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In Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (1963), there are four deaths (three murders and one impending execution). The kidnapper, Ginjirō Takeuchi, murders his two accomplices (a man and a woman) by giving them uncut heroin, causing fatal overdoses, to silence them and keep the ransom. Later, Takeuchi murders an unnamed female addict in 'Dope Alley' by injecting her with pure heroin to test its lethality; the police observe this but intentionally do not intervene to secure a murder conviction (and thus the death penalty). Finally, Takeuchi himself is sentenced to death by hanging; the film ends with him on death row, screaming in terror as he is dragged away from a meeting with the protagonist, Gondo.
In the 1963 film High and Low (Tengoku to Jigoku), directed by Akira Kurosawa, there are four confirmed or impending deaths. These deaths are central to the film's second half, as the police work to ensure the kidnapper receives the death penalty rather than a shorter prison sentence.
The kidnapper, Ginjirō Takeuchi, employs two low-level drug addicts (a man and a woman) to help him with the initial abduction and to watch over the chauffeur’s son, Shinichi, at a remote mountain shack.
In one of the film's most harrowing sequences, Takeuchi descends into "Dope Alley" (an area modeled after the Koganechō district in Yokohama) to test the lethality of a second batch of pure heroin.
The film ends with Takeuchi himself facing his end.
It is worth noting that despite the high stakes, both children—Gondo's son, Jun, and the chauffeur's son, Shinichi—survive the ordeal unharmed. Gondo himself survives but is financially ruined by the ransom payment, though he finds a new sense of peace and a more modest professional beginning by the film's conclusion.
The summary omits *why* Takeuchi was testing a second batch of heroin. The police had planted a fake story that his accomplices were still alive and demanding more drugs. This trap forced Takeuchi to acquire more heroin and test it (on the addict) to ensure it would kill the accomplices 'again.' This context deepens the police's moral culpability in the addict's death.