When I first heard that one of my favourite directors was
leaving his native Korea
to make an English language film I was excited but also as worried as when I
heard Spike Lee was remaking Oldboy.
My worry grew when earlier this year Kim Ji-woon’s US debut The Last Stand failed to live up to his
back catalogue. In Stoker though,
director Park Chan-wook has created a film which I believe can sit happily
alongside his previous films. Stoker
is unmistakably a Park Chan-wook film and he has lost nothing in translation.
It is as dark and stylish as you’d expect from the director of Thirst and I’m a Cyborg and features a typically bold and beautiful colour
palate.
Following the death of Richard Stoker, his enigmatic younger
brother Charlie (Matthew Goode) comes to stay with his wife Evelyn (Nicole
Kidman) and teenage daughter India
(Mia Wasikowska). Uncle Charlie was previously unknown to India as he was
never mentioned by her father. India
is slow to accept Charlie into the family but a tender bond slowly forms
between the two cold and indecipherable people. India remains apprehensive though
and Charlie’s motives for the sudden visit remain unclear.
