Denzel Washington plays as music mogul David King in the new Spike Lee film “Higest 2 Lowest”. At the head of the world-WAS, he naturally lives a postcode in New York City-in a glittering penthouse with breathtaking views outdoors and a visible woman and a youthful son. Until you are not.
Then King gets a call from a kidnapper who claims to have his son. In fact, his son got away, but his son's best friend – the son of King's driver and long -time confidant – was wrongly taken. How much is König ready to risk this boy?
Sounds familiar? It should do it. “Best to the lowest” is director Lee Lee and screenwriter Alan Fox, who in 1963 of 1963 “High and Low” by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa “High and Low” from 1963. It opened in cinemas this Friday and will be on Apple TV+ in early September.
Kurosawa was a giant. “Seven Samurai” is said to set the standard for the epic battle film and “High and Low” for the crime film, which is loosely based on a book by Evan Hunter.
Lee saw “High and Low” as a film student at New York University.
“[Kurosawa was] One of the greatest filmmakers of all time, ”said Lee.“ This is a reinterpretation. There is a tradition of jazz musicians who carry out their own new interpretations of standing classic songs. So I chose the approach. I am a jazz musician. My father is a great jazz musician, Billy Lee, so we have reinterpreted a great standard. ”
7 questions with Spike Lee
The great Eddie Palmieri appears in a great scene in this film -an outdoor concert that imitates the dance hall in the Kurosawa film. He died last week. Why did you choose it?
“It's a great, great loss. This scene takes place [at the] Puerto Ricann Day Parade. He is one of the great Puertorican artists, so yes. That was a child's play. “
Her character, David King, is in a financial bond when we meet him. He used his penthouse and other assets to buy his company before it is taken from him. He is tense. Then he finds out that it is not his son who was kidnapped, but the best friend of his son, the son of the King driver and friend Paul Christopher, played by Jeffrey Wright. The kidnapper asks for a ransom of 17 million US dollars.
They give Wright's character dignity. He doesn't attack. In Kurosawa's film, The Chauffeur is a wine card that plays at the feet of Gondo, the wealthy shoemaker. Was this a choice from her side, a man – a black man – to give something?
“Well, this character that Jeffrey plays practically begging on the knees. And that's a key matter. This scene has all sitting for me and you have to ask yourself:” If I am sitting on Denzels, how much would I be ready to pay the LANs from my friend for his son? Not my son, for his son. “Everyone who sees this scene, be it in a theater or at home, will ask themselves this question and they remain different answers.
“I think this special scene is more about Japanese culture at that time. I don't know if they are doing it today, but in 1963 I don't think it was strange.”
King decides that he has to try to find his friend's son, and what a stage play was, becomes a persecution film. Palmieri's music underlines a scene in which there is an incredible chase on board an above-ground New York subway train, then in cars through the city when young men give the ransom money on mopeds, and Palmieri and his salsa orchestra play at a Puerto-Rican day. Can you talk about how you used this side by side?
“No. 1, I have to give my great kinentor Matthew Libatique my love, my love.
“And this scene is one of the highlights and the original 'high and low'. So we had to increase it. The kidnapper was very clever and thought of a way, the character of Denzel, David King, in order not to do the money and not be caught.
It is this incredible Mashup from New York Anti-Red Sox fans on the train, in which Puertoricaners have the incredible time at this festival and its cameras.
“So that was in a skate park in the Bronx, a U -Bahn station from the Yankee Stadium.
The film is about the Haves and Have-Nots and the expanded gap. In both her film and in Kurosawa, the father meets the kidnappers, and there is a philosophical discussion about the kidnapper who wants what the rich man has. How did you consider that? There is this thin limit between the recognition of why someone could choose a crime and ask an audience to tell a brutal kidnapper.
“It is the actors they occupied, and I had the full confidence that my brother could bring a $ ap rocky. Because if the actor I selected and I got on the plate and went with a dead-to-toE with Denzel would really hurt the film.
It seems to be a story about young men who is a father figure that they really want. You want a mentor.
“Oh, you hit that. This is the first person to say it so far, and you get one clap.
“Yes. In such a critical scene, it is as if I am a sports fan, but the best games are when they are nearby. If the games are slaughtering, you don't bite into your fingernails.
Denzel Washington – this is the fifth film you worked together, and he was the one who sent Alan Fox 'script to you. What is it like to work with one of the most beautiful faces in the film because it can be fallen?
“I learned so much from Denzel's acting that helped me as a director. The man has an aura, a presence, the intelligence, the heart to convey the heart to human features in front of the camera. And I will tell you that it increases the level that you do behind the camera and that means in view of your best performance, but more than John Zel for the film.
This interview was processed out of clarity.
Emiko Tamagawa produced and worked on this interview for the program with Todd Mundt. Allison Hagan has adjusted it for the web.