HIGH AND LOW (1963)

"Success isn't worth losing your humanity."

Just as a wealthy businessman, Toshiro Mifune, is on the verge of spending every single yen he has on a stock deal that will give him control of the corporation that he works for, he receives a phone call that will change his life forever: his only son has been kidnapped!  The kidnapper wants a massive ransom that will financially break Mifune, but he agrees.  The kidnapper promises to call back with instructions and right as Mifune is discussing things with his frantic wife...his son walks in.  Wat da fuq?  Ends up the kidnapper accidentally kidnapped Mifune's chauffeur's son instead of Mifune's kid.  Now Mifune must decide if he should risk certain financial destruction for an employee's child.  He must also ask himself "If I don't, will my wife ever have sex with me again?"

I love police procedurals, especially when the investigation is headed up by Tatsuya Nakadai!  He's one of my absolute favorite actors and seeing him and Mifune together is always exciting.  Takashi Shimura also shows up as a cop, but for whatever reason his role is very small.  I was really disappointed by that.  Anyway, HIGH AND LOW is a very well made film with an exciting story, awesome camera work (the train scene was bad ass) and top-notch acting by an impressive cast full of familiar faces.

A few minor complaints would be: the runtime (143 minutes) is a little too long and the cops...not only did they do a terrible job at tailing the kidnapper on foot (how he never spotted them is beyond me), but they were 100% responsible for that one woman's death!  Then again, maybe that was done on purpose to show that the police only care about protecting wealthy people, even at the expense of letting a penniless drug addict die.

Definitely worth a watch for fans of Japanese cinema and good movies in general.

THE BAD SLEEP WELL (1960)

It's a story as old as humanity itself: those with more (in this case, power and money) totally fucking over those with less.

News of an impending police investigation into corruption between two large corporations is just starting to become public, so the executives decide to do the right thing, admit their guilt and pay the price for their wrongdoings...hahahahahahahaha!!!!  You must be a poor person if you believed that!  No, the executives simply follow their natural instincts and convince their underlings (fall guys) to do the "honorable" thing and commit suicide for the good of the corporation.  It's a win-win-win situation for upper management: they can't be found guilty if all of the people who might have squealed under pressure are dead, they lowered the payroll and...there's more available spaces in the parking lot!  And they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for a meddling vigilante who always seems to be one step ahead of them.  Guess that means their just gonna have to start playing even dirtier.

Cynical story full of murder, betrayal and dishonesty that (sadly) wouldn't even hold a candle to the stuff that's going on nowadays, strong performances by an impressive cast, average pace that could have been sped up a bit, good direction, pretty much all tight and medium camera shots.

THE BAD SLEEP WELL might be too slow or dated for most modern day audiences, but fans of Kurosawa and classic Japanese cinema will enjoy it.

RASHOMON (1950)

Opening in a fierce rainstorm we find two men (a woodcutter and a priest) taking shelter in the dilapidated ruins of a old city gate.  A third man (a commoner) runs in from the rain and sees that both men look very troubled and deep in thought.  They tell him of a rape and murder that happened a few days ago.  This is where RASHOMON makes movie history, because instead of just telling a straightforward story it tells the same story from multiple viewpoints.

The woodcutter and the priest tell the commoner about how earlier in court (yes, these stories themselves are told secondhand) the bandit, the wife, the police agent and the victim (who's story is told via a medium!) all told their versions of the story and we, the viewer, see them played out.  Added to this the priest and the woodcutter also saw some of what happened in person and they tell the commoner.  So in all we get six different people telling the story (or a portion of the story) and for all we know they could all be incorrect!

Added to this novel approach at storytelling we get some masterful cinematography by Kazuo (UGETSU, FLOATING WEEDS) Miyagawa, great acting by an impressive cast (I was especially blown away by Machiko Kyo who I thought was fantastic!), haunting music by Fumio (UGETSU, SEVEN SAMURAI) Hayasaka, great editing (by Kurosawa himself), a legendary script by Shinobu (SEVEN SAMURAI, HARAKIRI) Hashimoto and Akira Kurosawa and the best direction by Kurosawa up to this point in his career.

I doubt that younger audiences will care for it, but anybody interested in Cinema history, especially Japanese Cinema history should check it out.  Highly recommended.