Showing posts with label park chan-wook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label park chan-wook. Show all posts
9 May 2018
2 May 2017
1 August 2016
12 February 2016
30 June 2013
Stoker Interview - Matthew Goode
Director Park reveals that he gifted Mia a jaguar statue. Did you get anything nice?
He gave me the part. That was the best present! And yes, he did he gave me a gift — an amazing green tea. He and his wife gave me these six or seven boxes of this green tea with this lovely little teapot. Fantastic. I like it a lot. It certainly has anti-oxidant stamp on it.
What surprised you most about working with a great filmmaker like Director Park?
The atmosphere he creates and the man himself are so wonderfully peaceful, especially considering what his work is often about, with the violence and often quite disturbing themes. But as a man he is the antithesis of that. He is not manic. It is funny, because he and Quentin Tarantino like each other’s work. They have an appreciation but, obviously, Quentin is much more manic. Both are brilliantly intelligent and, as I say, Director Park is so peaceful and I liked the whole Korean vibe on set because I found it quite Zen. Listening to him is very peaceful, particularly the way he speaks. I find him a very relaxing, calming person to be around. He is just fabulous, a really lovely guy. I think his next film is a Western and I would love to be in that, as barman with a moustache or something like that!
How did the director help you to understand his visual ambition for STOKER?
We actually got a folder when we arrived, stuffed full, where just about every single frame had been drawn. It was amazing and also slightly worrying.
Why was it worrying?
Well it was like, ‘Wow! This is going to be quite demonstrative and there won’t be much room,’ but he is actually very collaborative during the filming and it was fantastic. You knew pretty much that it was going to look special even if you weren’t always sure at the time why things happened. Nicole said that she always wondered why he photographed her hair being brushed for so long that day. And then you realize when you watch the film he was going to do that incredible cross-cut with the fields. So some things you knew and some times you were just like, ‘Well, he is an Asian director, perhaps this is what they do.’ The film is ravishingly shot.
And how did you and Nicole Kidman strike up the chemistry on screen?
Well, we went to the house because Director Park wanted to show us around it early-on during the rehearsal stage and I remember getting there and it was very hot, in the hundreds, and I was in a vest, a bit sweaty and Nicole said, ‘Actually, I think we should rehearse one of the scenes now that we are in the house.’ And I, professional that I am, had not got my script with me, so I was a bit worried that it would really show me up. Then it turned out to be the scene with the kiss at the end, so I was thinking, ‘Well, it’s just a rehearsal, we are not going to get to that moment, are we?’ But, suddenly, she’s approaching and that very day in an impromptu rehearsal she ends up going in for the kiss. I thought, ‘This is weird.’ I had this flashback to being in the cinema and seeing her in BMX Bandits! That was one of the first films that I watched in the cinema and if someone had told me at the age of seven, ‘Oh, you are going to kiss her. It is just going to be in another 25 years,’ well that is a very, very weird thing. Also, you are not in character when you are rehearsing. I was just a grubby Englishman in jeans and a vest, probably stinking of cigarette smoke. So at the rehearsal it was a little intimidating but on the day, in character, it was fine and just another scene. The rehearsal really helped.
Apparently, you and Mia visited the local Nashville honky-tonk bars on your weekends off?
Yes. We went two stepping. That’s one of the joys. We were such tourists. It was like buy cowboy boots? Check! Also my wife and my daughter were there because we were filming in Nashville and I knew that I wasn’t going to work every single day. It was one of the joys of the job that they came with me. We did everything that you think a tourist does and I bought them cowboy boots and my daughter actually got two pairs of cowboy boots. They are huge. She is only just wearing them now. With the two stepping, there were some very cool places to go, like The Bluebird Café, which has a reputation. It is the quality of the musicians that blows you away. We went to The Station Inn which is a very famous old place and the players are unbelievable — Bluegrass and swing music and it just makes you really happy. It’s a great a way to wind down. You see the old couples dancing, two-stepping, and they make it look so easy. Mia did a lot of dancing with my wife as well while I was sitting a couple out.
Having your family there must have made shooting STOKER even more special…
It did, because this can be a very selfish job. It becomes harder and harder. I have never really liked being away from family. I went to Australia and that was tough. Three months away with the little one at home. I hated it. They did come out for two weeks and that was hell. Then I had a one-year old with jet lag, while I was working a 16-hour day! It was awful when they had to leave and go back to Britain but, boy, did I sleep well. They are always the priority. . I just wish that I could work in England more. But you do have to go where the job takes you. It is not like I can pick and choose.
You were chosen for this film, so things must be going quite well…
I take work far more seriously since becoming a dad. I generally still wake up with financial crises going on in my head and for me it is just about getting a job and doing it. I think you do get better. I have been doing it for 14 years now and I have done 20-odd things. I’d love to think that down the road I am going to meet someone like Michael Fassbender’s got this amazing relationship with Steve McQueen. I’d love to find a director who brings out the best in me time and time again. That is what I’d like to think will happen one day.
Stoker is out on DVD & BluRay 1st July.
29 June 2013
Stoker Interview - Park Chan-Wook
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook is best known for his films Joint Security Area, Thirst and ‘The Vengeance Trilogy’, consisting of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005). STOKER, a coming-of-age drama starring Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Goode, is his first film in the English language…
Had you been looking to direct a film in the English language for some time or did the script for STOKER just appeal so much?
Ever since Old Boy, scripts started coming to me, English language scripts, and when it came the time when I made and released Thirst, which was partly financed by American studios, it was taking me one step closer to doing an American film, I felt. Things happened in stages I feel. It was really a combination of both — that I have been thinking about making a film in America for some time as well as having the right script to come across.
Even as a young man did you harbour an ambition to make films outside your homeland?
It was very difficult at times for me to even imagine that I would really become a film director. Thinking I would make a film in America, I couldn’t even fathom it. Looking back, it all probably started when I read some American friends a novel, which I wanted to adapt into a film and in the process of thinking about that project I thought the very story of the book, particularly if I were to adapt it, was very American. It had to be set against the backdrop of America. And that is the first time I started thinking about this concept of making films in America.
Were you surprised when you found out that a popular actor, Wentworth Miller, rather than an experienced screenwriter, had produced the STOKER screenplay?
Well, when I found out that the scriptwriter was him, I was probably as surprised as anyone else who had found out who the scriptwriter was, because he wrote under a pseudonym. But to think that a young man, no less than a popular actor, has written such a script, is probably the last thing you would guess. I would have probably been less surprised if I had been told that it was a female actor who had written it. I still consider that he is an amazing, talented person and I think myself lucky that I got to direct this script.
What were the first visual metaphors that struck you when you were reading the script?
I have to say the saddle shoes, which India loves to wear and her mother abhors. It is a very fitting little item to speak to India’s somehow old-fashioned and closed-off personality. But before all that I, at first wondered what a pair of saddle shoes looked like because in Korea we are not used to seeing these shoes. It was never part of our popular culture so I started by looking for images of these shoes online to see what they looked like exactly. After that I began to think: What if it was a birthday gift for India every year, from a mysterious figure? And on her eighteenth birthday she gets a box but it is empty. Instead of a pair of shoes there was a key, which leads to the high heels? This all adds to the saddle shoes becoming in the end one of the most important visual metaphors. As you see in the film this pair or set of shoes that she receives on her birthday every year, it follows her across the years, from a baby size set of shoes to grown up pairs of shoes and she lies on her bed surrounded by them all. It is a very clear visual metaphor to say this is a coming of age story and having gone through these trains of thought it became clear to me that the reason I had conjured up this visual metaphor is because this is very much her coming of age story. It’s that, that helps categorize the film as such. In Korea between people who love each other, they never give shoes as gifts because there is an urban myth or a jinx that when you give a pair of shoes to someone you admire, they will wear the shoes and run away. The American writer, Wentworth Miller, could never have known this, so as a Korean director it is something of an element that I added to the script — the idea that she got saddle shoes every year and she never knew who was sending them but finds out it was Uncle Charlie and that this year instead of saddle shoes, she gets high heels, which is also a metaphor and wearing those shoes, she leaves, she runs away. So this is a very Korean train of thought and idea.
How did you play up the dynamic of hunter and hunted when shooting the movie? At different times, different characters seemed in control…
This is an important element and one of the most important elements I brought to the script. And it informs every aspect of the film. Of course, Uncle Charlie’s love for the car, the jaguar, is also part of that. It is such an important motif and when I met Mia for the first time my gift to her was a sculpture of a jaguar. It is all to do with how the father taught his child to hunt because he is worried that she would end up in a similar situation that befell Uncle Charlie, because her father fears the bad blood. And in order to find a healthy outlet, which can vent any potential violent urges, that is why he taught her to hunt in the first place. Also, Uncle Charlie believes that the blood running through his and her veins is exactly the same, he believes this idea and he almost forces the idea on his niece which leads us to that scene in the forest where she is attacked and how Uncle Charlie arrives at the scene and ties the boy up and just pats the prey saying to the young predator, ‘All yours’. You can compare that to any natural predators like lions, how they would attack their prey and render them immobile and have their baby lion or tiger come in to do the killing blow — to teach this whole hunting process.
Is there anything specific that you plan for the Blu-Ray & DVD release?
Now that you mention it, the documentary will of course be there. And all the trailers I would love to be there, especially the DJ Shadow trailer. This is my favourite trailer of all time, of all my films. Also, some deleted scenes could make their way back into the DVD. I can’t think of the scenes specifically now but one scene comes to mind is when Aunty Gin [Jacki Weaver] arrives. She is putting the flowers in the vase. That is when Uncle Charlie appears. She never knew about him being there and she drops the vase and it shatters on the floor of the kitchen. That scene will make it, perhaps. Another idea that comes to mind is that Emily Wells [who contributed to the STOKER soundtrack] is coming to Korea and she is going to be performing “Becomes the Colour”, which is the song for the film when the red carpet entries are being made by the guests and so I would love that live performance to be captured and to make it on to the DVD.
Stoker will be released on DVD, BluRay on 1st July, Read Review here.
Stoker DVD Review
BD/DVD Release Date: 1st July 2013
Director: Park Chan-Wook
Cast: Mia Wsikowska, Matthew Goode, Nicole Kidman
Buy Stoker: Blu-ray / DVD
If you can avoid the trailer, then for God’s sake do because here’s a film that benefits from going in blind. Park Chan Wook’s Stoker is a thing of undeniable beauty; a carefully crafted piece of art, and there’s a word I don’t go throwing around too often. Essentially it’s a story about sexual awakening against a backdrop of dysfunctional family politics, but as with most great films, it’s not in the idea: it’s the execution.
The first half hour may strain patience, but it’s worth it. Wook takes time to set up his near epic tales, but after that slow start the film starts winding tighter and tighter, releasing brief flurries of energy whilst maintaining the illusion of a melodrama. Here is a film horrific and deeply unsettling, without giving itself over to the horror genre. Early scenes of India in the basement are thick with suspense, and moments of mystery call up Hitchcockian influences.You’ll spend a lot of time wondering just what in buggery is going on until finally Wook delivers a fantastic phone-box realisation scene and the film, rather than falling into place, lifts.
Important to the horror aspect is Mathew Goode’s electrifying performance as India’s estranged uncle, a man who appears just after her father’s death and upsets the balance of the household. To be fair I had expected Goode would be on top form, but this is something different. There’s so much going on under the surface, so many silent and manipulative glances that you need a second viewing to catch the subtlety, Goode’s performance is the prize of the piece. Wasikowska’s India is something of gothic beauty also, shifting from what could have been a tired Burton character to a solid Angela Carter heroine. We should be hearing a lot more from her in the future if this is anything to go by.
As with every Clint Mansell soundtrack Stoker is a thing to behold, furthering those Hitchcock influences with epic strings whilst digging deeper into India’s slowly dawning mind state with heartfelt piano.
Wook’s keen sense of style and image are fantastic , perhaps even a career best. The Gothic grandeur of the colonial house is captured with apparent ease, every frame looks like a painting, every image is a goldmine, there’s enough symbolism here to fill a hundred books. Repetition and explanation of certain details allows Wook’s film to achieve a bizarre nostalgic quality. This works hand-in-hand with the vicious and cold quality of the night time sequences allowing the horror to take shape.
Kidman’s performance fits in somewhere here; as a detail. And a fine one. Just as important as India or Charlie, Kidman’s performance is seductive, pathetic, and heart-breaking: her’s is the damaged thread that winds throughout, adding the most pure strain of heart-ache to Stoker.
Macabre, erotic, visually seductive, perfectly cast and performed, and flaunting a plot so thick with mystery and meaning you’ll feel your brain swell. Stoker may just be a genuine masterpiece from a genuine master.
Scott Clark
[This is a repost of the Glasgow Film Festival review]
1 March 2013
GFF 2013 Review: Stoker
The first half hour may strain patience, but it’s worth it. Wook takes time to set up his near epic tales, but after that slow start the film starts winding tighter and tighter, releasing brief flurries of energy whilst maintaining the illusion of a melodrama. Here is a film horrific and deeply unsettling, without giving itself over to the horror genre. Early scenes of India in the basement are thick with suspense, and moments of mystery call up Hitchcockian influences.You’ll spend a lot of time wondering just what in buggery is going on until finally Wook delivers a fantastic phone-box realisation scene and the film, rather than falling into place, lifts.
Important to the horror aspect is Mathew Goode’s electrifying performance as India’s estranged uncle, a man who appears just after her father’s death and upsets the balance of the household. To be fair I had expected Goode would be on top form, but this is something different. There’s so much going on under the surface, so many silent and manipulative glances that you need a second viewing to catch the subtlety, Goode’s performance is the prize of the piece. Wasikowska’s India is something of gothic beauty also, shifting from what could have been a tired Burton character to a solid Angela Carter heroine. We should be hearing a lot more from her in the future if this is anything to go by.
As with every Clint Mansell soundtrack Stoker is a thing to behold, furthering those Hitchcock influences with epic strings whilst digging deeper into India’s slowly dawning mind state with heartfelt piano.
Wook’s keen sense of style and image are fantastic , perhaps even a career best. The Gothic grandeur of the colonial house is captured with apparent ease, every frame looks like a painting, every image is a goldmine, there’s enough symbolism here to fill a hundred books. Repetition and explanation of certain details allows Wook’s film to achieve a bizarre nostalgic quality. This works hand-in-hand with the vicious and cold quality of the night time sequences allowing the horror to take shape.
Kidman’s performance fits in somewhere here; as a detail. And a fine one. Just as important as India or Charlie, Kidman’s performance is seductive, pathetic, and heart-breaking: her’s is the damaged thread that winds throughout, adding the most pure strain of heart-ache to Stoker.
Macabre, erotic, visually seductive, perfectly cast and performed, and flaunting a plot so thick with mystery and meaning you’ll feel your brain swell. Stoker may just be a genuine masterpiece from a genuine master.
Scott Clark
Rating:18
Release Date: 1st March 2013
Director: Chan-wook Park
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode, Alden Ehrenreich
21 January 2013
GFF2013 - New Trailer And Clip For Park Chan-Wook's Stoker
Mia Wasikowska plays India a young woman whose mourning the death of her father(Dermont Mulroney) with Nicole Kidman playing her emotionally unstable mother Evelyn both are visited by India’s mysterious uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) whom she's intrigued with despite knowing about his existence. However when Charlie arrives it also marks the mysterious disappearance of many of the locals and over time India discovers her uncle may have an ulterior motive on why he’s here.
Probably out of the Korean directors making their English language debut this year Park Chan-Wook is probably the more familiar name amongst cinephiles largely thanks to the Vengeance trilogy which includes the brilliant Oldboy subject to a Hollyood remake from Spike Lee starring Josh Brolin. However the translation of Chan-Wook's storytelling to English language will be the test but as his previous films have been well received we have plenty of faith that Stoker will do the business when it's released.
In the first clip from Stoker we get see how much more unstable Nicole Kidman's character really is but also a question mark over India too, as she might be hiding something too like her Uncle Charlie! Stoker is set for a 1st March UK,Irish and US release date with the film playing at Glasgow Film Festival on 16th & 17th February. Stoker also stars Jacki Weaver, Lucas Til,Alden Ehrenreich with Tony and Ridley Scott as executive producers Trailer is courtesy of Empire with clip from
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