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.

STRAY DOG (1949)

Inspired by a true event, Jules Dassin's THE NAKED CITY and the writings of Georges Simenon (and maybe even De Sica's BICYCLE THIEVES), STRAY DOG is the story of a rookie homicide detective (Toshiro Mifune) who's gun is pickpocketed one hot summer day on a crowded bus.  He almost immediately realizes what happen and chases the criminal, but the man gets away.  Mifune becomes obsessed with getting his gun back and then riddled with guilt when the gun is used in random crimes.  Mifune's boss teams him up with veteran detective Takashi Shimura to locate the gun and stop the rabid dog that is using it in a one-man crime spree.

STRAY DOG is an interesting film.  It's pretty cool seeing Kurosawa's take on the police procedural film noir genre (my favorite is still T-MEN), but STRAY DOG is simply too long (the black market montage and the interview scenes towards the end should have been trimmed down) and the script is clumsy at times.  Most notably...the borrowed gun moment was totally unneeded.  That said, it's still a good film that's definitely worth a viewing.  Good acting, fair script, nice cinematography, runtime that's probably around 20 minutes too long, a young Isao Kimura.  Also, this is the first of nine writing collaborations between Akira Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima.  Eleven, if you count TORA! TORA! TORA! and RUNAWAY TRAIN.