Lab #6 - Abstract Expressionism in High and Low

In 1963 Akira Kurosawa directed Tengoku To Jigoku which was released in the United States as High and Low.  

Criterion summarizes the film thusly: "Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in Akira Kurosawa's highly influential High and Low.  Adapting Ed McBain's detective novel King's Ransom, Kurosawa moves effortlessly from compelling race-against-time thriller to exacting social commentary, creating a penetrating portrait of contemporary Japanese society."

Although this synopsis is short, direct, and true to the story of the film (which is the purpose of it), it would be a mistake to assume that that is all the film has to offer.

As a lab assignment in my art history class, my instructor posed the challenge of looking at this film and picking two scenes that have aesthetics clearly influenced by Kurosawa's exposure to Abstract Expressionism.

One thing I know about art is that it does not remain within its own margins.  Music influences film just as film influences music.  So considering that this film was made in 1963, it would mean that Abstract Expressionism had been around for many years before.  Plus, Kurosawa started out as an artist before he was a filmmaker.  So all the components are there and this is some of my discoveries.

This scene is approximately and hour and fifteen minutes into the film.  I love this shot because of different planes colliding all throughout it.  There is balance but little symmetry.  The only problem with this shot is that it didn't look like Abstract Expressionism to me.  I could easily see Cubism or Futurism though.

Then I found some works from the artist Franz Kline.  

Considered an "action painter" amongst others such as Jackson Pollock, he denied any influence in his work to Japanese calligraphy, but I could certainly not fault that assumption.  "Bridges, tunnels, buildings, engines, railroads and other architectural and industrial icons are often suggested as imagery informing Kline's work" (wikipedia.com).

The next frame occurs close to the end of the film.

This extreme close up of flowers seem to place focus less on the flowers but more on the chaos of the vines taking up the entire frame.  This immediately brought to mind the works of Jackson Pollock.

Many people have noted the feeling of being in a dense forest when they look at some Pollock paintings.  This might be a coincidence to the frame in High and Low.  It appears what both images shows is a confusion and complexity wherein no singular point is the focus.  The entire frame is.  

Geoffrey O'Brien wrote an essay about High and Low in which he states, "The exceptional visual density of High and Low involves a double perception:  every frame can be apprehended in terms both of the weightless, two-dimensional surface of a delicately composed painting and of the three-dimensional arena in which heavy bodies move and contend with reckless energy."

I struggle with Abstract Expressionism sometimes, but I do ask myself if O'Brien's statement not only defines the film but certainly many concepts of the art movement.