In Akira Kurosawa’s brilliant High and Low (1963) based on Ed McBain’s detective novel King’s Ransom, the kidnapper errs in abducting the wrong kid. All rich kids look alike to the down and out criminal. Although his child is safe at home, the rich man who was the intended victim is obliged to pay the ransom out of humanity for another’s child. Kurosawa’s camera here contrasts the high world of the rich on a hill overlooking the low world of the criminals below. Now this is an original ironic twist to a kidnapping pulled off by a master director.
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