Highest 2 Lowest

Spike Lee's adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's classic is serviceable if muted

Despite being one of the foremost auteurs in American cinema, Spike Lee is no stranger to remakes. He remade the Korean action classic Oldboy (2003) and even turned his own debut She’s Gotta Have It (1986) into a Netflix series. His latest “reimagining,” as he prefers to call it, takes on Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963)—itself adapted from Evan Hunter’s novel “King’s Ransom”—retitled here as Highest 2 Lowest (2025).

Set in modern-day New York City, Highest 2 Lowest follows music mogul David King (Denzel Washington) as he makes a massive bid to regain control of the label he founded. He’s mortgaged his entire life and savings on the deal, when suddenly his son (Aubrey Joseph) and his driver Paul’s (Jeffrey Wright) son (Elijah Wright) are kidnapped by a mysterious caller (A$AP Rocky). The ransom demanded would obliterate King’s ambitions and his livelihood. But when the kidnapper mistakenly releases King’s son during the first negotiation, King is left with a harrowing choice: should he still sacrifice everything for someone else’s child?

Kurosawa’s film is a touchstone of world cinema, and among the director’s finest achievements. The class conflict at its core makes it an apt candidate for reinterpretation today, given the growing relevance of income inequality. Lee smartly layers in another dimension: culture – where King serves as a gatekeeper deciding which artists and sounds get championed, and which are left behind. It’s a fascinating and refreshing addition to the story.

Yet the sharp class observation of Kurosawa’s original often gets sidelined. Lee leans into Hollywood tropes, privileging volume over nuance and hammering subtext rather than letting it simmer. His “in-your-face” style has always been part of his filmmaking DNA, but here it clashes with the subtle meditations of Kurosawa. As with many Hollywood remakes of foreign-language classics, Highest 2 Lowest succumbs to overexplaining story beats, dialing up the drama and comedy, and softening the moral edges with humor.

Still, Lee’s ongoing partnership with Washington has become one of modern cinema’s defining director-actor collaborations—worthy of comparison to Scorsese and De Niro, Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson, or even Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune (who originated King’s role in High and Low). Washington remains a towering screen presence, capable of commanding every frame with unshakable gravitas. He sells the moral conflict even when the script undercooks it. In one extraordinary scene confronting the kidnapper, Washington stands motionless, seemingly frozen, yet radiates a storm of thought and turmoil. Lee holds the shot, and Washington turns stillness into volcanic intensity—a reminder of why his presence is nothing short of a gift to cinema.

In the end, Highest 2 Lowest is a colorful but Hollywood-sanded version of Kurosawa’s classic. Lee injects vibrancy and flair to prevent it from being just another uninspired retread, while Washington’s magnetic performance provides the film’s gravitational core. The result is an imperfect but engaging reimagining, worth watching if not quite essential.

6.8/10