Highest 2 Lowest
I was tempted to go full Monty Brogan on this disaster and fire off a venom laced "fuck you" to every frame, every line, and every editorial decision. But no. This film doesn't deserve that kind of passion and it’s not worth the poetry of rage.
However a big respectful fuck you to Mr. Lee is still in order. For one thing that opening credit. Adapted from “High and Low” by Akira Kurosawa. Written by Hideo Oguni and Ryūzō Kikushima. You had the audacity to flash that for barely a heartbeat then let it fade like an afterthought while every other name, every other title, gets its full moment in the spotlight.
When this stitched together, culturally tone-deaf mess lands on streaming, time the adapted and written by credit. Watch how quickly it disappears compared to the others. It's not subtle. It's not accidental. It's disrespect, plain and simple.
Even if I give the benefit of the doubt and assume it came from an executive note that the billing was too stacked and took up half the screen, a creator at your level could have shut it down without hesitation. You had the power. You chose not to use it.
So yeah... fuck you, Mr. Lee. Fuck you. I hope the white-owned streaming platform, staffed by workers in sweatshop factories with suicide nets cut you a fat enough check to buy another Basquiat to hang in the background, score courtside seats to the Knicks and Yankees, and sit back comfortably while you explain how this "reinterpretation" was all some profound commentary on wealth disparity. All while blaming everything and everyone without looking even an inch inward.