Film Forum

Japan, 1963
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Starring Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa
Approx. 143 min. 4K DCP.

Shoe company exec Toshirō Mifune is in the midst of a mortgage-everything takeover battle when the phone rings with a giant ransom demand for his son — but then in walks... Adapted from an Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel, this is the ultimate kidnap movie, with Kurosawa at the peak of his filmmaking powers: moral battles rage in a first hour almost totally confined to a single room jammed with distraught family, cynical advisers, and recorder-wielding cops led by super-cool detective Tatsuya Nakadai; the de rigueur money transfer aboard the Shinkansen (bullet train); sweaty police conferences shot in deep focus; a near-invisible drug pass in a jammed dance hall; and the jailhouse interview punctuated by the heaviest steel door closing in film history.

Presented with support from the Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film

Reviews

“One of the best detective thrillers ever filmed.”
– Edward Thompson, The New York Times

“Kurosawa executes an astonishingly bold dramatic turn.”
– A.O. Scott