THE CURBSIDE CRITERION: HIGH AND LOW

Like any great storyteller, Akira Kurosawa didn’t make just one kind of film, despite the fact that he’s so well-known for his samurai tales. High and Low is a great example of that fact, and it’s now available in glorious 4K Ultra HD from Criterion Collection.

Released in 1963 and set during the same time period, this one is a two-part police procedural. First up is Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), an executive at National Shoes who wants to assume control of the company before his rivals inside the business get the chance to cut quality and raise prices. (Hmmmm … seems like a fantasy story.)

Before Gondo can set in motion his plan for a leveraged buyout, kidnappers call, claiming they’ve taken his son and want ransom. He’s about to make plans to pay them when he realizes they took his chauffeur’s son instead.

So, of course, he happily pays the ransom to free someone else’s kid.

Haha, no, who are we kidding here? Gondo needs that money for the leveraged buyout, so why would he help one of the poors? He resists doing so, but in the end, after his wife and chaffeur ask him to have some kind of humanity, he pays up, and we move on to part two, in which the police investigate the kidnapping plot.

It should be obvious that, of course, the second half of the film is the “low” part referenced by its title. Gondo recedes into the background here, although his story does come full circle by the end, as the law enforcement part of the story reaches its conclusion. And, yeah, your opinion of him will likely have shifted as the end credits roll.

This black-and-white film looks beautiful in restored 4K; it’s pretty much the pinnacle of quality for High and Low in the home video world. However, the Blu-ray also included here doesn’t use the new restoration — it’s the same one Criterion released in 2011, and it has its share of detractors online. Your mileage may vary and so forth.

On the bonus features front, nothing new was created for this release, but the extras are satisfactory. A commentary track by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa, is found on both discs. It’s one of those wonderful “film class on a disc” tracks that Criterion excels at, and I always appreciate them.

Moving on, we have a 38-minute installment of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create that focuses on this film. The director and members of the cast and crew chime in to discuss the making of High and Low.

Mifune gets his turn in the spotlight with a 31-minute interview that was shot in 1981 for Japanese TV, while fellow star Tustomu Yamazaki, who played the kidnapper, has his own chat that was recorded by Criterion in 2008.

Two trailers and a teaser round out the platter, and the obligatory booklet serves up two essays, Geoffrey O’Brien’s Between Heaven and Hell and Donald Richie’s On the Set of High and Low, along with the technical credits, which have been updated to reflect this 4K UltraHD release.

– Brad Cook (@BradCWriter)

Criterion Collection; High and Low; Akira Kurosawa