In choosing to adapt Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low , Spike Lee set the bar for himself formidably high. That 1963 thriller is one of the Japanese auteur’s finest, a study in stark social contrasts that unfolds in two discrete acts: the first a tense chamber drama set in the hilltop home of a wealthy manufacturer, the second a sprawling procedural manhunt that descends from that lofty perch into the sordid criminal underworld of Yokohama. High and Low strikes a perfect balance between style (especially noteworthy are Kurosawa’s use of deep focus and elegantly choreographed long takes) and substance. Cinematic bravura aside, the movie’s story, adapted from a 1959 novel by Ed McBain, is riveting: Even as you marvel at the composition of nearly every shot, you’re breathlessly caught up i

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