Himmel och helvete

The Kurosawa we meet in High and Low is not the one that we are used to. Here he moves in a modern setting and there is a peculiar sensation in watching Gondo, played by Toshiro Mifune (who we are used to seeing as a samurai), appear as the manager of a shoe factory. He is planning to remove the other owners when his son is the victim of an attempted kidnapping. Mifune's character goes through a social and personal change which both makes him lose his job as a manager and become a national hero. High and Low is a thriller, but most of all, as always when it comes to Kurosawa's films, the main aspects are the human and social ones. He has a visible affinity for the American style, however he has kept the purity of the images and the austere, efficient narrative. The Critics:'' ... the opening of the film is, in its combination of austerity and drama, one of the most impressive I have seen at the cinema.'' ''It is a brilliant thriller and an efficient piece of social criticism.'' (Goran Eriksson, Dagens Nyheter 1968) ''Gonda is a typical example of the tough individual who is put through an ordeal, is forced to give in and by doing so conquers evil and egotism.'' (Carl-Henrik Svenstedt, Svenska Dagbladet 1968)

Orig. titel
TENGOKU TO JIGOKU: Medverkande
Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Mihashi, Yutaka Sada: Producent
Ryuzo Kikushima & Tomoyuki Tanaka: Manus
Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima, Eijiro Hisaita, based on the novel “King’s Ransom” by: Foto
Choichi Nakai & Takao Saito: Musik
Masaru Sato