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,

This week, Spike Lee releases his new movie, “Highest 2 Lowest.” Starring Denzel Washington, it’s a reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller, “High and Low.” During a premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater on Monday,