High and Low [Tengoku to Jigoku] (Original screenplay for the 1963 film) by Akira Kurosawa (director, screenwriter); Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima, Eijiro Hisaita (screenwriters); Evan Hunter (as Ed McBain) (novel); Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyoko Kagawa (starring) - 1962

1962. Draft script for the 1963 Japanese film. Text and titles in Japanese.

A legendary Japanese noir, based on American author Ed McBain's 1959 novel "King's Ransom." A wealthy industrialist is contacted by a gang of crooks who inform him that they have kidnapped his son, and are holding him hostage in exchange for an enormous ransom. The industrialist soon realizes, however, that the boy they have taken is in fact the son of his chauffeur-and must decide whether he will bankrupt himself and his family in order to save a child that is not his own. A nuanced portrait of a man facing the potential destruction of his future, further elevated by morally ambiguous characters and the gritty realism of its world. The fifteenth, and penultimate, film that leading actor Toshiro Mifune would make with director Akira Kurosawa, and one of the highest grossing Japanese films of 1963, breaking Kurosawa's box office record for the third time.

Shot on location in Kanagawa, Japan.

White perfect-bound wrappers, dated 1962, with a protective titled dust jacket. 189 leaves, with last page of text numbered e-37. Mimeograph duplication, printed on rectos and versos. Book Very Good plus, with light foxing to the page edges and light offsetting on the front and rear wrapper. Jacket Very Good plus, with light foxing to the extremities and two small nicks to the spine ends.

Criterion Collection 24. Grant Japan. Selby Japan. Spicer Japan.