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High and Low (1963)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa · Shot by Takao Saito, Asakazu Nakai · Cut by Akira Kurosawa · Music by Masaru Sato · Ratio 2.35:1 · 143 min
How it was made
- The ransom-drop sequence, in which money is thrown from a moving express train, required nine cameras filming simultaneously and shut down every other production at Toho for the day; one camera followed each detective, two eight-millimetre cameras covered the kidnappers at either end of the train, and one was positioned under the bridge where the drop occurred.
- Because the express train could only be used once, there was a single take of the sequence; when one camera following actor Takeshi Katō malfunctioned, his coverage had to be reshot on a different day to be cut back in.
- A building blocking the view of one kidnapper's accomplice was altered overnight on the second floor and disguised with a blue sheet, a fix conceived and executed the day before filming.
- Night shots of Gondō's hillside house used a miniature outside the window because the real overlooking view could not be photographed well in the dark; the daytime version of the same shots was filmed on location.
- Kurosawa used colour for the first time in his career for a single shot of pink smoke that redirects the investigation, then decided the crew was still too unfamiliar with colour and shot the rest of the film in black and white.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Akira Kurosawa
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