Ch-ching

Two posts ago, I referred to the movie as Payback instead of Paycheck. Apparently, Payback is this rather grisly revenge plot where Gibson goes medieval on the people that killed his family. This is the usual kind of excuse for violence that is perceived as fine. For example, it forms the central revenge plot for Gladiator where the main character's wife and son are killed, and he kills the man that ordered it.

I was going to say I had seen Payback, but really, I've seen Ransom, which is based on a Kurosawa film, though that film has a far more intriguing plot. In Ransom, Gibson plays a wealthy man who's son is kidnapped. Eventually, he decides that whoever kills the abductors will get a large amount of money, even as he risks his own child in the process. Needless to say, his risk pays off.

The Kurosawa story is about a similar kidnapping, except in this case, instead of the wealthy man's son getting kidnapped, his chauffeur's son is kidnapped instead. The kidnappers still hold him for ransom, seeing whether the wealthy man is willing to make the payment for someone who isn't his own offspring. This is the film High and Low which also goes by a much less well known title, The Ransom. One of Kurosawa's films that's not set in feudal Japan, and one I'd like to see.