“High and Low” (天国と地獄), Original Japanese Re-Release Movie Poster 1968, Rare Early Reissue, Akira Kurosawa, B2 Size (c. 51 × 73 cm) O538

This is an original Japanese B2 theatrical poster produced for the rare early 1968 re-release of High and Low, directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshirō Mifune and distributed by Toho.

Issued just five years after the film’s original 1963 release, this striking design combines a tightly arranged photographic montage with brilliant yellow Japanese title lettering against deep black. Mifune’s intense expression and the prominently featured telephone immediately establish the atmosphere of Kurosawa’s celebrated kidnapping thriller.

Film background

First released in Japan on 1 March 1963, High and Low adapts Ed McBain’s novel King’s Ransom into a compelling examination of wealth, responsibility and social division.

Mifune plays Kingo Gondo, a shoe-company executive whose plans to secure control of his business are interrupted by a ransom demand. When he discovers that the abducted child is his chauffeur’s son, he faces a devastating choice between protecting his fortune and saving another family’s child.

The cast includes Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa and Tsutomu Yamazaki. Moving from Gondo’s spacious hillside home into the streets of Yokohama, the film develops from an intimate moral crisis into an intricate police investigation.

Poster design

Mifune dominates the upper composition, gripping a green telephone receiver beneath a furrowed brow. Portraits of Kagawa, Nakadai and Yamazaki surround him, with the city stretching into the background.

A broad black panel divides the sheet. Across it, the Japanese title appears in large, expressive yellow brush lettering:

「天国と地獄」
“Heaven and Hell.”

Kurosawa’s director credit stands immediately above in red. Below the cast and production credits, photographic scenes from the film’s urban underworld provide a stark contrast to the affluent setting suggested above.

The printed announcement 「ニュー・プリント」—“New Print” identifies the poster’s revival context. Musical notation along the upper and lower borders adds an unusual decorative detail.

Cultural significance

This early Japanese re-release poster represents one of Kurosawa’s defining contemporary dramas and a major collaboration with Mifune. Its juxtaposition of imposing portraits and crowded street imagery echoes the film’s movement between privileged domestic space and the city below.

For collectors, it offers 1960s Japanese publicity for a landmark of world cinema, with a particularly commanding title treatment.

Condition

Very Good. The poster shows surface creasing and rubbing, edge wear and small tears, with paper loss at the bottom-right corner. The reverse displays age-related toning, scattered spotting and marks, together with tape reinforcement near the affected corner.

Despite these signs of use, the principal imagery and vivid yellow title retain strong visual impact. Once framed, the poster will display excellently. We have taken its condition into account when pricing.

Please review the photographs carefully—they show the exact poster for sale, including the corner damage.

This is an original Japanese theatrical re-release poster from 1968, for the film first released in 1963.
It is not a reproduction or a modern reprint.

It is approximately 58 years old.

Certificate of Authenticity included.