Gondo must decide whether to sacrifice his fortune for a child who is not his own. Under pressure from his wife and the police, he agrees to pay, and the money is handed over in a tense sequence on a high-speed train. The child is returned, but Gondo is ruined. The second half of the film follows the police as they painstakingly hunt the kidnapper, a medical intern who lives in the slums below Gondo's hilltop mansion. Akira Kurosawa's masterly crime thriller, adapted from Ed McBain's novel King's Ransom, is a gripping study of class and morality, divided into two distinct halves. The first, confined to Gondo's house, is a brilliant chamber drama, while the second is a detailed police procedural. Toshiro Mifune is superb as Gondo, and Tatsuya Nakadai is excellent as the lead detective. A tour de force.