High and Low

Why it's worth watching

High and Low is a masterfully crafted moral thriller that explores the immense weight of ethical responsibility. Akira Kurosawa presents a gripping narrative where a wealthy executive must choose between his life's work and the life of his chauffeur's child. It is a profound, suspenseful, and deeply moving study of human conscience and social duty.

For discernment

Kurosawa's masterful moral thriller puts a shoe executive in an agonizing bind, the kidnappers grabbed his chauffeur's son by mistake but still demand a ransom that will ruin him, and the film insists that every child's life has equal worth regardless of class. It is deeply edifying on conscience, sacrifice, and dogged justice. The main caution is its unflinching descent into a heroin underworld in the second half: a drug den full of addicts shown stoned, a woman dying of an overdose, and a disturbing withdrawal sequence, plus period profanity in the dub ("b******," "b****," "d***," "s***"). There is little sexual or graphic violent content beyond that; this is heavy, grown-up material that rewards patience with one of cinema's great studies of doing right at great cost.

• SubstancesThe second half descends into a heroin underworld: addicts shown stoned in a drug den, a fatal overdose, and a disturbing withdrawal scene.
• LanguagePeriod profanity including "b******," "b****," "d***," "hell," and "s***."
• WorldviewSustained tension around a child's kidnapping and ransom, plus a grim depiction of drug addiction and class resentment.

Cast

Toshirō Mifune

Kingo Gondo

Tatsuya Nakadai

Chief Detective Tokura

Kyōko Kagawa

Reiko Gondo

Tatsuya Mihashi

Kawanishi, Gondo's secretary

Isao Kimura

Detective Arai

Kenjirō Ishiyama

Chief Detective 'Bos'n' Taguchi

Takeshi Katō

Detective Nakao

Takashi Shimura

Chief of Investigation Section

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