tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post1664863830253741215..comments2022-03-24T16:11:50.124-04:00Comments on The Man From Porlock: Further Investigation: Kurosawa, Hitchcock, and High and LowCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-26206812771233614872012-06-13T11:35:05.414-04:002012-06-13T11:35:05.414-04:00Thanks for commenting, Peter. I wasn't implyin...Thanks for commenting, Peter. I wasn't implying that you thought your interpretation was the "only correct one" (and I know you're not implying that that's what I was implying). And certainly parroting Prince would not be the way to go. My main point was that I had watched "High and Low" several times before listening to the commentary and never once thought of Hitchcock or other filmmakers (Prince's thoughts only reinforcing it after the fact). It's a movie that feels very much ingrained in the real world to me, albeit that's conveniently my primary interest. I could see the case for Hitch's influence in other Kurosawa films more than this one.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-41006387302279882502012-06-13T11:27:03.395-04:002012-06-13T11:27:03.395-04:00Hi Craig, I just ran upon this post, which is quit...Hi Craig, I just ran upon this post, which is quite excellent. Wanted to just clarify a couple claims about my work. Firstly, I don't want to argue at all that my interpretation is the "correct" interpretation. I had listened to the Stephen Prince commentary before, and I think it's superb in how it approaches class consciousness in the film. However, when I originally set out to write something on "High and Low," I didn't want to simply approach the film the same way others had before. I was just finishing a shot-by-shot analysis of "Psycho" when I watched "High and Low" after picking up the Criterion DVD, and it suddenly shocked me how similar the two films struck me both in terms of narrative motifs as well as form. The video essay/narrative is actually derived from a larger research paper I did, so I didn't include all my work, but I was shocked at how little there was (the only direct connection was a mention by Truffaut in the introduction of Hitchcock/Truffaut). And it was only about a few weeks into my research that I figured out the Ed McBain-Evan Hunter connection, which was sort of a confirmation that I was onto something (I sadly couldn't find a single interview where either director mentions each other). <br /><br />The point being, I think we have place for both interpretations of the film. I don't think it is too much of a reach-I think the connection to Hitchcock through some of the formal and narrative elements is too strong to simply dismiss as a critic reaching-and I think there is certainly a ton of class consciousness material in there. But from my job as a critic, I knew many had written about the latter, and none had written about the former. And I would rather be out there positing my own theories than copying the work of someone else.Peter Labuzahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09057154332391743369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-953086418896059992012-06-01T18:52:38.407-04:002012-06-01T18:52:38.407-04:00Fantastic comments, Adam. I can only speculate why...Fantastic comments, Adam. I can only speculate why Ebert hasn't "Great Movie"'d <i>High and Low</i>, but the film was critically dismissed at the time of its release, so maybe he hasn't seen it since. It's amazing how easily (some) critics are led to water - Kurosawa adapted a B-potboiler, so the movie must be the same thing, right? Took another ten years before Coppola drew accolades for doing it with <i>The Godfather</i>. Even today, some pieces still miss the mark; I find Chuck Stephens' Criterion essay a little incoherent; Geoffrey O'Brien's, which is included in the DVD package, is much <a href="http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/515-high-and-low-between-heaven-and-hell" rel="nofollow">better</a>.<br /><br />Stephens also makes the mistake of claiming that "Heaven and Hell" is a more accurate title; even ignoring the fact that it's a tad portentous, "Heaven and Hell" lacks the play on words of <i>High and Low</i>, i.e., "high-heeled" and "low-heeled" shoes, and how they indicate a person's social standing. By the end of the film, Kurosawa makes you feel like you've walked in <i>everyone's</i> shoes, and there's no greater compliment that I can pay a movie.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-6492173067924347582012-06-01T04:21:52.862-04:002012-06-01T04:21:52.862-04:00Just finished watching it. Oh, yes -- it is incred...Just finished watching it. Oh, yes -- it <i>is</i> incredibly great. The first hour had me all but biting my nails in tension, the second hour had me paying attention like crazy to all the details in each scene, and the finale... God, the finale is so devastating. I usually expect thrills and intense melodrama from Kurosawa, but this, like <i>Ikiru</i>, nearly had me in tears. The final shot is so chilling.<br /><br />On to your points. Yeah, I tried not to think of Hitchcock too much either while watching the movie; I thought at times of <i>The Wrong Man</i> for some reason, maybe because that's another film about a married man gathering a flustered team of authorities around him while struggling to keep his family from falling apart. But more often I kept thinking of more modern films of this sort, like <i>The Clearing</i>, for example. Or Ron Howard's <i>Ransom</i>. But this is pretty clearly the best kidnapping movie ever made, and it actually seemed pretty original to me in concept. It's damn funny at times, too, particularly when Kurosawa sidesteps obvious cliches. How about that one scene where the cop turns around and is like, "Bos'n, Shinichi GONE!!!" and there's a brief panic before they see the kid up on the incline. At first, I could hear myself thinking, "Oh, please -- they can't seriously have lost the kid already... that's so contrived!" But then the punchline had me giggling.<br /><br />I will confess that whenever those scenes with Takeuchi looking from his flat up at Gondo's house came up, I kept wondering why the image of Gondo's house far away in the distance, up on the hill, felt so familiar to me. I didn't make the connection that Gondo's house looks amusingly Bate-sian from that angle until I read Chuck Stephen's Criterion essay afterwards; he makes a comparison to <i>Psycho</i> (http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/33-high-and-low). But I agree with the final points in your piece about how critics sometimes get carried away with trying to make connections to other filmmakers in their reviews. I tend to be guilty of this a lot, perhaps because lately I've been writing about films that can't exactly be described as commentaries on modern-day life, as this film so clearly was (i.e. <i>Dreamcatcher</i>).<br /><br />I was actually a little worried during the last half hour when the Chief Inspector says at one point that Takeuchi "deserves capital punishment." You know how I am about that sort of thing... I guess I was afraid my whole appreciation for the film would be spoiled if it ended with Takeuchi getting executed while the police congratulated themselves on a job well done.<br /><br />So I was really gratified by that last scene of Gondo and Takeuchi finally meeeting face-to-face, and the beautiful sincerity with which Mifune delivers that key line: "Why should you and I <i>hate each other</i>?" I think Kurosawa's modern-life commentaries come shining through in this scene, and his ultimate message goes something like this: In our postwar Japan, when the bombs have already been dropped, can't we all start working and living together, rich and poor, instead of kidnapping and executing each other? I'd say Gondo, at the very least, learns this lesson simply by a) the public's warm support for his unselfish delivery of the ransom, and b) by listening to Takeuchi's last words up until the very end. And it's something the executives at the shoe company will never understand because they're still situated in the comfort of the bourgoisie class, segregated from the people stuck in the ghettos down below. I'm rambling a little because all these thoughts started swimming in my head when the film ended, but I could absolutely see a piece written on this film in which no connections to other filmmakers are mentioned. I wonder why Ebert hasn't gotten around to doing a write-up for his Great Movies series just yet.Adam Zanziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-82857756101996273792012-05-28T19:46:56.905-04:002012-05-28T19:46:56.905-04:00The movie is incredibly great, Adam. Enjoy.The movie is incredibly great, Adam. Enjoy.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-5007013722298359852012-05-28T18:58:15.611-04:002012-05-28T18:58:15.611-04:00This is one of my Kurosawa blind-spots. It's m...This is one of my Kurosawa blind-spots. It's my library though, so maybe in the next week or so I'll check it out and then return here with my thoughts on your piece and on the film.Adam Zanziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com