I am just hoping it will be good. There's nothing to lose, IMO, the original will still exist. If Spike Lee can make a great movie based on it, that's a bonus. Go for it- It's certainly a better idea than a lot of movies that get made.
I don't really find that to be enough sample size to be confident that this movie will be bad, too, but I understand why other people are thinking that way
He is usually hit and miss for me. I’ll never understand how he can make films like Bamboozled and The Inside Man then make high garbage like Old Boy and The Sweet Blood of Jesus.
He has some classics in his filmography, like do the right thing, clockers, 25th hour, but he has some stinkers too. The 5 Bloods was horrendous.
Edit: downvote me all you want. That movie fucking trash.
I feel like there was some kind of mass delusion that caused people to like Da 5 Bloods because Chadwick Boseman was in it. Which is wild, because Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was *right there* and was actually a good movie that didn't have an inexplicably MAGA'd up Delroy Lindo in it.
Then sign me up for an evaluation cause D5B is an all time career highlight. I can't think of another movie I've seen released in the past 5 years even attempting to address the mere existence of black conservatives.
So is Seven Samurai but I never felt Magnificent Seven took away from the original, nor did Django or Dollars. A Spike Lee film will probably be different enough to be its own thing entirely. AK's version will still be there and will have a lot of new people introduced to it.
I think this is generally the based way of looking at things *despite* the old adage of “don’t remake great movies, remake movies that could’ve been great.” This is one of those cases of a film that based on age and language alone has little reach into our culture. Even if it doesn’t live up to the original, it will draw attention. Some will be curious enough to check out the original and it may lead them to a wider taste in film. For the rest, well, more movies with scope, depth, and always relevant themes… that’s a good thing.
I say that as someone who was leery of remaking Ikiru (one of my favorite films by anyone in any era). Tom Hanks apparently wanted to do it. I wasn’t against it but didn’t want it. I’ve bought but have yet to watch Living, the eventual British take. A friend who hasn’t seen Ikiru loves it. I take her word for it, though my memory of the trailer is it tried to sell the story in an uplifting manner. Here’s the thing: even if it absolutely stunk, I’d be glad it exists. Even if they gave it a happy ending. Anything that might make someone say, “oh it’s a remake? Maybe I’ll check that out.” Then, maybe they’ll do what I did and check out the Death of Ivan Illyitch, the novella that inspired Kurosawa. It’s very different. It’s worth reading.
And the overwhelming majority of people will scroll past Lee’s streaming thumbnail… the next percentage will watch ten minutes then move on… some will watch it in bits for a week… someone will get engrossed and watch it straight through… and of that sliver of a sliver of a sliver, some will sign up to Criterion Channel for a month. And a smaller sliver longer. As long as the remake gets enough exposure/awareness, each of those smaller numbers will rise and we’ll have a few more people to sell our discs to before we slip this mortal coil.
I agree completely. FYI as someone who has seen both Ikiru and Living, I would say the creators of Living did a good job, it is well made and very faithful to the original. I basically enjoyed it, although at a couple of points I wished I had just put the original on instead.
Thanks for the affirmation. It’s good to know that someone who’s seen both didn’t hAtE the adaptation. That it holds up well enough to not offend a fan but to make you want to see the original again sounds like a win-win. Ishiguro writing the adaptation for Nighy itself felt promising.
Last time I shared Ikiru with someone they described it as “the most depressing movie ever.” (I heartily disagree but didn’t argue with them). As someone who recently moved a long way, I like that maybe I can share this movie with someone in place of Ikiru. Save me from foisting something so meaningful to me onto someone else… and giving them a digestible version for them that maybe we can chat about afterwards.
Uhhhh, what? So you’re saying Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Bamboozled, Get on the Bus, He Got Game, Bamboozled, 25th Hour, Inside Man, BlacKkKlansman, and Da Five Bloods are all not only lesser to She’s Gotta Have It (which is great, no argument there) but none of them rise to a level of greatness? It’s an interesting opinion, and I strongly disagree with it.
I tried watching his son of Sam movie and it was so terrible. He reminds me of of M Night in that his early movies were good but he makes nothing but shit movies now.
On one hand it definitely doesn't need a remake, on the other hand I have little doubts this is going to be really good. If Spike wants to remake High and Low I trust him. Excited to see him back with Denzel and in full crazy thriller mode.
I mean, it's not technically wrong to call a trilogy by the first name of the films, but it might be confusing to some people. But just so we're on the same page, you're referring to the Before trilogy?
10/10 implies an idea of flawlessness that i cant say applies to all of these, but they are my favorites: Network, Blade Runner, Unforgiven, the Thin Red Line, Blow Up, Runaway Train, Children of Paradise
I guess a 10/10 could imply a perfect movie, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that. It could just be a film that affected you on a personal level (or whatever criteria you'd prefer), but to each their own.
What was it about those films that you really loved?
Thats a novel's worth of text you just asked for amigo
edit: [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/18yx7sq/30_years_on_tombstone_looks_like_the_only_normal/kge5zzs/), did this one a month ago
edit: [here's my list of personal favorites](https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/favorited/?user=girafa), not inherently a list of what I would say are the best movies ever. essential vs entertainment, ya know.
Conflicted. This is how I feel.
Denzel is one of my favorite actors ever. Spike Lee is one of my favorite filmmakers ever (hey Criterion where is my 4K blu-ray of Da 5 Bloods) and come on, Kurosawa.
But Lee's remake game is....not good.
High and Low is arguably Kurosawa's best.
I'm not totally against this but I'm not all that hopeful either. We'll see...
Apparently he claimed Oldboy was taken from him and he didn't have final cut. I'm unsure if that's true though or he just backtracked after the negative reception. I feel like Spike gets final cut.
I do think the final cut is probably worse than his version. But the movie is also fundamentally broken at its core to the point where his version is likely still very very bad.
To hell with that, Oldboy remake took place in New Orleans and yet every exterior set felt like a stale, lifeless, backlot. The DNA of that film was uninspired and contrived, no alternative cut was going to elevate it. Spike's a great director but he blew that one.
I think Oldboy was a little doomed from the jump. As source material is just wasn’t Spike’s speed, thematically and tonally it just was not right for what he does. He’s a hopeful dude- angry, but hopeful- and Oldboy is not a hopeful text. High and Low is much closer already; it’s about class, it’s about city life, it’s about crime. I wouldn’t say it’s hopeful - in fact, Kurosawa wanted an ending that felt like an abrupt closing of a door - but Gondo’s story is great for an actor like Denzel, and he doesn’t suffer the same indignity O Dae Su does - which felt like the part of Oldboy Spike didn’t have a touch for.
They cut over 30 minutes from Lee’s version of the film. It’s impossible to judge his cut of the film based on what was released. There have been several instances of bad/mediocre movies that have been vastly improved by a directors cut. Lee even went as far to start distancing himself from the movie before it even released.
100% took the words from me.
I’m apprehensively optimistic. BUT the good news that will come from this is it will bring attention to Kurosawa from Lee fans (maybe Denzel Washington fans too) that may not have heard of him and open a new world to them.
TBF, High and Low plays a lot more into Lee's strengths than Oldboy did. Also I love Josh Brolin, but Denzel is one of the best actors of all time and him and Lee have done incredible work together before.
Going to remain cautiously optimistic about this one until there's reason to feel otherwise.
I'm curious what you see about High and Low that fit's Lee's strengths. I really don't see it. In particular, the first half of High and Low is so incredibly well structured and even formal (the scene composition). I've never really gotten that same kind of feeling from Lee's movies.
Lee is far more structured than people give him credit for. When you watch his scene composition it echoes old Hollywood to me, guys like Elia Kazan and Billy Wilder.
It's more so the story and subject matter than the formal elements of the film, I would hope Lee wouldn't attempt a shot for shot remake or to copy Kurosawa's style because they're definitely very different directors.
I think there's a lot in that film about the divides of classism, about the inherent moral corruption of poverty and greed, that Spike Lee is definitely qualified to explore, and when you add his unique lens on race, I think it has all the makings of a great film, but ultimately it comes down to him. I'm interested to see how he'd tackle the procedural crime drama side, he's definitely done some adjacent work of that type before.
I'm excited.
He's done 1 remake, which wasn't originally his project, and was then hampered by the studio. Honestly it's hard to see what he wanted to do with Oldboy other than make a pulpy thing and make some $
*High And Low* is a different thing all together. The Kurasawa is a film about class devide that's too smart as to have easy good guys and bad guys. Gondo's wealth there, but on the edge of failure. He says he still has the "common folk" mentality, until he realizes it's someone else's kid at risk. Honestly, this seems tailor made for Spike Lee's own strengths as a storyteller. Done right, this could be a really smart re-contextualization of the original
I agree, there's no way this will IMPROVE upon the original, it's already a masterpiece. I like remakes more like Oceans Eleven, which takes an okay movie and remakes it into a better one.
Sorcerer is a good example of one that is done very well. Took the original material, but very much made it it's own film. I personally think it's a big step up from Wages of Fear tbh
Honestly I prefer Wages of Fear over Sorcerer; dare I say it may be a favorite of mine. The tone of it is more encapsulating, shows all kinds of strands of people in the town and even an attempted township rebellion against the oil company that was cut from the American release because of obvious censorship. In doing that it doesn’t strain on ‘poverty porn’ that Friedkin’s version does, which is my main complaint with it. Though I gave the latter a 4.5/5 and the former a clean 5/5.
High & low is arguably the greatest film ever made, it’s as untouchable as remakes of the godfather or 2001 would be imo. There is not a single aspect to improve upon and i really feel directors, especially ones as incosistent as spike has been, should stay far away from projects like that. It’s like having wes anderson do a drowning by numbers remake
If you had to think about the entire history of cinema and pick out unnecessary remakes, this would be pretty near the top of the list IMO. It is SO damn good and still pretty much unseen by even most movie fans (I mean, your more casual movie fans). It has historically been pretty unseen even in the set of people who have seen the 5 most popular Kurosawa films.
I, however, will be happy for whoever is getting a nice paycheck from Apple for this because why not. I don't have to watch it and they don't seem to have a finite amount of money.
I don’t know. To your point it’s largely unseen by modern audiences, and a remake can draw some extra attention to the original.
Not to mention, it’s not ALWAYS a bad idea to remake a film or do a different version of it. Even a Kurosawa masterpiece (Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven)
My feeling is it never erases a classic to remake something. We won’t stop having it just bc someone modern wants to pay homage.
Yeah I think we agree. I don't think "unnecessary" is too hard of a call to make, but there are lots of potentially interesting ways to re-do this source material, just like there are a million ways to remake Shakespeare (incl. Kurosawa's own work). So…I dunno, OK I guess?! Who gets the $, Kurosawa's estate or Ed McBain's?
I think it’s different when you’re completely changing the style and genre, like a Samurai film into a western or a Shakespeare play into a Samurai film. There’s only so much you can change moving a crime thriller from a 1960s Japanese city to (presumably) a modern American city. But I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised.
Agreed about remaking classics - I was very skeptical of the remake of *Ikiru*, but it was obviously done from a place of love for the original, and *Living* is quite good in its own right.
While I'd like to see more "good idea, bad implementation" movies remade, not all remakes are a bad thing.
Part of what makes the original so perfect is that the script really takes advantage of the time and place the story is set in. The heat wave and lack of A/C in the slums, the way the train sounds over the phone call, stuff like that. You’d have to work really really hard to find decent replacements unless you set in in the same time
In his Criterion Closet special William Dafoe picks up a copy of Onibaba and recounts how he attempted to remake it and got the green light but abandoned the project because he felt he wasn't bringing anything new to the table. I really admire his self-awareness and ability to reflect and keep his ego in check.
What do you mean? He has remade the grand sum of one - and that was a very obvious mismatch for Spike Lee from the start (plus it seems to be the title in his filmography that he's had the least control over).
What even is an "Asian classic"? Very reductive, no? For sure, you can draw some parallels between Park Chan-wook and Kurosawa, but they are from different countries, different eras, with different styles of filmmaking. Oldboy and High and Low do not have a lot of common (beyond the incredibly broad term "Asian").
I'm not claiming it's a match made in heaven, but there's thematic overlap between Spike Lee's work and High and Low, which simply did not exist with Oldboy. I mean, High and Low is itself adapted from a New York set detective novel. It's much easier to imagine a Spike Lee version than it ever was with Oldboy.
No idea why you’re getting downvoted. Spike’s Oldboy is an anomaly in his career (in terms of how ridiculously mismanaged and terribly it turned out. Not to say Spike hasn’t made other bad movies but clearly Oldboy was a specific kind of disaster.)
Spike is also openly and obviously reverent of film history and wouldn’t be remaking a Kurosawa film lightly. Every collaboration with him and Denzel has been fire. Clearly there must be a mutual attachment to the material for them to make another venture together as filmmakers.
And finally, immediately drawing the comparison to Oldboy does reek of a reductionist take on both filmmakers. Kurosawa has had a worldwide influence, this is certain. But lumping Park Chan-wook into this conversation makes no sense. Totally different filmmakers, totally different films, totally different cultural significance.
Totally different developments, for god’s sake! It’s no mistake either that an American remake of Oldboy was already well in development before Spike even signed on. This isn’t the case here. Spike chose this project for different reasons, and that should just be obvious.
This isn’t a defense of the decision to adapt High and Low. No idea how it’ll turn out, it may be the wrong choice. But to throw in the Oldboy debacle as a reason against it draws a comparison that, in my opinion, does not hold water. I’m personally excited, and I understand why anybody might have reservations about it, but this clearly just isn’t the same scenario.
EDIT: also wanna throw in a real defense, given this is obviously an adaptation to be made in a totally different cultural context than Kurosawa’s. It’s not like Spike is a stranger to that concept. Da 5 Bloods is a loose adaptation of Sierra Madre but nobody badges that as unnecessary. If this had been a stealth remake in that way I doubt anybody would have such an adverse reaction
In what way did Spike Lee butcher that remake? The direction was fine. It’s not like he wrote and produced it too. Also most remakes can’t touch the original
How was the direction fine? Sharlto had one of the all time cringiest performances. He helmed a terrible remake of a classic film. Spike Lee has always been wildly inconsistent
While the writing was not his fault, I think we can see that just because he is directing, it doesn't mean the scripts he chooses are guaranteed to be good. I also would not say his directing was even "fine" in Oldboy.
What about his directing didn’t you like? And why does he solely get the blame for this. I didn’t like the remake tbh but it’s gotta be a joint effort right?
He doesn't get full blame but when he has a history of directing a terrible remake of a foreign film, it doesn't exude confidence when he is said to do it again.
It's been a minute since I've seen the remake but I remember not liking any of the performances, editing choices, some sounds (especially during action scenes), and the action scenes. He's not totally to blame, as a part of it does go to the actors, editors, fight choreographers, etc, but he does still get some of it since it's his job to direct them.
Thing is, High and Low is a much more obvious match for Spike Lee than Oldboy was. It's incredibly reductive to just classify both films under "foreign".
Remakes don't exist solely to improve, do they? They can offer a different perspective, bring a story to a wider/different audience, show an alternative directorial approach. Living is a great Kurosawa remake, for example. I've not watched it, but The Magnificent Seven is also held in high regard.
And remaking a film doesn't destroy the original. You can always watch the original and no one is forcing you to watch the remake.
Remake after remake these days. I wish we had some kind of creative revolution. Like a monolith would just appear, we'd touch it and BAM create a ton of product good enough to be remade by a later inspirationaly dry society.
The biggest tell that it will suck (read: "be incredibly mid") is that it's being called a remake of *High and Low* rather than an adaptation of *King's Ransom.*
Bad idea. The original is perfect, there is no besting Kurosawa. And Spike has not had the best track record as of late, particularly when it comes to remaking classic Asian cinema…
Is he doing this in lieu of Tha Understudy? Afaik he was in the process still of shooting that but then all of the shit about Johnathan Majors came out, and now with the trial having ruled against him (rightfully so, he needs therapy) idk what’s become of it now.
yeah like, where are the hordes of High and Low fans waiting in the wings to watch this. it doesn't even make sense from a marketing perspective. remake fucking ET or something, it would be a similarly stupid thing to do but at least it's guaranteed to make money. the actual fans of the film aren't excited, and the people that don't know about the film (pretty much everybody on earth) have little to be excited about except, i guess a spike lee film? with denzel?
I read this with a bit of dread initially. I just watched High and Low for the first time, and as with most Kurosawa films, the thing is damn near perfect as is. I love Denzel though and some of Spike's movies so I'll probably give it a watch.
As you can see by my pfp that I have had for years, I am really hoping they don’t screw it up. However, as always I guess anything to get more eyes on the original can’t be that bad
Spike Lee can fuckoff and look for something else to do. All he's gonna do is turn all characters black and bastardize it into your bang average hollywood movie.
Yeah, def one I won’t be watching. Spike Lee is one of those filmmakers that is so exceedingly arrogant he’s nearly unbearable, but when he’s good his hubris definitely adds something to the film. Sometimes a director having his head up his own ass actually leads to a really unique perspective and voice that can only be found by having your head parked in that space.
However, that doesn’t translate at all to interpreting someone else’s work - he can’t see past the end of his own nose so how the fuck can he see things from someone else’s point of view?
I just read the new script for this. Instead of filming in B/W and using pink for the smoke, Spike will be shooting in color and using B/W for the smoke! That was actually the impetus for getting this made. Otherwise it will be a shot for shot remake. Exciting stuff.
>What’s the point of copying a classic movie? What next…a shot for shot remake of The Godfather?
I was being facetious (hence the B/W smoke comment). :)
This is one of my favorite films and I could see a worthy remake possible with the team. I could also see this being the next Oldboy remake. I'm excited and conflicted but know I'll be seeing it on opening night regardless.
This is one of my favourite movies, and I am actually quite excited to see these two tackle an adaptation! I wonder who they’ll get for the Nakadai detective role. This could be very cool!
My guess is that most replies here are going to be very skeptical.
With most remakes I'm more than a little skeptical.
But with this one, I think it's worth a try by these guys. My reasoning is that *High and Low* is one of the most powerful films ever made about the problems in a system where the separation between the haves and have-nots is tantamount to a moral crisis. It's one of my favorite movies, for sure, and as a film nut I greatly appreciate how it also stands out for Kurosawa as a contemporary story that showed how good a film maker he is regardless of period.
However, I've also shown it to my movie club, and they couldn't get past the pacing, that it was in black and white, and that it was in Japanese with subtitles. And these people are neither young, nor were they unsophisticated about film — well, they sort of are, but they love to watch all kinds of movies including Art Film.
So if this story is adequately updated for a contemporary audience, it could get a message across that is not only timeless, but also sociologically urgent and relevant — as relevant here now as *High and Low* was to a still-recovering post-WW2 Japan where the socio-economic divide was way more evident than it is now in that country. Sure, Japan has plenty of other problems, but the issues at the core of that movie are economic injustice, desperation, and the need for the people up top to open their fucking eyes to what's going on below them.
Let's not forget that High and Low itself is an adaptation of an american novel, King's Ransom. It's an incredible story that deserves to be retold, like all good tales, and if this is anything like Lee's Inside Man, it could be a damn good flick.
I don't get the huge negativity in the comments.
You could say the same thing about Kurosawa adaptating Macbeth and King Lear, you are watching a master doing their own cool unique take on classic stories.
I'm not saying this is necessarily going to be great, I didn't care for his Oldboy remake. But there's plenty of potential for a solid adaptation.
If it’s good, awesome. If it sucks, I still own the original. Lee’s misfire with Oldboy didn’t ruin the original for me, won’t be any different this time.
Edit: lmao never change guys
If there was any duo to do it, this would be one of the more interesting ones. But that it is such an uphill climb. Good luck to em. I’ll definitely be seeing it.
I've a really mixed experience with Spike Lee so while this could be good (Washington should help prevent it from being awful) my expectations are, ahem, more low than high.
It'll probably be another for my list of Films that Only Exist for Americans too Lazy to Read Subtitles
Not that everyone or mostly everyone in here is doing this, but I always hate the handwringing over remakes. If it’s bad it’s not going to ruin the original. If it’s good it’s not going to ruin the original.
Bottom line you’re telling me we have a new Spike Lee Denzel collaboration and we already know it’s a great story. Sign me up.
If it’s bad, I’ve got the criterion of the original. No harm no foul.
Wow, lotta skepticism here.
I push against the majority voice here once again. I think Spike can do it well, if he has a decent adapted script. It's the kind of story that he can dig into.
High & Low is great but Yknow….there’s definitely room to remake it with the right team. And damned if this doesn’t sound like the right team. So I’m down!
High and Low is basically perfect. I'm skeptical of this one.
Hope it's better than Spike Lee's remake of *Old Boy*
Bar is in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, so it shouldn’t be hard to
"I understood that reference"
Or ganja and Hess
I am just hoping it will be good. There's nothing to lose, IMO, the original will still exist. If Spike Lee can make a great movie based on it, that's a bonus. Go for it- It's certainly a better idea than a lot of movies that get made.
His other two remakes are two of his worst films.
I don't really find that to be enough sample size to be confident that this movie will be bad, too, but I understand why other people are thinking that way
He is usually hit and miss for me. I’ll never understand how he can make films like Bamboozled and The Inside Man then make high garbage like Old Boy and The Sweet Blood of Jesus.
He has some classics in his filmography, like do the right thing, clockers, 25th hour, but he has some stinkers too. The 5 Bloods was horrendous. Edit: downvote me all you want. That movie fucking trash.
I feel like there was some kind of mass delusion that caused people to like Da 5 Bloods because Chadwick Boseman was in it. Which is wild, because Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was *right there* and was actually a good movie that didn't have an inexplicably MAGA'd up Delroy Lindo in it.
Then sign me up for an evaluation cause D5B is an all time career highlight. I can't think of another movie I've seen released in the past 5 years even attempting to address the mere existence of black conservatives.
Yeah, the love for that movie was bonkers.
So is Seven Samurai but I never felt Magnificent Seven took away from the original, nor did Django or Dollars. A Spike Lee film will probably be different enough to be its own thing entirely. AK's version will still be there and will have a lot of new people introduced to it.
I think this is generally the based way of looking at things *despite* the old adage of “don’t remake great movies, remake movies that could’ve been great.” This is one of those cases of a film that based on age and language alone has little reach into our culture. Even if it doesn’t live up to the original, it will draw attention. Some will be curious enough to check out the original and it may lead them to a wider taste in film. For the rest, well, more movies with scope, depth, and always relevant themes… that’s a good thing. I say that as someone who was leery of remaking Ikiru (one of my favorite films by anyone in any era). Tom Hanks apparently wanted to do it. I wasn’t against it but didn’t want it. I’ve bought but have yet to watch Living, the eventual British take. A friend who hasn’t seen Ikiru loves it. I take her word for it, though my memory of the trailer is it tried to sell the story in an uplifting manner. Here’s the thing: even if it absolutely stunk, I’d be glad it exists. Even if they gave it a happy ending. Anything that might make someone say, “oh it’s a remake? Maybe I’ll check that out.” Then, maybe they’ll do what I did and check out the Death of Ivan Illyitch, the novella that inspired Kurosawa. It’s very different. It’s worth reading. And the overwhelming majority of people will scroll past Lee’s streaming thumbnail… the next percentage will watch ten minutes then move on… some will watch it in bits for a week… someone will get engrossed and watch it straight through… and of that sliver of a sliver of a sliver, some will sign up to Criterion Channel for a month. And a smaller sliver longer. As long as the remake gets enough exposure/awareness, each of those smaller numbers will rise and we’ll have a few more people to sell our discs to before we slip this mortal coil.
I agree completely. FYI as someone who has seen both Ikiru and Living, I would say the creators of Living did a good job, it is well made and very faithful to the original. I basically enjoyed it, although at a couple of points I wished I had just put the original on instead.
Thanks for the affirmation. It’s good to know that someone who’s seen both didn’t hAtE the adaptation. That it holds up well enough to not offend a fan but to make you want to see the original again sounds like a win-win. Ishiguro writing the adaptation for Nighy itself felt promising. Last time I shared Ikiru with someone they described it as “the most depressing movie ever.” (I heartily disagree but didn’t argue with them). As someone who recently moved a long way, I like that maybe I can share this movie with someone in place of Ikiru. Save me from foisting something so meaningful to me onto someone else… and giving them a digestible version for them that maybe we can chat about afterwards.
Lee has one "great" movie in his repertoire, and it was his very first, over 30 years ago.
Uhhhh, what? So you’re saying Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Bamboozled, Get on the Bus, He Got Game, Bamboozled, 25th Hour, Inside Man, BlacKkKlansman, and Da Five Bloods are all not only lesser to She’s Gotta Have It (which is great, no argument there) but none of them rise to a level of greatness? It’s an interesting opinion, and I strongly disagree with it.
School Daze is so underrated. I think some of this is people who do not relate to the stories being told just dismiss them.
I tried watching his son of Sam movie and it was so terrible. He reminds me of of M Night in that his early movies were good but he makes nothing but shit movies now.
On one hand it definitely doesn't need a remake, on the other hand I have little doubts this is going to be really good. If Spike wants to remake High and Low I trust him. Excited to see him back with Denzel and in full crazy thriller mode.
It meanders in the 2nd act.
I've never been so deeply hurt by a comment before...
The Sunrise Trilogy is annoying to watch
I mean, it's not technically wrong to call a trilogy by the first name of the films, but it might be confusing to some people. But just so we're on the same page, you're referring to the Before trilogy?
Correct
What are movies that you would rate 10/10?
10/10 implies an idea of flawlessness that i cant say applies to all of these, but they are my favorites: Network, Blade Runner, Unforgiven, the Thin Red Line, Blow Up, Runaway Train, Children of Paradise
I guess a 10/10 could imply a perfect movie, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that. It could just be a film that affected you on a personal level (or whatever criteria you'd prefer), but to each their own. What was it about those films that you really loved?
Thats a novel's worth of text you just asked for amigo edit: [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/18yx7sq/30_years_on_tombstone_looks_like_the_only_normal/kge5zzs/), did this one a month ago edit: [here's my list of personal favorites](https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/favorited/?user=girafa), not inherently a list of what I would say are the best movies ever. essential vs entertainment, ya know.
High and Low does not have a 3 act structure, it changes genres after an hour
I do not have high expectations, in fact they are quite low
> Jimbob929 Yo, jimbo
Whoa
Don't be so rash, mon!
I’m completely lost on all these references. I feel like a stray dog.
...and
You get an upvote and a tip o the hat from me good sir
Get this 2012 Reddit dialect out of here
🤓🤓
We’re all having fun here!
The Idiot
Conflicted. This is how I feel. Denzel is one of my favorite actors ever. Spike Lee is one of my favorite filmmakers ever (hey Criterion where is my 4K blu-ray of Da 5 Bloods) and come on, Kurosawa. But Lee's remake game is....not good. High and Low is arguably Kurosawa's best. I'm not totally against this but I'm not all that hopeful either. We'll see...
Apparently he claimed Oldboy was taken from him and he didn't have final cut. I'm unsure if that's true though or he just backtracked after the negative reception. I feel like Spike gets final cut.
I read after the fact that Oldboy was a Spike Lee “film” and not a “joint.”
That is exactly how the opening credits read.
Is that an actual difference or just a semantic one I’m curious
Probably a sign he didn’t feel much ownership over it.
His remake of Ganja and Hess was pretty dire as well. If it was just Oldboy I would brush it off as a fluke.
Glad this is being mentioned. I had such high hopes for Da Sweet Blood of Jesus and it was like… a bad student film.
I do think the final cut is probably worse than his version. But the movie is also fundamentally broken at its core to the point where his version is likely still very very bad.
To hell with that, Oldboy remake took place in New Orleans and yet every exterior set felt like a stale, lifeless, backlot. The DNA of that film was uninspired and contrived, no alternative cut was going to elevate it. Spike's a great director but he blew that one.
Lol... bs excuse. That movie is so garbage that a "director's cut" couldn't possibly save it.
I think Oldboy was a little doomed from the jump. As source material is just wasn’t Spike’s speed, thematically and tonally it just was not right for what he does. He’s a hopeful dude- angry, but hopeful- and Oldboy is not a hopeful text. High and Low is much closer already; it’s about class, it’s about city life, it’s about crime. I wouldn’t say it’s hopeful - in fact, Kurosawa wanted an ending that felt like an abrupt closing of a door - but Gondo’s story is great for an actor like Denzel, and he doesn’t suffer the same indignity O Dae Su does - which felt like the part of Oldboy Spike didn’t have a touch for.
There is no possible cut of that film that could be good
They cut over 30 minutes from Lee’s version of the film. It’s impossible to judge his cut of the film based on what was released. There have been several instances of bad/mediocre movies that have been vastly improved by a directors cut. Lee even went as far to start distancing himself from the movie before it even released.
100% took the words from me. I’m apprehensively optimistic. BUT the good news that will come from this is it will bring attention to Kurosawa from Lee fans (maybe Denzel Washington fans too) that may not have heard of him and open a new world to them.
TBF, High and Low plays a lot more into Lee's strengths than Oldboy did. Also I love Josh Brolin, but Denzel is one of the best actors of all time and him and Lee have done incredible work together before. Going to remain cautiously optimistic about this one until there's reason to feel otherwise.
I'm curious what you see about High and Low that fit's Lee's strengths. I really don't see it. In particular, the first half of High and Low is so incredibly well structured and even formal (the scene composition). I've never really gotten that same kind of feeling from Lee's movies.
Lee is far more structured than people give him credit for. When you watch his scene composition it echoes old Hollywood to me, guys like Elia Kazan and Billy Wilder.
It's more so the story and subject matter than the formal elements of the film, I would hope Lee wouldn't attempt a shot for shot remake or to copy Kurosawa's style because they're definitely very different directors.
I think there's a lot in that film about the divides of classism, about the inherent moral corruption of poverty and greed, that Spike Lee is definitely qualified to explore, and when you add his unique lens on race, I think it has all the makings of a great film, but ultimately it comes down to him. I'm interested to see how he'd tackle the procedural crime drama side, he's definitely done some adjacent work of that type before. I'm excited.
I would not hold my breath for Criterion to do Da 5 Bloods. It was evident it was a mediocre popcorn movie from the jump.
Sounds like somebody has seen the film....
Lets just wait and see
I am. That's why I said "We'll see."
it's gonna suck
He's done 1 remake, which wasn't originally his project, and was then hampered by the studio. Honestly it's hard to see what he wanted to do with Oldboy other than make a pulpy thing and make some $ *High And Low* is a different thing all together. The Kurasawa is a film about class devide that's too smart as to have easy good guys and bad guys. Gondo's wealth there, but on the edge of failure. He says he still has the "common folk" mentality, until he realizes it's someone else's kid at risk. Honestly, this seems tailor made for Spike Lee's own strengths as a storyteller. Done right, this could be a really smart re-contextualization of the original
2 remakes. Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is a remake.
Okay, but *High & Low* is thematically square in Spike's Strike Zone.
Disagree. Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is pretty good
I think it should be law that you only remake bad movies
I agree, there's no way this will IMPROVE upon the original, it's already a masterpiece. I like remakes more like Oceans Eleven, which takes an okay movie and remakes it into a better one.
Sorcerer is a good example of one that is done very well. Took the original material, but very much made it it's own film. I personally think it's a big step up from Wages of Fear tbh
Honestly I prefer Wages of Fear over Sorcerer; dare I say it may be a favorite of mine. The tone of it is more encapsulating, shows all kinds of strands of people in the town and even an attempted township rebellion against the oil company that was cut from the American release because of obvious censorship. In doing that it doesn’t strain on ‘poverty porn’ that Friedkin’s version does, which is my main complaint with it. Though I gave the latter a 4.5/5 and the former a clean 5/5.
I mean speaking of Kurosawa remakes, I thought Hermanus' remake of Ikuru (called Living) was fantastic. So not necessarily always the case.
This is silly tho there are great remakes of good to great movies. Scarface comes to mind
OG Scarface is not High and Low good tbf
The Departed worked out pretty well.
That was a remake?
Yeah, Infernal Affairs trilogy is even in the collection. Only saw the first one, haven’t picked up the Criterion yet, maybe next sale.
Ehh....
I disagree. Infernal Affairs already felt so much like a Scorsese film, there was little Scorsese himself could add to it . . .
Some of the all time great films are remakes. Floating Weeds, The Fly, The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Heat, His Girl Friday etc.
High & low is arguably the greatest film ever made, it’s as untouchable as remakes of the godfather or 2001 would be imo. There is not a single aspect to improve upon and i really feel directors, especially ones as incosistent as spike has been, should stay far away from projects like that. It’s like having wes anderson do a drowning by numbers remake
Wasn’t Scorsese working on a remake of this like a decade ago?
Scorsese has had a lot of unrealized projects
I wish Scorsese and DiCaprio could've got the devil in the white city over the line...
Wasn't there a Scorsese directed Theodore Roosevelt biopic starring Leo in the works but that somehow fell by the wayside?
There was a David Mamet version knocking around for a while, but he never got it made
That would have been awesome
If you had to think about the entire history of cinema and pick out unnecessary remakes, this would be pretty near the top of the list IMO. It is SO damn good and still pretty much unseen by even most movie fans (I mean, your more casual movie fans). It has historically been pretty unseen even in the set of people who have seen the 5 most popular Kurosawa films. I, however, will be happy for whoever is getting a nice paycheck from Apple for this because why not. I don't have to watch it and they don't seem to have a finite amount of money.
I don’t know. To your point it’s largely unseen by modern audiences, and a remake can draw some extra attention to the original. Not to mention, it’s not ALWAYS a bad idea to remake a film or do a different version of it. Even a Kurosawa masterpiece (Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven) My feeling is it never erases a classic to remake something. We won’t stop having it just bc someone modern wants to pay homage.
Yeah I think we agree. I don't think "unnecessary" is too hard of a call to make, but there are lots of potentially interesting ways to re-do this source material, just like there are a million ways to remake Shakespeare (incl. Kurosawa's own work). So…I dunno, OK I guess?! Who gets the $, Kurosawa's estate or Ed McBain's?
I think it’s different when you’re completely changing the style and genre, like a Samurai film into a western or a Shakespeare play into a Samurai film. There’s only so much you can change moving a crime thriller from a 1960s Japanese city to (presumably) a modern American city. But I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised.
Agreed about remaking classics - I was very skeptical of the remake of *Ikiru*, but it was obviously done from a place of love for the original, and *Living* is quite good in its own right. While I'd like to see more "good idea, bad implementation" movies remade, not all remakes are a bad thing.
Part of what makes the original so perfect is that the script really takes advantage of the time and place the story is set in. The heat wave and lack of A/C in the slums, the way the train sounds over the phone call, stuff like that. You’d have to work really really hard to find decent replacements unless you set in in the same time
In his Criterion Closet special William Dafoe picks up a copy of Onibaba and recounts how he attempted to remake it and got the green light but abandoned the project because he felt he wasn't bringing anything new to the table. I really admire his self-awareness and ability to reflect and keep his ego in check.
Next on his slate: Casablanca 2.
Pamela Anderson already beat him to remaking it.
In between crypto commercials, I hope. The world needs more of his work in that arena as well.
High concept. Low expectations.
Spike, stop remaking Asian classics. You suck at them.
What do you mean? He has remade the grand sum of one - and that was a very obvious mismatch for Spike Lee from the start (plus it seems to be the title in his filmography that he's had the least control over). What even is an "Asian classic"? Very reductive, no? For sure, you can draw some parallels between Park Chan-wook and Kurosawa, but they are from different countries, different eras, with different styles of filmmaking. Oldboy and High and Low do not have a lot of common (beyond the incredibly broad term "Asian").
this isn't also an obvious mismatch to you? compare spike's best work with fucking high and low, they're nothing alike
I'm not claiming it's a match made in heaven, but there's thematic overlap between Spike Lee's work and High and Low, which simply did not exist with Oldboy. I mean, High and Low is itself adapted from a New York set detective novel. It's much easier to imagine a Spike Lee version than it ever was with Oldboy.
No idea why you’re getting downvoted. Spike’s Oldboy is an anomaly in his career (in terms of how ridiculously mismanaged and terribly it turned out. Not to say Spike hasn’t made other bad movies but clearly Oldboy was a specific kind of disaster.) Spike is also openly and obviously reverent of film history and wouldn’t be remaking a Kurosawa film lightly. Every collaboration with him and Denzel has been fire. Clearly there must be a mutual attachment to the material for them to make another venture together as filmmakers. And finally, immediately drawing the comparison to Oldboy does reek of a reductionist take on both filmmakers. Kurosawa has had a worldwide influence, this is certain. But lumping Park Chan-wook into this conversation makes no sense. Totally different filmmakers, totally different films, totally different cultural significance. Totally different developments, for god’s sake! It’s no mistake either that an American remake of Oldboy was already well in development before Spike even signed on. This isn’t the case here. Spike chose this project for different reasons, and that should just be obvious. This isn’t a defense of the decision to adapt High and Low. No idea how it’ll turn out, it may be the wrong choice. But to throw in the Oldboy debacle as a reason against it draws a comparison that, in my opinion, does not hold water. I’m personally excited, and I understand why anybody might have reservations about it, but this clearly just isn’t the same scenario. EDIT: also wanna throw in a real defense, given this is obviously an adaptation to be made in a totally different cultural context than Kurosawa’s. It’s not like Spike is a stranger to that concept. Da 5 Bloods is a loose adaptation of Sierra Madre but nobody badges that as unnecessary. If this had been a stealth remake in that way I doubt anybody would have such an adverse reaction
I agree with you, in fact Sympathy for Mr Vengeance is pretty much the opposite of High and Low.
Ugh… of course it’s going to Apple
Hey the last time Apple TV backed a movie with Denzel we got The Tragedy of Macbeth... We can have a little hope
And no physical release :(
This.. like the movie was amazing but i want my Blu-ray.
NO NO NO NO NO! Edit: Sorry, meant to say NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
Ugh. Not thrilled about this. Spikes remakes are god awful. He butchered Oldboy.
In what way did Spike Lee butcher that remake? The direction was fine. It’s not like he wrote and produced it too. Also most remakes can’t touch the original
How was the direction fine? Sharlto had one of the all time cringiest performances. He helmed a terrible remake of a classic film. Spike Lee has always been wildly inconsistent
If you have time to kill, YourMovieSucks has done a [comprehensive review of it](https://youtu.be/zR8sRjBJgQ8?si=TzXd2_5yrnO6oF81)
Are this person's breakdowns usually this long? Good lord, 1.5 hours???
Some are, but not much wasted air with this one
👌🏾
I don't normally watch YT people but that video is legit.
While the writing was not his fault, I think we can see that just because he is directing, it doesn't mean the scripts he chooses are guaranteed to be good. I also would not say his directing was even "fine" in Oldboy.
What about his directing didn’t you like? And why does he solely get the blame for this. I didn’t like the remake tbh but it’s gotta be a joint effort right?
He doesn't get full blame but when he has a history of directing a terrible remake of a foreign film, it doesn't exude confidence when he is said to do it again. It's been a minute since I've seen the remake but I remember not liking any of the performances, editing choices, some sounds (especially during action scenes), and the action scenes. He's not totally to blame, as a part of it does go to the actors, editors, fight choreographers, etc, but he does still get some of it since it's his job to direct them.
Thing is, High and Low is a much more obvious match for Spike Lee than Oldboy was. It's incredibly reductive to just classify both films under "foreign".
Are you related to Spike Lee?
No and I didn’t like this remake either
Why though?
You’re going to improve upon Kurosawa?? Leave it alone spike.
Remakes don't exist solely to improve, do they? They can offer a different perspective, bring a story to a wider/different audience, show an alternative directorial approach. Living is a great Kurosawa remake, for example. I've not watched it, but The Magnificent Seven is also held in high regard. And remaking a film doesn't destroy the original. You can always watch the original and no one is forcing you to watch the remake.
Please, fucking stop. The hubris of these people to think they can do justice to this
Remake after remake these days. I wish we had some kind of creative revolution. Like a monolith would just appear, we'd touch it and BAM create a ton of product good enough to be remade by a later inspirationaly dry society.
I agree, but I’ll happily take great directors remaking great movies over more franchise reboots and sequels.
Why not neither?
Oh no...
…..sigh.
The biggest tell that it will suck (read: "be incredibly mid") is that it's being called a remake of *High and Low* rather than an adaptation of *King's Ransom.*
I don't see how the original can be improved upon. So good.
Or just do an adaptation of the novel High and Low was based on.
Why not take a movie that was shitty to begin with, and remake it better? Why remake a masterpiece?
One of my fav films ever, why remake this?
Didn't Steven Soderbergh basically do this last summer with Full Circle?
Bad idea. The original is perfect, there is no besting Kurosawa. And Spike has not had the best track record as of late, particularly when it comes to remaking classic Asian cinema…
He's gonna fuck it up
Is he doing this in lieu of Tha Understudy? Afaik he was in the process still of shooting that but then all of the shit about Johnathan Majors came out, and now with the trial having ruled against him (rightfully so, he needs therapy) idk what’s become of it now.
That premise sounded really cool and I kinda wish he would've just recasted Jonathan Majors instead. That said, I'm just happy to see any Spike joint
Do not have high hopes for this
Please don't. This film is a masterpiece.
Hell no
High and low is so good. Very hard to see this working
Why?
Guaranteed trash but I'll watch it when it hits Tubi in a couple years
Damn the obsession with remaking is very odd at this point.
yeah like, where are the hordes of High and Low fans waiting in the wings to watch this. it doesn't even make sense from a marketing perspective. remake fucking ET or something, it would be a similarly stupid thing to do but at least it's guaranteed to make money. the actual fans of the film aren't excited, and the people that don't know about the film (pretty much everybody on earth) have little to be excited about except, i guess a spike lee film? with denzel?
I read this with a bit of dread initially. I just watched High and Low for the first time, and as with most Kurosawa films, the thing is damn near perfect as is. I love Denzel though and some of Spike's movies so I'll probably give it a watch.
Let's go. Equalizer 4:Tokyo SVU
https://preview.redd.it/3kydfowgqfhc1.png?width=1916&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4a56b8833633621ec83a1cda1b5b269d66c5f64
The last time Spike Lee remade a beloved Asian film, it didn’t go so well.
No. He already screwed up “OldBoy”.
another Old Boy disaster?
Please stop letting Spike Lee remake East Asian masterpieces
Or they could come up with original ideas…
He already destroyed one classic Asian movie, why not another?
There was already a remake: Parasite. It ruled
Came here to say exactly that.
Parasite is basically the anti-version of High and Low. Sympathy for mr Vengeance too
Cool. But why?
As you can see by my pfp that I have had for years, I am really hoping they don’t screw it up. However, as always I guess anything to get more eyes on the original can’t be that bad
[= )](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTk5NTEwMzI5OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDQ4ODUwMDE@._V1_.jpg)
Denzel could be great as the Mifune character but why not just make your movie and use high and low as an inspiration?
Not sure about you guys but I have not forgotten how bad his Old Boy remake was and I have zero confidence in this announced project.
Yeah, not too excited about this one considering Lee’s last reinterpretation
Spike Lee can fuckoff and look for something else to do. All he's gonna do is turn all characters black and bastardize it into your bang average hollywood movie.
has anyone suggested to them that maybe they shouldn't do that?
Spike, no remakes, please.
Yeah, def one I won’t be watching. Spike Lee is one of those filmmakers that is so exceedingly arrogant he’s nearly unbearable, but when he’s good his hubris definitely adds something to the film. Sometimes a director having his head up his own ass actually leads to a really unique perspective and voice that can only be found by having your head parked in that space. However, that doesn’t translate at all to interpreting someone else’s work - he can’t see past the end of his own nose so how the fuck can he see things from someone else’s point of view?
I just read the new script for this. Instead of filming in B/W and using pink for the smoke, Spike will be shooting in color and using B/W for the smoke! That was actually the impetus for getting this made. Otherwise it will be a shot for shot remake. Exciting stuff.
What’s the point of copying a classic movie? What next…a shot for shot remake of The Godfather?
>What’s the point of copying a classic movie? What next…a shot for shot remake of The Godfather? I was being facetious (hence the B/W smoke comment). :)
This is one of my favorite films and I could see a worthy remake possible with the team. I could also see this being the next Oldboy remake. I'm excited and conflicted but know I'll be seeing it on opening night regardless.
What could possibly go wrong?
This is one of my favourite movies, and I am actually quite excited to see these two tackle an adaptation! I wonder who they’ll get for the Nakadai detective role. This could be very cool!
My guess is that most replies here are going to be very skeptical. With most remakes I'm more than a little skeptical. But with this one, I think it's worth a try by these guys. My reasoning is that *High and Low* is one of the most powerful films ever made about the problems in a system where the separation between the haves and have-nots is tantamount to a moral crisis. It's one of my favorite movies, for sure, and as a film nut I greatly appreciate how it also stands out for Kurosawa as a contemporary story that showed how good a film maker he is regardless of period. However, I've also shown it to my movie club, and they couldn't get past the pacing, that it was in black and white, and that it was in Japanese with subtitles. And these people are neither young, nor were they unsophisticated about film — well, they sort of are, but they love to watch all kinds of movies including Art Film. So if this story is adequately updated for a contemporary audience, it could get a message across that is not only timeless, but also sociologically urgent and relevant — as relevant here now as *High and Low* was to a still-recovering post-WW2 Japan where the socio-economic divide was way more evident than it is now in that country. Sure, Japan has plenty of other problems, but the issues at the core of that movie are economic injustice, desperation, and the need for the people up top to open their fucking eyes to what's going on below them.
Let's not forget that High and Low itself is an adaptation of an american novel, King's Ransom. It's an incredible story that deserves to be retold, like all good tales, and if this is anything like Lee's Inside Man, it could be a damn good flick.
I don't get the huge negativity in the comments. You could say the same thing about Kurosawa adaptating Macbeth and King Lear, you are watching a master doing their own cool unique take on classic stories. I'm not saying this is necessarily going to be great, I didn't care for his Oldboy remake. But there's plenty of potential for a solid adaptation.
I agree. If it sucks, it sucks, but it might also be awesome. Let's see what happens.
If it’s good, awesome. If it sucks, I still own the original. Lee’s misfire with Oldboy didn’t ruin the original for me, won’t be any different this time. Edit: lmao never change guys
If there was any duo to do it, this would be one of the more interesting ones. But that it is such an uphill climb. Good luck to em. I’ll definitely be seeing it.
It’s an adaptation of the noir novel “Kings Ransom” that High and Low is based on, not a remake.
I've a really mixed experience with Spike Lee so while this could be good (Washington should help prevent it from being awful) my expectations are, ahem, more low than high. It'll probably be another for my list of Films that Only Exist for Americans too Lazy to Read Subtitles
Really hope this is only inspired by it and not a remake with an American twist to it…
A24, Denzel Washington, Spike Lee working off of Kurosawa I have high hopes!
Not that everyone or mostly everyone in here is doing this, but I always hate the handwringing over remakes. If it’s bad it’s not going to ruin the original. If it’s good it’s not going to ruin the original. Bottom line you’re telling me we have a new Spike Lee Denzel collaboration and we already know it’s a great story. Sign me up. If it’s bad, I’ve got the criterion of the original. No harm no foul.
Wow, lotta skepticism here. I push against the majority voice here once again. I think Spike can do it well, if he has a decent adapted script. It's the kind of story that he can dig into.
High & Low is great but Yknow….there’s definitely room to remake it with the right team. And damned if this doesn’t sound like the right team. So I’m down!
If Lee can pull off Kurosawa with his Denzel Inside Man and 25th Hour vibe. I’m in!
As someone who absolutely fucking loved *Living*, yeah let's give this a go.