OVERLAY REPORT

No, the actual execution is **not shown** in Akira Kurosawa’s *High and Low* (1963). However, the film concludes with a powerful final scene that centers on the impending execution of the kidnapper. Here are the specific details regarding how the film handles this: **1. The Final Confrontation** The movie ends with a face-to-face meeting between the protagonist, Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), and the kidnapper, Shinichi Takeuchi (Tsutomu Yamazaki). This takes place in the prison's visitation room. Takeuchi has been captured, tried, and sentenced to death for his crimes (which included the kidnapping and the murder of his accomplices via high-purity heroin). **2. The Kidnapper’s Breakdown** During this meeting, Takeuchi attempts to maintain a cold, nihilistic exterior. He tells Gondo that he isn't afraid of death and that his small, cramped apartment was "hell," which led him to hate Gondo for living in a house on a hill (the "heaven" of the title). However, as the conversation reaches its climax, Takeuchi’s composure completely shatters. He begins to tremble uncontrollably and suddenly lunges at the wire mesh separating them, screaming in terror. **3. The Closing Image** The film does not follow Takeuchi to the gallows. Instead, the final shot of the movie is the **closing of the metal shutters** in the visitation room. As the shutters drop, they cut off the view of the hysterical Takeuchi, signaling the end of his life and the end of the story. **4. Context of Japanese Capital Punishment** The film makes it clear that Takeuchi's appeal was denied and his execution is imminent, but Kurosawa chooses to focus on the psychological and social chasm between the two men rather than the mechanics of the state-sanctioned death. In summary: The execution is a certainty within the narrative, but the film ends on the haunting image of the kidnapper's psychological collapse just before he is led away.