As example, when speaking to Takeuchi, Gondo reveals that he was hired to run a small shoe company dedicated to quality, which he hopes will rival National Shoes, the audience feels that, despite his debts (for not all the ransom money was recovered, and we see a scene where auctioneers tag his furniture for future repossession), Gondo has gotten his reward. He will run things his way, and has not compromised. In an odd way, the kidnapping may have saved him from becoming like his three heartless colleagues at National Shoes. Gondo has retained his humanity and dignity, with a chance to start over. This is even foreshadowed in the first hour, when Gondo’s wife retrieves his old shoe repair kit, and he helps hide some packets that will release odors or colored smoke if the kidnapper tries to toss the bags into water or fire.
Later on, pink smoke from a chimney (the only color in the film), first seen by Shinichi, helps give away the fact the kidnapper has gotten rid of the bags. Yet, aside from mere plot revelation, the scene shows that Gondo is a self-made man, a lowly leather worker made good. Thus, not only is his coming fall made all the more galling, but it makes the kidnapper’s resentment of Gondo as a ‘man of means’ all the more meaningless, since Gondo has been where Takeuchi is. This is pointed out in a brief scene, a bit earlier, when the cops are tailing Takeuchi before he hits the rock club to score heroin.
Amazingly, no critic seems to have ever noticed it, despite it being a touchingly revealing scene. Takeuchi is wandering downtown, looking for a cigarette light, and taps Gondo on the shoulder, as the older man looks into a show store window with longing. Gondo gives him a light, unawares that this is the man responsible for his fall, even as the kidnapper occupies the same reflected space in the window, twinning the two men earlier than the prison scene. Yet, we see the devotion with which Gondo looks at the merchandise; a bookend to his earlier scene where he destroys a bad pair of shoes his rivals want to sell, while in his home. Kurosawa so underplays the moment, and it goes by so quickly, that most viewers might miss it. We are not even certain if the cops tailing Takeuchi notice Gondo’s presence, for only Takeuchi seems to notice that it is Gondo that gives him the light. But, it is one of those moments that separates great from merely good artists, for what draws Takeuchi across the street (mockery, sadism, sympathy) to his victim is unknown.
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