HIGH AND LOW (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1963)

HIGH AND LOW is a tautly staged and relentlessly suspenseful police procedural about the growing disparity in Japan between the have and have-nots as the inevitable culmination of the nation’s post-war embrace of Western-style capitalism. Successful Japanese businessman Kingo Gondo (Toshirō Mifune), a member of Japan’s new corporate and social elite, is forced to make a grave choice between protecting his wealth and supporting the social good after a kidnapper demands a hefty ransom for the abducted son of his chauffeur. Legendary director Akira Kurosawa organizes his compositions into intricate configurations of power and status while providing a searing critique on the inequities of capitalist class divisions.