OVERLAY REPORT

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. ### 1. The Two Accomplices 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. * **How they die:** To ensure their silence and keep the entire ransom for himself, Takeuchi kills them by providing them with **high-purity ("uncut") heroin**. Because they are accustomed to heavily diluted drugs, the pure dose causes a fatal overdose. * **Specific Detail:** Their bodies are discovered by the police in the same seaside villa where the boy was held captive. The police initially suspect a suicide pact, but forensic evidence later suggests Takeuchi engineered their deaths. ### 2. The Unnamed Female Drug Addict 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. * **How she dies:** Takeuchi approaches a random, heavily addicted woman and injects her with the heroin to see if it is strong enough to kill. She **dies of an overdose** almost immediately after the injection. * **Specific Detail:** This act is observed by the police, who are tailing Takeuchi. They intentionally do not intervene because they need to witness him committing a premeditated murder to secure a death sentence against him, highlighting the "morally gray" tactics used by the investigators. ### 3. Ginjirō Takeuchi (The Kidnapper) The film ends with Takeuchi himself facing his end. * **How he meets his end:** While his physical death is not shown on screen, he is caught, convicted of kidnapping and multiple murders, and **sentenced to death by hanging**. * **Specific Detail:** The final scene of the film takes place in prison, where Takeuchi requests a meeting with the protagonist, Kingo Gondo. After a tense conversation where Takeuchi expresses his class-based hatred and envy, he loses his composure and begins screaming in terror as he is dragged away toward his execution. The film ends with a metal shutter closing between the two men, symbolizing the finality of his sentence. ### Who Survives 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.