High and Low is a 1963 Japanese police thriller directed by Akira Kurosawa. A shoe company executive, played by Toshiro Mifune, plans to buy control of his firm with all his savings. Then a kidnapper grabs the wrong boy, his chauffeur's son, and demands a ransom of 30 million yen. It became the highest-grossing Japanese film of 1963. Its loose basis is the 1959 novel King's Ransom by Evan Hunter.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.