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Akira Kurosawa in 1953

High and Low is a Japanese police procedural film directed by Akira Kurosawa (pictured), 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 ...

Strand Arcade

... that Strand Arcade (pictured) was the "most important commercial centre in New Zealand in the early 1900s and beyond", according to Heritage New Zealand?
... that, after David E. Mitchell was diagnosed with cancer that cost $440,000 annually to treat, he founded Patients for Affordable Drugs Now to challenge drug companies that act like "Tony Soprano"?
... that the Telangana Gaddar Film Awards are named after a person who rejected awards for Telugu cinema?
... that the association of Venda kings with mountains and subordinate rulers with pools affected the layout of a settlement?
... that Vidoe Smilevski's apartment was "a center of illegal revolutionary activity" before he became the Macedonian president?
... that Arena is the first novel to be set in the universe of the card game Magic: The Gathering?
... that, before Fiji beat Australia 1–0 in 1988, the Fiji Football Association offered each player a FJ$500 bonus if they won?
... that the International Criminal Court decided to switch from Microsoft Office to OpenDesk after its chief prosecutor was disconnected from his Microsoft-hosted email account?
... that Argentine actor Guillermo Pfening and a female friend agreed to have a child together if they were not parents by the age of 35?

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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