History Film / HighAndLow1963

* FreudianExcuse: It's hinted that the kidnapper's life has been hellish, including whatever gave him that nasty scar. [[spoiler:He offhandedly mentions his mother died a year before, which may have been what sent him over the edge. However, he refuses to tell Gondo any more about his life lest he incur his pity.]]

* TrueCraftsman: Gondo cares about making quality shoes, and takes offense when more ethically challenged executives at National Shoes suggest making a deliberately shoddy product.
* TwoActStructure: The first half of the film involves the kidnapping and RansomDrop, which is complicated by Gondo's planned takeover of National Shoes and his reluctance to expose himself to complete financial ruin. The second half of the movie largely leaves Gondo behind and follows the meticulous police investigation that eventually tracks down the kidnapper. Kurosawa emphasizes this by the fact that the first act is entirely set inside the confines of the house, while the second half is set across the city's lower-depths, with the scene where Gondo makes the drop in the train the bridge of the story. The film is divided between "high" and "low".
* VillainousBreakdown: The kidnapper breaks down sobbing and tries to swallow a heroin overdose when he is finally caught. And his brave front when he faces Gondo winds up dissolving into hysterical screaming.
* YamatoNadeshiko: Reiko, the supportive wife who never speaks above her station but pleads with Gondo to do the right thing, and ultimately convinces him to turn in his fortune.

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: The kidnapper uses as his partners in crime two heroin junkies. He then murders them with heroin overdoses by deliberately giving them 95% pure heroin.
* MeaningfulName: The powerful and looking to become even more powerful lead is named [=KINGo=].

* PhoneTraceRace: Police trying to trace the phone calls.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Kingo Gondo is a cunning businessman who is willing to use underhanded tactics to see his vision of the company made, but is genuinely hesitant to ruin his own life to save his chauffeur's son. The kidnapper is a resentful madman who is willing to kill a child that has nothing to do with his vendetta and kill off his own henchmen so he can have all the money.

* DramaticIrony: [[spoiler:The kidnapper believes that he's striking a deserved blow against an uppity, privileged rich man who has always looked down (literally) on the poor of the slum district below. Except that Gondo himself came up from those same slums.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Gondo's plan to take over National Shoes fails, and he loses all his possessions when his creditors call in his loan. But he gets the cash back when the kidnapper is finally caught, and he gets a chance to start over again with a smaller shoe company where he has more control than he had at National Shoes.
* EvilCounterpart: The kidnapper to Gondo, as both have backgrounds from the urban slums, and from which Gondo worked his way up from the bottom to reach the professional class, while the kidnapper might have had a chance to potentially work to becoming a [[spoiler:medical professional]], but threw away his life committing the crimes.
* EvilPlan: The kidnapper has a pretty basic one: Abduct an executive's son and demand ransom. Unfortunately, he accidentally kidnaps one of the kid's friends.

* FreudianExcuse: It's hinted that the kidnapper's life has been hellish, including whatever gave him that nasty scar. But he decides not to tell Gondo about it, apparently because he doesn't want to be pitied, which of course begs the question as to why he's even telling Gondo about it.

* RansomDrop: From a train per the kidnapper's meticulous instructions: he specifically states that the briefcases can't be any wider than 2.5 inches or otherwise they wouldn't fit through the gap in the window of the train's toilet, which are the only windows in the train that open to any degree.

* YamatoNadeshiko: Reiko

* MeaningfulName: The powerful and looking to become even more powerful lead is named KINGo.

* EvilLaugh: The kidnapper has a pretty basic one: Abduct an executive's son and demand ransom. Unfortunately, he accidentally kidnaps one of the kid's friends.

* AdultFear: Your child being kidnapped? Check. Financial ruin? Double check.

* AccidentalKidnapping: The kidnapper gets confused and winds up taking the chauffeur's son instead of Gondo's.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The three directors want to take over National Shoes so that they can make gaudy but shoddy products at a high profit, assuming their customers will be easily fooled by advertising. The "Old Man", who is never seen, does not appear to be corrupt, but is autocratic and behind the times and he's stated as being obsessed with making army boots.

* DramaticIrony: [[spoiler:The kidnapper believes that he's striking a deserved blow against an uppity, privileged rich man who has always looked down (literally even) on the poor of the slum district below. Except that Gondo himself came up from those same slums.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Gondo's plan to take over National Shoes fails, and he loses all his possessions when his creditors call in his loan. But he gets the cash back when the kidnapper is finally caught, and he gets a chance to start over again with a smaller but better shoe company.

* FaceHeelTurn: Gondo's secretary Kawanishi defects to the side of the directors; he tries to disguise this as a HeelFaceTurn, but Gondo easily sees through it.

* GetOut: After public opinion turned in Gondo's favor after the kidnapping and his paying the ransom, while turning against National Shoes when they fired him, Kawanishi, now working as a director at National Shoes, comes by to offer Gondo the chance to come back. Gondo will have none of it, and orders Kawanishi to get out.

* GuiltComplex: Aoki blames himself for Gondo not only having to spend his own fortune to get Shinichi back, but also for the fact Gondo's life took a downturn after the kidnapping, so he pushes his son to try and remember all he can so the police will be able to catch the kidnappers.
* HonestCorporateExecutive: Gondo, while engaging in some sneaky dealings, wants to produce good quality and stylish shoes at a reasonable price as this will produce more profits in the long run. His own employees note that while Gondo might be stern and even a stickler, he was always fair and respectful and never asked them to do stuff he wouldn't do. The dilemma for Gondo in the first half, when the kidnapper took the wrong kid Shinichi, is whether he is willing to sacrifice his life savings and fortune for someone who is not his own child, and indeed the son of one of his servant's. [[spoiler:Gondo ultimately does do the moral thing but he hesitated for a long time because he really did have a lot at stake and the police are moved by his moral gesture, with one cop noting that it's almost enough to change his opinion about businessmen, at least until Gondo's bosses prove how exceptional and rare a thing this is]].
* HyperlinkStory: The second half of the film is a drama without main characters largely following the cops as they investigate the kidnapper, it also switches by following the kidnapper, a brief episode where Shinichi's father tries to act like a hero and investigate on his own, and showing the fallout of the media publicity of Gondo's actions. The height of this [[spoiler:is when the cops in the middle of their investigation see Gondo, who's been absent from the action for sometime, just run into the man who he doesn't know is the kidnappers. The cops can't believe the bizarre incident and unknown connection they are seeing]].

* PoliceProcedural: Particularly in the second part of the film.
* PrecisionFStrike: When describing his meeting with the executives at National Shoes, Bos'n says of them, "What a bunch of assholes."

* ShoddyKnockoffProduct: At the beginning of the movie, Gondo is being pressured into making crappier, cheaper and absolutely flimsy shoes at the National Shoe to drive up profits. He doesn't warm up to the idea at all.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Tokura, the chief detective in charge of the case. He never pushes Gondo to pay the ransom, merely asking him to tell the kidnapper he's willing to pay, he tries to calm Aoki down when he pushes his son to remember what happened (see GuiltComplex above), and assures Shinichi he's helped a lot. On the DVD commentary, it's said Kurosawa told Creator/TatsuyaNakadai to base his performance on the work of Creator/HenryFonda, who played such figures late in his career (specifically his performance in ''Film/TwelveAngryMen''.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Tokura, the chief detective in charge of the case. He never pushes Gondo to pay the ransom, merely asking him to tell the kidnapper he's willing to pay, he tries to calm Aoki down when he pushes his son to remember what happened (see GuiltComplex above), and assures Shinichi he's helped a lot. On the DVD commentary, it's said Kurosawa told Creator/TatsuyaNakadai to base his performance on the work of Creator/HenryFonda, who played such figures late in his career (specifically his performance in ''Film/12AngryMen''.

* VillainousBreakdown: The kidnapper breaks down sobbing and tries to swallow a heroin overdose when he is finally caught. And his brave front when he faces Gendo winds up dissolving into hysterical screaming.

* ChekhovsSkill: Gondo's youth as a cobbler's apprentice comes in handy when the police need to hide something in briefcases.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The three directors want to take over National Shoes so that they can make gaudy but shoddy products at a high profit, assuming their customers will be easily fooled by advertising. The "Old Man", who is never seen, does not appear to be corrupt, but is autocratic and behind the times.

* RansomDrop: From a train per the kidnapper's meticulous instructions.