High and Low (1963)

[hownos]

Another foreign movie I am thinking of watching. It is long at 143 minutes. Is it worth it?

[Takoma11]

It was, at one point, just straight up my favorite movie. The mix of thriller/mystery stuff (solving the kidnapping) and the social drama content is really deftly handled. It's also stacked with Kurosawa's usual staple of reliable, engaging actors.

It's also a movie you'll watch and immediately recognize at least one film that just simply took whole sequences from it. (Looking at you, Along Came a Spider!).

[Allaby]

Another foreign movie I am thinking of watching. It is long at 143 minutes. Is it worth it?

Absolutely. It is a must see. It's a very well made film with good performances and an excellent screenplay. 9/10 from me.

[hownos]

Absolutely. It is a must see. It's a very well made film with good performances and an excellent screenplay. 9/10 from me.

i am half way through. it's not bad.

[hownos]

my review

Another foreign movie that I only recently discovered and heard great things about. The movie is a combo morality play and police procedural/mystery all rolled into one. A few years earlier and it would be called a film noir. The movie has three sections: the introduction of the businessman who is on the of the world ready to make a takeover when a kidnapping takes place. The second part involves follows the polcie and their investigation. We think they have no chance of finding the kidnapper but the script is like a puzzle and which the police manage to put together with many obstacles along the way. The final part is the arrest and meeting between the businessman and kidnapper. I think this is the weakest part of the movie as I wanted more info on the culprit.

I don't know the director's politics but this one big look at the growing socio-economic gap in post war Japan. I think I know how the director felt about the issue. I thought the director was also making a point about the police and how they were willing to sacrifice the addict before arresting the culprit. I could be wrong on this.

The first part of this movie reminded me of Rope (1948) so there is a Hitchcock influence I thought . A nuanced and complex late film noir with a larger message. 8/10