High and Low (1963 film)

High and Low
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Akira Kurosawa
Screenplay by	Ryūzō Kikushima Hideo Oguni Eijiro Hisaita Akira Kurosawa[1]
Based on	King's Ransom by Evan Hunter
Produced by	Ryūzō Kikushima Tomoyuki Tanaka
Starring	Toshiro Mifune Tatsuya Nakadai Kyōko Kagawa Tatsuya Mihashi Yutaka Sada
Cinematography	Asakazu Nakai Takao Saito[1]
Edited by	Akira Kurosawa[1]
Music by	Masaru Sato[1]
Production companies	Kurosawa Films Toho[1]
Release date	1 March 1963 (1963-03-01) (Japan)
Running time	143 minutes[1]
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	¥230 million[2]
Box office	¥460.2 million[3]

High and Low (Japanese: 天国と地獄, Hepburn: Tengoku to Jigoku, literally "Heaven and Hell") is a 1963 Japanese police procedural crime film directed and edited by Akira Kurosawa and written by Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Eijiro Hisaita, and Ryûzô Kikushima. The film is loosely based on the 1959 novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain (Evan Hunter). It follows the story of a board member for a Japanese company who is forced to make a decision between using a vast amount of wealth to gain executive control and helping his employee by lending him the money to free his child from kidnappers.

The film stars Toshiro Mifune as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy man who puts himself into debt in a risky bid to enact a hostile takeover of National Shoes, and Tatsuya Nakadai as Inspector Tokura, the man charged with solving the kidnapping case.