High and Low (1963 film)

High and Low is a 1963 Japanese police procedural film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It was written by Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Eijirō Hisaita, and Ryūzō Kikushima as a loose adaptation of the 1959 novel King's Ransom by Evan Hunter. Starring Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa and Tatsuya Mihashi, it tells the story of Japanese businessman Kingo Gondō (Mifune) struggling for control of the major shoe company of which he is a board member. He plans a leveraged buyout of the company with his life savings when a kidnapper mistakenly abducts his chauffeur's son to ransom him for ¥30 million. The film is viewed as influential on police procedural cinema, and has been remade multiple times internationally.