McBain, Japanese Style

Jul 21, 2010 at 4:00 am

[
          {
            "name": "GPT - Leaderboard - Inline - Content",
            "component": "41932919",
            "insertPoint": "5th",
            "startingPoint": "3",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "3",
            "maxInsertions": 100
          }
          
        ]

Akira Kurosawa's 1963 screen adaptation of Ed McBain's novel King's Ransom features the incomparably intense Toshiro Mifune as industrialist Kingo Gondo. Kingo is planning to leverage a shoe company against the wishes of the company's board. Before he can complete the deal, he receives a call notifying him that his son has been kidnapped. Will he complete the business transaction and save his fortune, or will he ransom his son? The plot thickens when Kingo discovers it's not his son who's been abducted, but rather the son of his chauffeur. Throw in a bit of business blackmail and you have the sort of plot Kurosawa loved: Questions of personal honor, public face and the morality of succeeding at any cost coalesce around two flawed human beings. High and Low screens at 7:30 p.m. at Webster University's Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Avenue; 314-968-7487 or www.webster.edu/filmseries). Tickets are $5 to $6.
Sun., July 25, 2010