From the opening moments of “Highest 2 Lowest,” Spike Lee’s remix-as-remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film “High and Low,” you should know that the filmmaker is here primarily for a good time, and he’s asking us to play along.

Over aerial shots of the sun hitting the New York City skyline, including the stunning Olympia building looming over DUMBO, Brooklyn, Lee layers “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” the opening song from the 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!,” a jarring, cheeky choice that jolts us out of what we might think a “Spike Lee Kurosawa remake” is supposed to be.

The Japanese auteur has long been a major influence on Lee, and when the script by Alan Fox, which had been in development with other filmmakers, came his way, Lee made it his own. He also cast longtime c

See Full Page