New Delhi, Oct. 18 -- As much a police procedural as an incisive investigation into the measure of a human being, Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (1963) is bookended by scenes of conversation. At the outset, several board members argue that the shoes they manufacture should be stylish but ultimately flimsy, needing to be replaced more frequently so that the company's sales increase. Only principled executive Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune, in his penultimate collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa) pushes back. These ideas of projected image versus actual substance, the moral compromises that wealth-building demands and public accountability return with renewed resonance when Gondo later receives word that his son has been kidnapped and is...