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Highest 2 Lowest review: An inspired version of Kurosawa’s best
Updated On: 07 September, 2025 01:43 AM IST | Mumbai | Johnson Thomas
The film’s first half mirrors Kurosawa’s original but feels slow and overly procedural—awkward pacing, heavy score, and stiff framing—until the narrative pivots. When King ventures into the city
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A still from Highest 2 Lowest
Film: Highest 2 Lowest
Cast: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, Aubtrey Joseph, Elijah Wright, Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson, LaChanze, ASAP Rocky
Director: Spike Lee
Rating: 3.5/5
Runtime:133 min
The recently resurgent Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman,” “American Utopia,” and “Da 5 Bloods,”) comes up with yet another exceptional cinematic work with ‘Highest 2 Lowest,’ in which he banks on his favorite star Denzel Washington and the luminous Akira Kurosawa for inspiration. This film is a reinterpretation of the classic Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese film High and Low, which itself was loosely based on the 1959 novel “King’s Ransom.”
“Highest 2 Lowest” is a faithful adaptation of Kurosawa’s “High and Low,” up to half-way point. William Alan Fox’s script dutifully follows the same beats as Kurosawa’s classic but the tempo seems off. Washington plays David King, the millionaire CEO of Stackin’ Hits records, a record producer renowned for his uncanny ear for music. He is now angling to buy back control after having sold off some of his stake in his label years ago. Kidnappers attempting to apprehend his son Trey (Aubrey Joseph), also mistakenly kidnap Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of his friend and chauffeur Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright), forcing King and his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) to risk everything to save them. David, Pam, and Paul speak to the police detectives assigned to the case (Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson, LaChanze), each giving their descriptions of the boys and the last time they’ve seen them before the abduction.
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