Stoker

Chan Wook Park is a very interesting director.  One of my all time favourite films, which is also one my all time most disturbing films, Oldboy (2003).  It has won many international awards and is visually and plot-wise, unlike anything in film.

I hear Oldboy was part of Chan Wook Park's "Vengeance" trilogy.  I saw Mr. Vengeance and while it wasn't Oldboy, it was certainly sad and disturbing.  I saw Lady Vengeance and while it wasn't Old Boy, it was entertaining, complex and disturbing.

His films ooze with irony and question everything from social conventions to family.  Further, morality and justice are sometimes blurred and are at other times blinding.  There is rarely middle ground.  Extremes and intensity.  He is quoted on IMDB as saying, 

"I don't feel enjoyment watching films that evoke passivity. If you need that kind of comfort, I don't understand why you wouldn't go to a spa."

Spike Lee is remaking Oldboy.  I can't imagine why one would take a disturbing masterpiece and try to remake it for a North American audience.  I maintain that it is better to remake a bad movie than it is to remake a good movie badly.  Good luck, Spike.

Stoker.

Nicole Kidman, despite all of the cosmetic surgery, is still beautiful and is still a great actress.  I've never seen Mia Wasikowska in anything, but she's damn good in the trailer for Stoker. Mathew Goode is very good at playing the calm, creepy guy.  I really liked him in Watchmen.

Like many Park films, Stoker is a story of broken people.  A woman loses her husband, her daughter loses her father. They seem to mourn differently and without compassion towards one-another for reasons not shared in the trailer.  An "uncle" arrives after Mr. Stoker's death.  He is filled with motives.  He seduces the mother, he seduces the daughter.  The division between mother and daughter broadens.  One seems to grow weaker, one seems to grow stronger, but neither of them appear to be healing.

Watching the trailer was like catching brief glimpses of lives descending into darkness with the final scene of the trailer showing dirt shoveled into an open grave.

The trailer provides images and clues of the darkness but no answers, which made the visuals of the trailer that much more disturbing.  This is exactly what a trailer is supposed to do, tease, and it did so very well.

I was sucked in immediately; this is one of the best trailers I've seen in a while.

I look forward to seeing this film.