{"id":3182,"date":"2025-10-16T08:49:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T08:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/16\/highest-2-lowest-is-a-strange-riff-on-kurosawas-original\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T08:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T08:49:07","slug":"highest-2-lowest-is-a-strange-riff-on-kurosawas-original","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/16\/highest-2-lowest-is-a-strange-riff-on-kurosawas-original\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Highest 2 Lowest\u2019 is a strange riff on Kurosawa\u2019s original"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The first act of Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u201cHigh and Low\u201d is nothing short of masterful. Kurosawa creates a compelling chamber drama, entrapping us in a Yokohama penthouse as we are forced to watch Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune, \u201cSeven Samurai\u201d) as he struggles with balancing the massive moral weight of a demanded ransom. Kurosawa\u2019s composition, especially the blocking of the actors, is meticulous and claustrophobic, resulting in stakes that feel enormous without anyone stepping foot out of the penthouse.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, the first act of the English-language remake of Kurosawa\u2019s film, \u201cHighest 2 Lowest,\u201d is the opposite. Director Spike Lee takes us on a sprawling trek through New York City, far removed from the confined penthouse overlooking Yokohama. We follow David King (Denzel Washington, \u201cGladiator II\u201d) on his daily routine throughout the city: dropping off his son at camp, stopping in at his record label and arriving home for lunch with his wife. Then, King receives a phone call demanding a ransom, the first echoes of Kurosawa\u2019s original film now on the screen. Just like Gondo, King now has a moral weight that traps him inside. However, the tense presence of suffocation, restlessness and claustrophobia of the original just isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to remaking a film, there are two paths that a filmmaker can take. The first path is to mimic, mirror and recreate every aspect of the original film. The second path is to use the original film as a template to introduce a unique voice that reimagines the original, transforming it into something fresh and timely. Unfortunately, Lee chose to follow both paths in \u201cHighest 2 Lowest,\u201d and it shows, resulting in a mediocre replication of the original. The aforementioned penthouse scenes are only one example \u2014 these scenes lack the heavy tension present in Kurosawa\u2019s version of the film. However, when Lee instead uses the original as a frame for a contemporary perspective, opting to create a film about the value of attention rather than social inequality, that\u2019s where he succeeds.<\/p>\n<p>The premise is essentially the same as the first film: A wealthy business executive is on the cusp of taking over a company when, out of nowhere, his son is kidnapped and held for ransom \u2014 a ransom high enough to ruin the executive\u2019s fortune if paid. The twist happens when it is discovered that the kidnapper mistakenly took\u00a0the child of the executive\u2019s personal chauffeur instead, creating a much more complicated dilemma. Both Kurosawa and Lee\u2019s films draw from Evan Hunter\u2019s original novel, \u201cKing\u2019s Ransom,\u201d but what matters most is how both filmmakers approach what comes next.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>For Kurosawa, what comes after is an intense procedural that spans all of Tokyo. The narrative departs from Gondo, shifting to the police department, spearheaded by Chief Detective Tokura (Tatsuya Nakadai, \u201cHarakiri\u201d), as they search for the kidnapper behind the ransom plot. Lee, on the other hand, takes the opposite approach. The police department in \u201cHighest 2 Lowest\u201d is fodder in figuring out who the kidnapper is. Instead, it is King himself who solves the mystery. In fact, the police in this film are incredibly generic in comparison to Kurosawa\u2019s original \u2014 they\u2019re robotic and antagonistic, just like how the police are portrayed in any other thriller. Perhaps Lee intentionally pulled the narrative away from the police department as a statement of how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/nypd-investigation-reveals-31-officers-were-hired-in-violation-of-state-law\/\">incompetent<\/a> the NYPD is. Why change such a large aspect of the original otherwise? The answer is clear \u2014 Lee wanted to spark commentary about the ineffectiveness and hostility of the police force.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of the narrative change, if there <em>had<\/em> to be an actor who could rival Mifune and his intensity it\u2019s Washington and his charisma. Each of them approach the central role uniquely, with Mifune\u2019s approach being more focused on internal contemplation. He distances himself from and turns his back on those around him, his face marked with agony and distress caused by his inner turmoil. As for Washington, his approach to King is marked by external confrontation. He lashes out at the police, he lashes out at his chauffeur, he lashes out at his son \u2014 he even lashes out at himself. These methods of soul searching make sense given their place in the narrative \u2014 Mifune\u2019s Gondo internalizes it, which directs the police to do the work, while Washington\u2019s King externalizes it, spurring on his larger role in finding the culprit. Comparing these actors and their styles side-by-side is a fascinating study in how emotional struggle can be portrayed. Two masters of the craft at work.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the inherent parallels between the two films, \u201cHighest 2 Lowest\u201d has some weird creative choices of its own. For a film that centers a kidnapping and ransom, the film\u2019s score does not reflect these stakes at all \u2014 it\u2019s overly dramatic to the point of being a disservice to the film. A much better score would either be more suspenseful or rooted in hip-hop, given King\u2019s line of work. But instead, we have a score whose obnoxious presence undercuts all the tension in a scene.<\/p>\n<p>On the topic of bewildering musical creative choices, there is a whole A$AP Rocky music video in the film. I\u2019m not joking. If you\u2019re wondering where in the film Lee utilizes his signature double dolly, it is\u00a0here. Not only is the music video\u2019s presence in the film bizarre, but it is also placed directly after a court scene. On top of this, the movie is littered with messy editing. There are cuts that make no sense, the aforementioned score is mixed louder than the dialogue at several points and \u2014 my personal favorite \u2014 a ridiculous wipe transition, which feels like it came out of PowerPoint, is used not once, but twice.<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cHigh and Low,\u201d the title itself carries layers of meaning, pointing to the film\u2019s exploration of the highs and lows of moral integrity and the relationship between Gondo and the kidnapper. Mainly, though, \u201cHigh and Low\u201d refers to the film\u2019s commentary about social inequality, moving from the literal penthouse on a hill to the underground slums and exploring how class divisions affect Gondo and the kidnapper\u2019s trains of thought.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>On the other hand, while it does share similar themes, \u201cHighest 2 Lowest\u201d introduces an entirely new discussion unique to today\u2019s social media age \u2014 that is, the value of attention. From King\u2019s son being deeply affected by backlash on social media to King worrying that one wrong move can lead to negative press to the kidnapper\u2019s motivation being their desire to be recognized by King, everything in \u201cHighest 2 Lowest\u201d ultimately ties back to how we value attention. Lee essentially suggests that if there may be one asset that holds more monetary value than money itself, it is having all eyes on you. As King himself clearly states in the film, \u201cAttention is the biggest form of currency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even though it can function as a standalone work, the truth is that \u201cHighest 2 Lowest\u201d works better as a companion piece. Yes, the two films spark different discussions, with Kurosawa\u2019s original acting as a commentary on the destructiveness of economic inequality and Lee\u2019s remake acting as a commentary on the worth and dangers of attention in the age of social media. Yet they still have much to share in conversation with one another. With remakes it will always be impossible not to bring up the original, and even more impossible not to compare the two. It\u2019s merely the fate \u2014 or rather, the curse \u2014 that comes with remaking beloved pieces of cinema. It makes sense why \u201cHigh and Low\u201d was remade; it provides an excellent frame for commentary while hiding under the guise of a crime thriller. But while Kurosawa\u2019s classic is a masterpiece, \u201cHighest 2 Lowest\u201d transforms it into a fascinating yet puzzling, perplexing yet compelling, Spike Lee joint.<\/p>\n<p><em>Daily Arts Writer JC Rafal can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/arts\/film\/highest-2-lowest-is-a-ridiculous-and-strange-riff-on-kurosawa\/mailto:rafaljc@umich.edu\"><em>rafaljc@umich.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first act of Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u201cHigh and Low\u201d is nothing short of masterful. Kurosawa creates a compelling chamber drama, entrapping us in a Yokohama penthouse as we are forced to watch Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune, \u201cSeven Samurai\u201d) as he struggles with balancing the massive moral weight of a demanded ransom. Kurosawa\u2019s composition, especially the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[3270,3273,3271,3274,3272,3256],"class_list":{"0":"post-3182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-highest","9":"tag-kurosawas","10":"tag-lowest","11":"tag-original","12":"tag-riff","13":"tag-strange"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3184,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3182\/revisions\/3184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}