Double feature: Seven Samurai and High and Low

I have seen both of these films before, but had forgotten how good they were. They both, of course, feature Toshiro Mifune, but he plays nearly opposite character types. His samurai is recognizable from his turns in 'Yojimbo' and 'Sanjuro' though somewhat drunker/more reckless; but his wealthy shoe executive is more a study of cold rage transforming into ultimate bewilderment coupled with modern alienation. I had forgotten how his character basically disappears throughout much of the third act (except for the brief moment when the detectives come to his house and see him mowing his lawn and sweating through his dress shirt) until the final scene in which he visits the kidnapper/murderer in prison.

Both films are interesting studies on class, dignity, and (even in Seven Samurai, surprisingly) the shifting ground of morality in the modern age. Both films ultimately turn on questions of what should be valued in a culture, and how that value is redeemed. In Seven Samurai, the 'old man' chides Manzo for worrying about protecting his daughter's honor from the samurai, saying "your head is on the chopping block, and all you care about are the whiskers on your face". The end, too, reveals the ambiguity of values like honor and sacrifice, when Shimada, turning from the singing peasants planting their rice fields, looks upon the graves of the fallen samurai and says, "So. Again we are defeated. Victory belongs to the peasants, not to us."

They are both on Netflix instant. I didn't plan on watching them both together, but after Seven Samurai, I couldn't resist more Kurosawa and more Mifune.