Last month, it was announced that TV Asahi is producing a television drama remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1952 masterpiece, "Ikiru." Now, the same network has revealed plans for another Kurosawa remake, this time based on his 1963 "High and Low" ("Tengoku to Jigoku"), which is both a thriller and a social commentary on the country's economic divide.

The setting has been changed from postwar Yokohama to modern Hokkaido, but the drama will retain the same characters and basic story as the original. Koichi Sato replaces Toshiro Mifune as the executive of a shoe manufacturing company, whose chauffeur's son gets kidnapped because the child was mistaken for his own son. Hiroshi Abe plays the chief detective on the case, and Kyoka Suzuki plays Sato's wife. At least one famous scene from the original film, in which the ransom is delivered on a bullet train, will be re-created for the drama.

Yasuo Tsuruhashi ("Ai no Rukeichi") is serving as both director and screenwriter. Filming began in Otaru, Hokkaido, on the 11th of this month, and is scheduled to finish in early July. TV Asahi will air the drama this fall.