boy’s fate. This keeps us engaged with the whole drama that unfolds from the moment the boy is kidnapped. We feel the chauffeur’s pain. We admire the detective’s professionalism. Above we identify with Gondo’s struggle with himself and his values.

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The second half though is not as engaging. You sometimes feel that the movie loses its pace at critical points. The investigation is very realistic giving us an insight into a proper police investigation rather than some fancy detective work. Some might say that it is a bit too realistic. It is shredded of the dramatics and the intelligence that is required to keep an investigation engaging in a movie. Kurosawa attempts to make it as matter of fact as possible.

High and Low shows us another facet of Toshiro Mifune’s acting. He shows his versatility in this movie. Gone are the eccentric and loud mannerisms of his characters of Seven Samurai and Rashomon. Neither is the cool heroism of Yojimbo and The Hidden Fortress on display. Mifune’s Gondo is an exhibition in restrain. He looks like a volcano of emotions ready to explode but barely managing to hold back. His mannerisms clearly indicate what he is going through and leaves no one in doubt about his struggles with himself. He conveys his guilt by never looking at the chauffeur all the while saying that he will not pay the money. There are moments when he can’t even stand the presence of the man close to him.

Kurosawa attempts to show a mirror to the society through High and Low. The movie is indeed set in heaven and Hell. The first half takes place entirely in the air conditioned luxurious villa of Gondo which is set on top of a hill. The second half takes place in the outdoors where people are shown in great discomfort due to the heat, constantly wiping their faces and neck off sweat. He takes us through the slums, whorehouses and drug alleys of Tokyo. The movie asks poignant questions with no easy answers on offer.

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The movie is a showcase in contrast between the haves and have-nots. He even briefly touches upon the evils of corporatization. But what really makes you think is the climax of the movie when Gondo confronts the mastermind of the crime. The mastermind’s motive was as much a rebellion towards the inequalities of the society as it is a personal vendetta against Gondo, symbolized by his hatred towards Gondo’s house on top of the hill. He is not afraid of going to hell as he says his whole life was hell. But if he were to go to heaven, then he would really tremble. The movie is indeed about life in heaven or hell here on earth itself.

Reviews of Akira Kurosawa's Major works

Akira Kurosawa

Rashomon (1950)

Ikiru (1952)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Hidden Fortress (1958)

Yojimbo (1961)

High And Low (1963)

Red Beard (1965)

Kagemusha (1980)

Ran (1985)

Rhapsody In August (1991)

The Truth about Rashomon

The Truth about Rashomon

Akira Kurosawa’s movies are some of the best works in cinema that I have ever seen. From the first movie that I have seen of him, I realized why people regard him with such reverence. The first movie that I saw was Seven Samurai. One couldn’t help but be awed by that movie when you consider the fact that it was made in 1954. After that I became unwavering fan of his work and saw a few more of his movies. But none of these movies were as great as Rashomon to me. To me it is the crown jewel in the master’s work. In psychology there is even a phenomenon named after it; The Rashomon Effect.

When you watch any of Kurosawa’s movies the phrase that comes to your mind is that it’s far ahead of its time. The greatest quality of all is that his movies retain a kind of freshness even today, so much so that somebody like me, who is generations apart from the time of his greatest movies, is also able to appreciate it so much. That more than anything is the hallmark of a true genius; his legacy is immortal.

Rashomon’s appeal is its plot and its narrative. The story starts off with recounting of a crime and the accounts of the people involved by a woodcutter and a priest to a vagabond commoner. The crime is the murder of a Samurai and the rape of his wife by a bandit. The narrative style is that of a flashback within a flashback as the priest and woodcutter retell the testimony of each of the witness to the vagabond.

The testimonies of the witnesses are all self serving and vastly different form one another. The bandit claims to have captured the husband and then tries to rape her. He however claims that she submitted to him of her own wishes rather than him raping her. He also claims that to absolve herself of her subsequent guilt and shame she goaded both men to duel one another. According to the bandit both men proceed to duel each other skillfully and fiercely until he kills the Samurai with his sword. On seeing this, the lady runs away. On questioning about the wife’s expensive dagger, which is missing, he claims to have forgotten completely about it in the confusion.

According to the lady’s version she claims that the bandit captured her husband, raped her and left her there with her husband. Her pleas for forgiveness were returned with nothing more than a cold stare by her husband. After she freed him she tries to give him the dagger and begged him to kill her. She claims to have overcome with stress at this moment and fainted. When she awakes she finds her husband dead with the dagger in his chest implying that she killed him accidentally while falling over unconscious. She even claims to have tried to drown herself later on.

The husband’s tale is told through a medium. He claims that after raping his wife the bandit asked her to join him. The wife agreed and asks the bandit to kill the samurai. Even the bandit is shocked by this and asks the samurai whether or not to kill the woman. At this the wife fled and the bandit freed the man. The samurai then claim that he committed suicide with the dagger. He added on that he had the feeling that someone removed the dagger from his body after he had died.

At this the woodcutter claims that the Samurai must have lied as he was killed by a sword. He then goes on to say that he witnessed the whole affair and begins to tell his version of the tale. He says that the bandit raped the woman and later begged her to marry him. At this point the woman demanded that the men duel each other for her. This enraged the Samurai and he refused to do so and only comply when called a coward by the woman. The woodcutter describes that their fight was more of a comical struggle than anything else. He contradicts the earlier version of the bandit where they had fought with valor and skill. The bandit won the duel, plunging his sword into the chest of the Samurai as he was attempting to scamper away in the bushes. The wife fled on seeing this with the bandit hot on her pursuit.

However on hearing this story the vagabond accuses the woodcutter of having stolen the dagger and hence completely inventing the new story to cover up its existence. The woodcutter’s look of guilt makes us convinced that he might have stolen the dagger.

The priest’s faith in human goodness is shaken by this turn of events and his lamenting is interrupted by the cry of an abandoned child. The woodcutter takes the child from the priest saying that he already has six children and that the addition of one more is not going to make any difference.

The story is a powerful pointer to how perception sometimes clouds the truth. Each of the character tells their own version to justify their actions and to cast them in a better light. It shows the selfishness of men. We are no closer to unraveling the mystery after hearing all the accounts than when we started off.

The bandit’s version cannot be believed because he is a thief and his moral values have already proven to be suspect. Also he wants to show himself as a great warrior when he implies that the Samurai was a great swordsman and he was able to defeat even him.

The wife’s tale shows her guilt when she says that her husband gave her a cold stare after she was raped. Her account cannot be believed because of her desire to defend her virtue and seems more concerned with how others would think of her character.

The Samurai’s tale should have been the truth. But even here we suspect it because it would be far honorable for him to claim that he committed suicide than to admit that he was defeated in a duel by a bandit. Also his account that the bandit did not have any qualm for rape but is averse to murder too defies logic.

When I first saw the movie I was sure the woodcutter’s version is the correct one. But when his thievery was brought to life then his entire narration seemed made up or at least lacking in details. The missing dagger is the critical piece of the entire narrative. If we accept that then the woodcutter’s version is not believable.

Kurosawa does not spoon feed the audience with the answer but rather leaves it to their intellect and understanding. He leaves it to the audience to draw their own conclusion. Remember that this was done in 1950 probably for the first time, and there in lies his genius.

Reviews of Akira Kurosawa's Major works

Akira Kurosawa

Rashomon (1950)

Ikiru (1952)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Hidden Fortress (1958)

Yojimbo (1961)

High And Low (1963)

Red Beard (1965)

Kagemusha (1980)

Ran (1985)

Rhapsody In August (1991)