Screening times:
Saturday, August 30, 5:30 PM

Akira Kurosawa | Japan | 1963 | 143m
Japanese with English subtitles

Respected Japanese businessman Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) is struggling to take control of the major shoe company where he is a board member. He plans a leveraged buyout of the company by mortgaging his property and amassing his life savings. Just then, a kidnapper calls, telling him his son has been abducted. That's not the case, his son is fine. It turns out the kidnappers have taken his chauffeur's son, and the ransom is a fortune. Gondo must decide whether to pay it or secure his company and his life's work.

The film has been debated in the years since its release. Some say its most powerful message is as a social commentary on the economic changes in Japan since the end of the Second World War, while others applaud its core humanism. Master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's High And Low remains resonant more than 60 years after it was released, as Spike Lee recognized when he was inspired to remake the film as Highest 2 Lowest, starring Denzel Washington, expected on Apple TV+ on September 5.

"From the opening frame (literally) to the last, Kurosawa never makes the smallest misstep nor permits it in anyone else. Every camera angle, every composition, every cut, every performance, is - as far as I can see - brilliantly right." - Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic

"Mr. Kurosawa has composed a remarkable movie mosaic, both spine-tingling and compassionate." - Howard Thompson, New York Times

"In its deceptively leisurely way, it moves from engrossing to devastating, and it reverberates with insights not only on the contemporary world, but on Kurosawa's inner world as well." - Jay Carr, Boston Globe

Tickets $12 ($11.40 cash at the door if available)