Highest 2 Lowest loosely adapts both Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low and Ed McBain’s original 1959 novel. The moral conundrum over whether to still pay the ransom forms the central conflict of both Kurosawa’s High and Low and Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, but the films around that dilemma are very different. Where Kurosawa’s film was lean and taut, Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest is indulgent and messy … but also utterly electrifying, as you might expect from a Spike Lee movie. Highest 2 Lowest updates the story for contemporary New York City, following Washington’s David King, a high-powered founder and executive of an influential record label. Highest 2 Lowest opens in theaters August 15, before it will premiere on Apple TV+ on September 5.