Highest 2 Lowest is now streaming on Apple TV+, free to anyone with an Apple TV+ subscription, which means you can now watch the new Denzel Washington and Spike Lee movie from the comfort of your couch. What are you waiting for?!
Highest 2 Lowest is Lee’s modern-day, American take on the classic 1963 Japanese crime film, Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low. Washington stars as David King, a wealthy music mogul, while frequent Lee collaborator Ilfenesh Hadera stars as his on-screen wife, Pam King. Also starring Jeffrey Wright, ASAP Rocky, and Ice Spice, Highest 2 Lowest has received positive reviews from critics so far, and is likely to be a contender in this year’s award season. It’s the fifth team-up between Oscar-wining filmmaker Spike Lee and Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington, and the pair’s first team-up since 2006’s Inside Man.
Like most of Lee’s films—especially Lee’s New York City films—much of Highest 2 Lowest feels real. But is Highest 2 Lowest based on a true story?
Highest 2 Lowest is not based on a true story. Both the characters and story are made-up, and not based on reality. However, the movie is a modern-day remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 acclaimed Japanese film High and Low. (And Kurosawa’s film is based on the 1959 novel King’s Ransom by American author Ed McBain).
Kurosawa’s film follows a wealthy Japanese businessman Kingo Gondo (played by Toshiro Mifune) who hopes to use his life savings to buy out a major shoe company. When a kidnapper accidentally kidnaps the son of Kingo Gondo’s chauffeur—rather than Kingo Gondo’s own son—Gondo must decide whether to pay the ransom price.
Highest 2 Lowest follows the same basic set-up: Denzel Washington stars as David King, a New York City music producer hoping to buy back his record label. Before the deal can go through, David receives a call that his son has been kidnapped. But it turns out the kidnapper accidentally took the son of his driver and friend, Paul (Jeffrey Wright). Will David still cough up the ransom to save Paul’s son?
All this said, filmmaker Spike Lee has stated that Highest 2 Lowest should not be considered a remake. “This was an American novel first, then Kurosawa adapted it into a film,” Lee said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. “I really wanted to get out there that this is not a remake. It’s more than that. At the same time, respecting the source, the book, and the film.”
Kurosawa’s film made a few significant changes from the source material, Ed McBain’s King Ransom book, which was part of McBain’s 87th Precinct Mystery series of police procedural novels. In the book, the main character, Douglas King, flat-out refuses to pay the ransom for his driver’s son, and this is not resolved until the end of the novel. Both Kurosawa and Lee’s film adaptations feature a more sympathetic main character, and spend more time trying to bring the kidnapper to justice.
Even though both movies and the book are works of fiction—meaning they are not based on real-life people or events—Kurosawa has reportedly said that he intended his film to, at least in part, point out the lack of justice brought about for child kidnappings in Japan at the time.
You can watch the original High and Low film streaming on HBO Max, Kanopy, The Criterion Channel, or you can buy or rent the film on digital platforms like Amazon Prime.