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Movies 101

"Highest 2 Lowest" & "High and Low"

From left: actor Denzel Washington as his character David King in the 2025 film Highest 2 Lowest; actor Toshiro Mifune as his character Kingo Gondo in the 1963 film High and Low.
From left: Denzel Washington as David King in Highest 2 Lowest (2025); Toshiro Mifune as Kingo Gondo in High and Low (1963).

A study released last October showed that movie remakes tend to lose money. Yet the film industry, for a variety of reasons, keeps churning them out. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Mary Pat Treuthart and Nathan Weinbender discuss one recent remake, Spike Lee’s film Highest 2 Lowest, which is his version of Ed McBain’s 1959 novel King’s Ransom, as well as take a look back at another McBain adaptation, Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film High and Low.

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    Spike Lee’s latest joint "Highest 2 Lowest" is out, and Nathan Weinbender says it’s an uneven but thought-provoking redo of an Akira Kurosawa classic. It’s now playing at the Magic Lantern and is streaming on Apple TV+.