Highest 2 Lowest 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Highest 2 Lowest 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 7, 2026

Akira Kurosawa is rightly championed as one of the most legendary artists to emerge from the post World War II film industry in Japan, though it's interesting to note just how many of Kurosawa's acclaimed films are actually adaptations from various literary sources. Rashomon, Ikiru, Throne of Blood, The Lower Depths*, The Bad Sleep Well* and Yojimbo are just some of Kurosawa's well remembered efforts that were sparked by either a short story, play or novel, and to that list should be added High and Low, Kurosawa's 1963 adaptation of a police procedural novel surrounding a kidnapping written by the venerable Ed McBain (pseudonym for Evan Hunter). For all of Kurosawa's understandably acclaimed historical dramas, High and Low had a "contemporary" setting (i.e., 1963-ish) and was perhaps unexpectedly set in the high intrigue world (?) of shoe manufacturing. Spike Lee has "revisited" Kurosawa and/or McBain with this film, which some may joke steals a "track" or two from the now little remembered but once weirdly hot if ultimately short lived series Empire with Terrence Howard.

*Note: Still missing on Blu-ray as of the writing of this review.

David King (Denzel Washington) is a hard charging music industry impresario, much like Howard's Lucious Lyon, in fact, though King's tribulations in this film are business rather than health related. King is trying to regain complete control of his label as the story opens, and is basically mortgaging everything he has in order to buy that control. Things seem to be proceeding apace, albeit with some rather Empire-esque family dynamics playing out in the background courtesy of King's relationships with his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and son Trey (Aubrey Joseph). Things become decidedly more fraught when King gets a phone call stating Trey has been kidnapped and a huge ransom is required to secure his freedom. Of course the concerned parents more or less agree immediately, only to discover Trey has not been kidnapped. Instead, Trey's friend Kyle Christopher (Elijah Wright), son of King's driver and confident Paul (Jeffrey Wright), had been taken mistakenly. The kidnappers realize their error, but still want payment. That then presents King with a brief but telling crisis of conscience where he has to decide whether the money he's scrambled so hard to get to achieve his business goals should be used instead to pay a ransom for Kyle.

While there are some obvious manifest differences, the above plays more or less similarly to the Kurosawa film, but Lee departs both in content (courtesy of Alan Fox's adaptive screenplay) and probably especially tone and style as things start to potentially spiral into chaos. If Kurosawa's film is a measured study in increasing angst, Lee takes a more deliberate action thriller approach, with King perhaps unbelievably becoming someone with a "particular set of skills", or at least a good right hook and some wrestling moves, when it comes to apprehending the kidnapper. Even before that, in the undeniably expertly edited ransom drop off sequence, there's a certain preposterous quality to how the money ends up in the bad guys' hands. That may provide Lee with his own version of memorable sequences in The French Connection and/or Bullitt, but it still defies credulity to the point that it may be the film's most unintentionally ridiculous moment.

The subtext here is also somewhat similar to Kurosawa's deconstruction of class consciousness in Japan in the post World War II era, though here it's unavoidably filtered through the lens of race. One of this version's most provocative offerings is the identity of the kidnapper (which won't be spoiled here), a reveal that injects a whole new aspect of modern media providing more or less instantaneous fame and fortune to "overnight sensations", perhaps especially in some instances if there's actually a hint of infamy involved. The reveal also offers what may be the second most unintentionally ridiculous moment in the film, as a rap battle of sorts breaks out that suddenly thrusts the film into 8 Mile territory. Lee apes a famous bifurcated presentational conceit that Kurosawa utilized in his version, but then moves on to a coda (in more ways than one, since it features a song) which may provide an uneasy happily ever after.

Highest 2 Lowest 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: While this is a standalone 4K release without a 1080 disc, I am offering screenshots from A24's standalone 1080 release as I think it actually provides a better representation of the look of the palette in particular, rather than offering screenshots from the 4K disc which are by necessity downscaled to 1080 and in SDR. Because this release does not include a 1080 disc, the 2K video score above has been intentionally left blank.

Highest 2 Lowest is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of A24 with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. The bulk of this presentation was captured with the Arri Alexa Mini LF, though the rambunctious subway and chase material also includes both 16mm and 8mm moments, which I'll address further on. The IMDb lists a 4K DI. The digitally captured material offers really sumptuous detail levels for the most part, and a number of close- ups provide expert renderings of things like the knit cap Paul wear or some of the luxe fabrics in the Kings' impressive skyrise apartment. Lee and cinematographer Matthew Libatique utilize high contrast and aggressive saturation that really give this 4K UHD presentation in particular some decided visual energy, with the HDR / Dolby Vision grades offering additional luster to what was already a pretty impressive palette in A24/s 1080 SDR release. Tones in the red to purple to blue ends of the spectrum are especially vivid throughout and are recurrent parts of the production design. The subway chase sequence is its own "animal", so to speak, and there's a deliberately disjunctive feel to the various film stocks and grain thicknesses that I frankly found a little distancing and interruptive, though the smaller millimeter formats certainly give an "up close and personal" documentarian flair, if only intermittently. There's some fairly heavy digital grain that has been applied to the Arri Alexa material that I also wasn't especially fond of, though it at least tends to offer a hint of homogeneity with the actual celluloid utilized.

Highest 2 Lowest 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Highest 2 Lowest features a propulsive Dolby Atmos track that benefits from this rejiggering's emphasis on the music industry, as well as the crowded urban setting in and around Manhattan. There are at least a couple of unexpected source cues utilized, beginning with the venerable Norm Lewis taking on none other than "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!. Other uses of music may be more in line with the styles supposedly associated with focal character King, but everything used provides some sonic energy and at times impressive midrange and especially low end. The cacophony of life in the Big Apple is nicely offered in any number of outdoor sequences, and the amazing subway chase sequence, which is brilliantly intercut with the great Eddie Palmieri and his band performing at a street festival, is one of the real standouts from both sound design and immersion. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Highest 2 Lowest 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• King's Ransom: Making Highest 2 Lowest (HD; 17:24) offers a good overview of the production, and includes some especially charming interviews with Lee and Washington.


• Legends Only Discussion with Spike Lee and Denzel Washington (HD; 15:32) is kind of raucous, but really enjoyable.


• Aiyana-Lee Highest 2 Lowest Music Video Directed by Spike Lee (HD; 3:37)

This comes packaged in the traditional A24 DigiPack inside of a slipbox, with art cards inside the left sleeve.

Highest 2 Lowest 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Highest 2 Lowest may frankly not have the gravitas of the Kurosawa "version", but it's an energetic ride and it certainly proves that the longstanding collaboration between Lee and Washington continues to provide opportunities for both of them. Technical merits are solid and the minimal supplements enjoyable. Recommended.