High and Low

Personally, I found this to be Kurosawa’s best yet. While I really enjoyed Seven Samurai, I didn’t find it AS amazing as everyone else. It’s incredible, but this is better. High and Low felt perfectly paced and effortlessly engaging throughout. It essentially felt like two different movies in one, like Full Metal Jacket. Unlike that film, both halves were equally astounding, combining into one magnificent cinematic masterpiece. While Kurosawa’s samurai films are great, this was on another level. Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai are both incredible in their roles. Mifune is excellent as the crazy samurai in Seven Samurai, but even better in his more dramatic role here. I can’t decide whether I liked Nakadai more in this or Harakiri. He’s just an incredible actor and I can’t wait to see more of his work. Kurosawa has more movies than any other director in the Letterboxd Top 250 and it’s clear to see why.