Reuniting with his longtime leading man Denzel Washington and remaking an Akira Kurosawa crime classic, Lee captures energy and moral complexity, sometimes wildly.

"He was in his 80s, but he had more energy than I that day," the filmmaker says of the legendary musician, who died Aug. 6 at 88.

Denzel Washington stars in the director’s New York kidnapping drama, inspired by the 1963 classic ‘High and Low.’

Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, and a 1962 episode of the American TV show 87th Precinct all come from the same source