Over the weekend, celebrated South Korean director Kim Jee-woon transitioned to the States for the Hollywood genre thriller The Last Stand with Arnold Schwarzenegger after earning a cult following with I Saw the Devil and The Good, the Bad and the Weird. The movie tanked. Now our eyes are turning to Park Chan-wook, director of Oldboy and Thirst who is dipping his toe into the U.S. pool with Stoker, and early reviews are off-the-charts good.
Stoker recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Katey teased it in her latest Sundance video blog (and if you aren’t watching these missives, catch up now). And Variety gave the movie a rave, while also acknowledging that it has more power as a future cult movie instead of a crossover, mainstream hit. As we get ready for the film’s March release, here's a short, international trailer that disturbs with its deliberate editing but certainly piques my interest in this creepy, moody thriller.
That’s a great cast led by Mia Wasikowska (The Kids are All Right) but also featuring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode and two-time Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver, fresh off her turn in David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook. The fact that Goode plays a character named Uncle Charlie has me dreaming this lives up to Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt. But the trailer simply suggests that Park is going to tighten the screws on his audience. I can’t wait.
Fox Searchlight will open Stoker in the States on March 1 (in limited release). That might prevent a SXSW screening – unfortunately – but at least we don’t have to wait too long to see Park’s latest, because it’s building buzz.
