It’s official:
Spike Lee
’s new film,
Highest 2 Lowest
is set to debut May 19th at the
Cannes Film Festival
The film—a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime procedural and class-based moral tale.
High and Low
—brings Lee back together with his long-time (and arguably most prominent) co-creator,
Denzel Washington
Who will stride down Cannes\’ red carpet for what festival head Thierry Fremaux notes as \”the very first occasion\” in history?
Lee has a significant past with the festival, and the May 19th date holds great significance for the director. This marks the 36th anniversary of the Cannes debut of Lee’s iconic film.
Do the Right Thing
, marking the first of five films directed by Lee that have been shown there. In 2021, Lee had previously taken on the role of Jury President at Cannes, and his most recent appearance on the Croisette with a feature film in competition was for the 2018 release of
BLACKKKLANSMAN
, he secured a Grand Prix award (along with six additional Academy Award nominations), although his new film will not be part of the competitive section this time around.
Highest 2 Lowest
, a collaboration between Apple and A24, has generated significant anticipation since being announced at the beginning of last year. This marks Lee\’s second reinterpretation of an internationally renowned classic from a master, after his 2013 version of Park Chan-wook’s work.
Oldboy
with
Josh Brolin
, Elizabeth Olsen and
Samuel L. Jackson
.
Highest 2 Lowest
arrives during a mid-career revival for Lee, and boasts a cast that seems plucked directly from my mind: Denzel (teaming up with Lee again after almost twenty years, marking their fifth collaboration together) along with the God
Jeffrey Wright
, Dean Winters, Ice Spice, and so forth.
A$AP Rocky
.
Kurosawa’s original—which was adapted from the 1959 police novel—
King’s Ransom
Evan Hunter’s film is a suspenseful and measured story centered around men in confined spaces grappling with tough decisions under extreme circumstances. The movie delves deeply into the structures of class hierarchy and examines how capitalism can erode individual values both independently and intertwined within the societal framework of 1960s Japan. Known for collaborating with director Akira Kurosawa on sixteen projects from 1948 to 1965, actor Toshiro Mifune often plays roles akin to what Denzel Washington might play for filmmaker Spike Lee today. In this particular work, he portrays Kingo Gondo, an executive at a footwear firm dedicated to maintaining high-quality standards for their products.
As Gondo plans to challenge ruthless business practices by investing all his assets in a risky bid to take over control of his own company, confusion arises due to misidentification. A ransom demand comes through claiming they have kidnapped Gondo’s son, but later evidence reveals that the actual victim was the chauffeur’s offspring instead—and yet, the abductors persistently ask for 30 million yen as compensation for releasing him unharmed. This situation compels Gondo to weigh sacrificing either his professional standing and financial stability or risking another person’s young life.
Lee has been tight-lipped regarding specifics of the film, yet has dropped several hints alongside a handful of contextual sneak peeks shared from the filming location, including
a picture of A$AP Rocky standing boldly in a prison uniform
. Lee
has described Rocky’s character
—whom, with Spike’s usual flair for boldness, is called \”Yung Felon\”—in the leading role of the movie. Denzel’s character—the part originally played by Mifune—is now described as a “music executive,” and a highly gentrified and inflated modern-day New York City takes the place of postwar Tokyo.
This is purely speculative casting, but \”Yung Felon\” certainly sounds like a rapper\’s alias. My hypothesis—presented in what would ideally be a forgettable Friday blog post by the time this movie releases in summer, assuming I\’m incorrect—is as follows: Similar to Ginjirô Takeuchi from the original film, who was portrayed as a poor yet cunning kidnapper driven by envy, Rakim might play someone whose musical aspirations have faltered, holding Denzel Washington’s character accountable for his misfortunes. It seems plausible that Jeffrey Wright could take on the role of the chauffeur whose child becomes inadvertently abducted, with Dean Winters portraying another villainous figure attempting to sabotage Denzel’s record company, reminiscent of how Michael Rappaport\’s character did originally.
Bamboozled
role.
In an image recently released from the movie
, we see Denzel on the subway, seated beside a dark-colored bag; this seems to be a recurrence of the scene from Kurosawa’s movie where Gondo appears.
warning for an old film from 1961
Ultimately chooses to pay the ransom, placing it into two suitcases and tossing them off a moving train.
The movie seems well-suited to explore the recurring themes and concepts that Lee has consistently addressed throughout his career: how race and capitalism influence American culture, maintaining integrity within a system designed to strip it away, and our mutual obligations amidst societal chaos. However, we can only confirm these speculations once fortunate reviewers begin sharing their over-the-top comments from France in roughly a month’s time.