High and Low

This amazing Kurosawa film starring his favorite actor Toshiro Mifune is one of his attempts at making an American film noir.

The premise is simple, Mifune is an executive of a shoe company who after an argument with his fellow executives mortgages everything he owns to become the majority stock holder. On the same evening his son is kidnapped, he swears to pay the ransom which would kill his stock purchase deal and virtually bankrupt him. He finds out a few minutes later that the kidnapper has screwed up and that his chauffeur's son was the child who was taken.

Now he is faced with a moral choice, pay the massive ransom for an employee's son or pursue the deal which would vault him from rich to super rich. What transpires is two hour ride of angst and genuine film noir that only Kurosawa could pull off!

I'd highly recommend this as a Netflix rental! It is enjoyable and a classic.