The 1963 Japanese film High and Low (天国と地獄) will play in Pittsburgh from August 14 through 20, the third in a series of five classic Kurosawa films at the Harris Theater July through September.
Shoe company exec Toshiro Mifune is in the midst of a mortgage-everything takeover battle when the phone rings with a giant ransom demand for his son — but then in walks... Adapted from an Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel, this is the ultimate kidnap movie, with Kurosawa at the peak of his filmmaking powers: moral battles rage in a first hour almost totally confined to a single room jammed with distraught family, cynical advisers, and recorder-wielding cops led by super-cool detective Tatsuya Nakadai; the de rigueur money transfer aboard the Shinkansen (bullet train); sweaty police conferences shot in deep focus; a near-invisible drug pass in a jammed dance hall; and the jailhouse interview punctuated by the heaviest steel door closing in film history. High and Low is a virtuoso work that’s also a deeply moral one, exploring the meaning of “justice” in a society defined by vast economic disparity.Tickets for the film are available online. The Harris Theater is located at 809 Liberty Ave. in downtown's Cultural District (map).
