The 'High & Low' Franchise Is Brimming with Swag

One day, I was browsing through my Facebook News Feed when I stumbled upon a sponsored post on a trailer for this Japanese movie called High & Low: The Worst (that’s just how these algorithms work; it’s both amazing and scary how they can point you toward something you may potentially like).  I found it intriguing, so I further looked into it, and I learned that it was a crossover film between the High & Low franchise and Crow/Worst manga.  That brought me to become interested on what High & Low was, so I checked it out. 

The High & Low premise is presented by this prologue: in the past, an unnamed town was under the control of Mugen – a legendary biker gang, hundreds of members strong.  However, two of the three equally legendary Amamiya Brothers didn’t submit to them but instead challenged them.  Mugen and the Amamiya Brothers clashed, but soon afterward, the former mysteriously broke up and the latter went into hiding.

Subsequently, the power vacuum left by the disbandment of Mugen leads to the rise of five gangs, and the town is divided into five territories between them.  Collectively, they become to be known as S.W.O.R.D. – an acronym formed from the first letter of each gang name.

“S” stands for Sannoh Rengokai a.k.a. the Hoodlum Squad.  They are a small-neighborhood-type gang composed of guys who mostly grew up in the same area and circumstance.  Their territory is the Sannoh shopping district – a tight-knit community of small businesses – and their “headquarters” is the Itokan Diner, which was founded by Mugen.  Their leader is Cobra (Takanori Iwata), an ex-member of Mugen.  Another member, the voracious Yamato (Nobuyuki Suzuki), is also ex-Mugen.  Other notable members are Noburo (Keita Machida), Dan (Kenjiro Yamashita), Tetz (Kanta Sato), and Chiharu (Taiki Sato).  They are the main characters of the story.

“W” stands for White Rascals.  They are clad in stylish white clothes, and exist to protect women, especially at night – a purpose that originated from the founder and leader Rocky’s (Keiji Kuroki) personal worldview.  They have a night club called Club Heaven, which serves as their HQ.

“O” stands for Oya Kohkoh a.k.a. “The Dark and Heinous High School.”  They are fight-loving high school delinquents enrolled at Oya High, which is also their base of operations.  Here, it’s not uncommon for students to be held back for a couple of years.  Their current leader is Yoshiki Murayama (Yuki Yamada), who gained his position by withstanding a hundred punches before proceeding to beat everyone up.  It was Murayama who put Oya Kohkoh on the map.  Meanwhile, a talented transfer student named Todoroki (Goki Maeda) is a challenger to Murayama’s leadership, and is presumably Murayama’s replacement once he graduates.

“R” stands for Rude Boys.  Led by Smoky (Masataka Kubota), they are a distinctive gang of young outcasts who possess a fluid, fast-paced fighting style and mad parkour skills.  They protect the “Nameless City”, the town’s rundown area in which the homeless, destitute, and abandoned are living.

And, finally, “D” stands for Daruma Ikka.  This is a gang of fierce, reckless, red haori-clad brawlers who embody the spirit of their leader Norihisa Hyuga (Kento Hayashi), who holds a grudge against Mugen and who wants to bring his family’s name – the Hyuga Group – back to its former glory.

Enjoying High & Low depends on what you think of that prologue, as the main story mostly holds true to the promise of the premise established by the prologue.  Thus, if the prologue hooks you, you will most likely find the rest of High & Low appealing.  If not, then High & Low won’t work for you.

The High & Low saga first ran a few years ago, spanning two seasons of television – High & Low: The Story of Sword (2015) and High & Low: Season 2 (2016) – and four movies – High & Low: The Movie (2016), High & Low: The Red Rain (2016), High & Low: The Movie 2 – End of Sky (2017), and High & Low: The Movie 3 – Final Mission (2017).  It follows the S.W.O.R.D. gangs – particularly the Hoodlum Squad – as they clash among themselves as well as the outside forces that want to take over their town.

As what’s already obvious by now, each gang in S.W.O.R.D. has its own identity – a romantized, unique take on the yankii subculture.  Each gang has its own philosophy, motivations, methods, choice of vehicles, and fashion.  Thus, there’s diversity of selections for the fans to pick as their favorites.  Mine, for the record, is Oya High.  Actually, in my opinion, the main characters – the Hoodlum Squad – are probably the least interesting of the gangs because they’re the most “basic.”

Moreover, each gang also has its own music theme.  And my favorite is, once again, Oya High’s.  Nevertheless, almost all of the songs – especially the five theme songs of the five S.W.O.R.D. gangs – are absolute bangers, and when they accompany the action, the excitement of the fight scenes is perfectly boosted.  The soundtrack is definitely one of the best things about High & Low.  It’s something one will love to listen to on repeat.

As it is, High & Low is pretty goofy.  It’s like a soap opera for boys – wherein, instead of over-the-top melodrama, it has over-the-top action.  It basically feels like a shonen anime but executed in the form of live-action.  However, it sells itself quite effectively, and it’s brimming with swagger that it’s so much fun.  The characters are appealing, and the action is solid and stimulating.  There are a couple of impressive, visceral fight scenes that legitimately made my jaw drop.

The story doesn’t have much substance, but it has heart, although this sometimes comes at the cost of hokey clichés and laughable “ugly cry” dramatic acting.  The writing can also get cringy at times, as the narrative isn’t always consistent with its pre-instituted logic, and the characters sometimes make bothersome, uncharacteristic decisions.  In addition, when it tries to become more complicated and “relevant”, it falters badly, for in the process, it forgets what makes High & Low so fun in the first place (which is the sense of swagger, the cool fights, and the kickass characters – not the social commentary).

This is especially the case with the final movie as it ends up getting a bit too pretentious.  Hence, High & Low: The Movie 3 – Final Mission is the lowest point of the franchise.  This doesn’t ruin the whole thing for me, but it’s very disappointing nonetheless because it’s supposed to be the finale (or, at least, the finale for this particular arc, as it’s seemingly hinting in the end that there’s more story to come).

In contrast, I think the peak of High & Low is the first movie, for this is where the payoffs built up by the two-season TV show were truly delivered.  It’s also in High & Low: The Movie where the franchise has its epic “Avengers Assemble!” moment.

In the end, High & Low is not exactly awesome.  But the premise, characters, action, and music have enough value to make watching it a rewarding experience.  I’ve enjoyed it as a whole, and now consider myself a fan.

Ironically, even though its trailer was what first got me into High & Low in the first place, I haven’t seen High & Low: The Worst yet.  Being a recently released film, it’s not yet available from where I am.  But I’ll definitely watch it – as well as, if it’s ever made in the future, any new High & Low installment, for that matter – as soon as I can.