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American release trailer

High and Low is a Japanese police procedural film directed by Akira Kurosawa, released in Japan on 1 March 1963. It is a loose adaptation of the 1959 novel King's Ransom, by Evan Hunter under the pen name Ed McBain. Starring Toshirō Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai, it tells the story of Japanese businessman Kingo Gondō, who plans to use his life savings in a leveraged buyout. When kidnappers mistakenly abduct his chauffeur's son for ransom—believing the boy to be Gondō's son Jun—Gondō must decide whether to use the money to complete the buyout or pay the ransom. High and Low became the highest-grossing film at the Japanese box office for 1963. It received positive reviews both domestically and abroad, with critical attention focusing on the film's structure, the moral humanism of Kurosawa's depiction of the class divide, and the use of blocking to demonstrate character relationships. The film has been influential among modern filmmakers, and has been remade multiple times internationally. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Drawing of a male Alphasida zapaterii

... that an Iberian beetle (specimen pictured) is undergoing substantial evolution that makes it hard to distinguish from its nearby relatives?
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... that Latvian pilots competed in a 1,087 km (675 mi) Flight Around Latvia in 1938, testing both aircraft endurance and fuel efficiency rather than speed?
... that the Hyderabad Houston Kingsmen are one of two new teams in the Pakistan Super League?
... that one of the two civilian casualties in the 2026 US intervention in Venezuela had postponed returning to her native Colombia due to the tensions between the US and Venezuela?
... that the Master of the Epître d'Othéa produced illuminated manuscripts almost exclusively for Christine de Pizan, one of the first professional female writers in Europe?
... that Sir Lister Holte donated his own carriage horses to fight the Jacobites—but may have sympathised with them?

In the news

Ali Khamenei

Israel and the United States launch strikes on Iran, killing supreme leader Ali Khamenei (pictured).
A military conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan escalates as the countries exchange cross-border strikes.
Floods in the Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais, Brazil, leave at least 70 people dead and thousands displaced.
Rob Jetten is sworn in as the prime minister of the Netherlands, leading a minority government.

On this day

March 1: Disability Day of Mourning; Saint David's Day; Independence Day in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Yap Day in Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia

Dmitri Mendeleev

1562 – An attempt by François, Duke of Guise, to disperse a church service by Huguenots in Wassy, France, turned into a massacre, resulting in 50 dead, and starting the French Wars of Religion.
1869 – The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (pictured) finished his design of the first periodic table.
1921 – The Australian cricket team, led by Warwick Armstrong, became the first team to complete a whitewash in the Ashes, an achievement that would not be repeated for 86 years.
1992 – A Bosnian-Serb wedding procession was attacked in Sarajevo, resulting in what is widely considered the first casualty of the Bosnian War.

Roger North (d. 1734)
Deke Slayton (b. 1924)
Nick Griffin (b. 1959)
Mustafa Barzani (d. 1979)

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Today's featured picture

The Garden at Sainte-Adresse is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French impressionist painter, Claude Monet. It was painted in 1867 in the French resort town of Sainte-Adresse, where Monet was spending the summer. The models were probably Monet's father Adolphe, his cousin Jeanne Marguerite Lecadre, her father Adolphe Lecadre, and perhaps Lecadre's other daughter, Sophie, the woman seated with her back to the viewer. The painting is composed with flat horizontal bands of colour, which were reminiscent of Japanese colour wood-block prints. The Garden at Sainte-Adresse is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Painting credit: Claude Monet

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