Both are about a self-made wealthy married businessman with a son. Kingo Gondo is a Yokohama shoe magnate (played by Toshiro Mifune), David King is a Manhattan record company founder/executive (Denzel Washington), and both have chauffeurs (Yutaka Sada and Jeffrey Wright). In both movies, the businessman's son is close friends with the chauffeur's son, and a kidnapper grabs the wrong boy and demands a huge ransom anyway. Each has a creative sequence involving a train. One notable difference is that the Japanese wife Reiko Gondo, played by Kyoko Kagawa, is the only woman in more than one scene, whereas Pam King, played by Ilfenesh Hadera, has a lot to do and is joined by at least a half dozen female characters, played by Ice Spice as a suspect's wife, LaChanze as a detective, and more. Another is that, in keeping with Wright's prodigious acting chops, his chauffeur character is fully fleshed out with a backstory, whereas Sada's is an obsequious, taciturn man. Trivia item: Jeffrey Wright's real life son Elijah plays his on screen son.
The 1959 novel King's Ransom by Evan Hunter/Ed McBain (two of several pen names for the author born Salvatore Lombino) served as source material for both. Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima, and Eijiro Hisaita co-wrote Kurosawa's script with him. Alan Fox adapted the other for Lee.
I remember enjoying the soundtracks, although, full disclosure, I watched High and Low on a plane and noise-cancelling headphones can do only so much. I was able to find one jazzy, film noir track by Masaru Sato for High and Low on YouTube. Howard Drossin's Highest 2 Lowest score is available on Apple Music as is a playlist of the songs throughout. In the remake there's a musical performance by Eddie Palmieri's Salsa Orchestra cut into an action sequence. Palmieri (1936-2025) died three days before the movie premiered in Brooklyn.
Ko Kurosawa, grandson of the director, collaborated with Lee on the remake. Asakazu Nakai and Takao Saito gave us the black and white cinematography for Kurosawa, while Matthew Libatique's color photography enlivens Lee's picture. Shout out to production designer Mark Friedberg and his crew for the spectacular decor in the Manhattan apartment, including reproductions of existing art.
I last blogged about Lee for Da 5 Bloods, Washington for The Tragedy of Macbeth, Wright for Rustin, and Friedberg for Paterson, Libatique for Maestro.
Every film student knows about Kurosawa (1910-1998) who is probably best known for Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954), Yojimbo (1961), and Ran (1985). When I had a favorite movie list in the 1980s [I don't have one now, really!], his Dodes'ka-den (1970), the story of a boy who was "trolley crazy," was on it. Mifune (1920-1997) starred in Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo, among his nearly 200 credits. Sada (1911-2017) worked with Kurosawa many times, and he and Kagawa (now 94 years old) each have about 150 credits.
Hunter (1926-2005) wrote 119 novels (The Blackboard Jungle (1954) was also adapted into a movie) and four screenplays, including The Birds (1963). Oguni (1904-1996) co-wrote Seven Samurai, Ran, Dodes'ka-den, and more. My blogged movie Living mentions that it was adapted from Ikiru (1954)--directed by Kurosawa and co-written by Oguni. Kikushima (1914-1989) co-wrote Yojimbo and many more. Hisaita's (1898-1976) resume is much shorter at 24, including story credits. Sato (1928-1999) scored Yojimbo, worked on Seven Samurai, and had over three hundred other credits. Nakai (1901-1988) shot Ran, Seven Samurai, and a hundred others. Saito (1929-2014) also shot Yojimbo, Ran, Dodes'ka-den, and a few more.
Hadera had a small part in Lee's Chi-Raq and counts in her resume ten episodes of the series remake of Lee's movie She's Gotta Have It and twenty of Billions. Rapper Ice Spice makes her film debut, and LaChanze, who has a Tony-winning Broadway career as an actor, singer, dancer, and producer, had a small part in The Help, among her dozens of roles. This is Fox's screenwriting debut and Drossin's eighth feature after many video games and shorts.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are way up there, averaging 97 and 95%, respectively for High and Low. I watched it on September 17 and you can see it on HBO or rent it. For Highest 2 Lowest, Rotten Tomatoes' averages are not quite as elevated but still tied at 84%. We watched it September 23 with our Apple TV+ subscription and can also be rented.
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