High and Low

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Back again with more Kurosawa, and it's another winner. I'm starting to fall in love here. This is the 4th one of his I've watched for my K2K, and my 6th overall, and it's another masterpiece. I'm starting to feel that personal connection to these movies that you get with directors that you love, like how I feel about John Carpenter's movies or Richard Linklater's or Robert Zemeckis's, etc etc, which must mean that Kurosawa is becoming one of my favorites. I suspect he's going to join the pantheon of directors where I'll just have to see all of his movies, and even the ones that maybe aren't as good will still be interesting and worthwhile for me.

I think the key is that, from what I've seen, Kurosawa tends to make my favorite kind of movie. Namely, marvelously entertaining genre films that could just be watched for fun, but that contain deep, powerful themes and emotions just under the surface. Actually, what we have here is an affecting drama/morality play about a kidnapping that turns into a compelling police procedural, but boiling underneath it all is a powerful story about class conflict (hence the title). And you gotta love the complexity with which the themes are explored. The villain lives in squalor and is motivated by his hatred for the lead character's wealth... his large house sits atop the hill and almost seems to be looking down on the villain. But the lead character isn't just some rich asshole, it turns out he started from humble beginnings and worked his way to the top. He seems kind of like an asshole at times, but we understand his motivation and ultimately, when faced with a tough moral choice, he makes the right call.

I think the movie makes a pretty honest approach to the material, being careful to show the luxory of the upper-class, then the working class policemen (they have one small fan cooling them off at a meeting on a very hot day), before taking us on a terrifying tour of a slum filled with heroin addicts.

So I'm not sure if there's a message here as much as there is observation. We see how the economic backgrounds of the characters effect their actions, and really their basic natures. It's the subtext of nearly every scene in the movie, from the motivation of the kidnapper, to the father furious with his child for not remembering some crucial information that he saw.

Looks like Andy just rented Hidden Fortress, which I have read was a major influence on Star Wars. So I'll probably be watching it soon, whether Shenan wants to or not.