High and Low

As I may have mentioned earlier, I've been watching some Kurosawa lately (ed. as of 2 months ago). Most recently is "High and Low". It's Kurosawa so it's bound to be pretty good, but even so this one sticks out in my mind. It's 1960s film noir which is a departure from most of his better known period pieces (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, etc.) so that is one reason this film is memorable. Since it is in the time period and covers similar subject matter it would be easy to call Hitchcockian but it's not. I think good films/filmmakers get compared to Hitch far too often. In any event, I was tempted to throw out the comparison myself until I stopped to really think about the structure of this film.

We start with the wealthy industrialist on the eve of making a risky move that will most likely land him in the top position of his company. All he had to do was borrow against everything he has ever made in his life (Note to self: NEVER DO THIS). That's when Murphy's Law, oh, uhhh, I mean the ransom call comes. The kidnappers have his son and want most of the money that was going to the business venture. Like a good father, he's ready to pay it off to keep his son safe. But we find out his son is safe. Turns out, the kidnappers have the poor, loyal chauffeur's son by mistake. Thing is, the kidnappers are still going to extort the money from him. All of a sudden our protagonist is much less willing to part with his money. And right here we have the framework for a strong drama. A person with influence who can act morally and help a subordinate and in so doing lose his influence or ignore his subordinate's need and improve his own position. I was fully expecting the film to play out the drama of this choice.

But then it didn't. Thankfully our hero took the moral route and agreed to pay the ransom. He then coordinated with the police and they offered their full support in finding the criminal and getting back his money. And at that, we leave our hero and move to the police department. Now the film plays out a whole lot more like a standard detective story (Think "The Fugitive" except Tommy Lee Jones is the good guy and there is no sympathetic Harrison Ford). Clues are found, leads are followed, seedy locations visited...the works. It's well crafted with pacing that keeps you involved and working right alongside the police. It's nice that they don't withhold any information; you have every clue that they do. A favorite scene in this sequence is when two groups follow two leads through a series of events and it brings them together to a single conclusion. Cinematic convergence, how satisfying.

It's no real surprise that justice does prevail, but I found the mechanics of the plot to be unique and not very American. Here we have a guy that is wronged and does what he should do, leave it to the police to sort things out. If Hitchcock were handed this story, I would guess he would play it more along the lines of "Ransom" (I think, it's been a while since I've seen that) except a little more intellectual of course. He would pit our hero against the criminals directly. The police might help, but I'm pretty sure his version would be a "one man versus impossible odds" story. That seems to be more his style. But that's why Hitch is Hitch and Kurosawa is cool.