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Crime

High and Low

天国と地獄

Durée
143 minCriterion 4K digital restoration Sources des versions ↓

A ransom demand turns one room, then an entire city, into evidence.

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Langue
Japanese
TenseMystery Idéal pour commencer · Modéré Crime

Édité par Monocurator

High and Low: A red telephone cord connects a bright elevated room to a deep blue paper city below.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

High and Low vs Highest 2 Lowest: what changes?

Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest (2025) reworks the central dilemma of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963): a wealthy man is asked to pay for his chauffeur’s kidnapped child. The mistake changes whose child is at risk without releasing him from a decision that could cost his business.

A24 describes Lee’s film as a reinterpretation. The two films share that predicament, then give money, work and the city different roles.

One dilemma, two different worlds
Compare High and Low1963 · Akira Kurosawa Highest 2 Lowest2025 · Spike Lee
Work Kingo Gondo, played by Toshiro Mifune, makes shoes. A dispute over their quality introduces his business ambitions. David King, played by Denzel Washington, produces music. His professional ear and plans for a comeback establish his position.
The money Gondo has committed his resources to gaining control of his company. The ransom threatens that carefully prepared future. King is also preparing an expensive move to regain company control. Another family’s emergency interrupts his own bid for independence.
The city A hilltop home overlooks Yokohama. A confined living-room crisis opens into a train journey and a police search through the city. A Brooklyn penthouse gives way to New York streets and the subway. Baseball crowds and the Puerto Rican Day Parade complicate the ransom operation.
The pursuit Police teams piece together observations. A headquarters briefing cuts between their reports and the places they have investigated. King’s own pursuit takes a larger role. Music becomes part of the investigation, giving his professional identity a practical use.

Sources: Geoffrey O’Brien on Kurosawa’s film · Spike Lee interviewed by Beatrice Loayza

Why watch High and Low after Highest 2 Lowest?

Watch Gondo’s old shoemaking tools come out to help prepare the ransom cases. His working life suddenly matters beyond the money it brings in. For me, that action makes the threatened career tangible: we have seen a skill, rather than only heard a price.

Then follow the shift from Gondo’s room to the detectives’ collective work. After Lee’s music-driven pursuit, Kurosawa offers another way to distribute our attention: among the person paying, the family needing help and the people assembling the evidence. That changing point of view makes the original worth seeing even when you know the premise.

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À quoi s’attendre

High and Low changes scale without losing pressure. Akira Kurosawa begins inside a wealthy executive’s hilltop home, where a kidnapping forces moral choices into a tightly arranged room. The film then opens into streets, trains, offices, and crowded nightlife as the investigation becomes procedural. That shift from private crisis to public system is the design, not a change of subject. Architecture and class remain visible in every stage: who looks down, who must climb, and whose suffering is treated as leverage. The result is a gripping crime film whose precision keeps revealing the social distance inside its title.

Comment aborder le film

The first section is intentionally confined and dialogue-heavy. Pay attention to where each person stands in the room and how the large windows frame the city below. When the film becomes a police investigation, enjoy the procedural detail rather than waiting for a quick return to the household. The two halves are testing the same moral problem from different elevations.

À savoir

Une brève note non exhaustive Includes child kidnapping, threats of murder, drug use and overdose, police pursuit, class resentment, medical distress, and discussion of capital punishment.
Momo's Note Peut contenir des révélations sur l’intrigue Qui est Momo ? → (S’ouvre en anglais)
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The house seems powerful because it can see everything below, yet the crisis makes it feel exposed and airless. Later, the city becomes crowded with clues and still keeps people separated. Kurosawa turns height into a moral discomfort that never quite leaves the frame.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Générique et versions

Générique
Distribution
Toshiro Mifune · Tatsuya Nakadai · Kyoko Kagawa · Tatsuya Mihashi
Scénario
Hideo Oguni · Eijiro Hisaita · Ryuzo Kikushima · Akira Kurosawa
Production
Ryuzo Kikushima · Tomoyuki Tanaka · Toho Co., Ltd. · Kurosawa Production Co.
Photographie
Asakazu Nakai · Takao Saito

Carte des versions

Criterion 4K digital restoration 143 min · restoration · US Current Criterion presentation; the NFAJ 35mm collection record also reports 143 minutes. Source : The Criterion Collection — High and Low Référence pour la durée · Vérifié le 2026-07-27

Sources des données

Pour regarder et lire

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Pour poursuivre la découverte

Envie d’un prochain film plus doux, plus court ou plus étrange ? Demandez à Momo un film dans le même esprit → (S’ouvre en anglais)
Momo est de service. Visiter Momo Cinema → (S’ouvre en anglais)

D’autres films de 1963 → (S’ouvre en anglais) D’autres films de Akira Kurosawa → (S’ouvre en anglais)
Pour aller plus loin12 Classic Mystery Films: Choose Your Next Case → (S’ouvre en anglais) Journal Pour aller plus loinWhere to Start with Akira Kurosawa: A 5-Film Watch Order → (S’ouvre en anglais) Journal

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