oldboy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Erotic Vampires. Park Chan-wook's Thirst will have its international premiere at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, but it's already opened in its native South Korea. In his review for Screen International, Darcy Paquet says that the "visually arresting vampire movie Thirst looks certain to create a stir: adopting a more lyrical mode than before, this complex and supremely inventive work sees the filmmaker back on top form."

I've read the knowledgeable Paquet at his site Koreanfilm.org for years, so his opinion is very encouraging, especially when you consider Park's best work includes Old Boy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Joint Security Area. [Via In Contention.] Even better: those of us in the US don't have to wait long to see it. Focus Features will release Thirst in July.

Gentle Fish. If you haven't marked August 14 on your calendars yet, please do so now. That will mark the US theatrical debut of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo, the master filmmaker's latest work of art. The plot revolves around a princess who just happens to be a goldfish, and her desire to grow legs and walk on land. She develops a friendship with a 5-year-old boy who tries to help her realize her dream. The poster and a still can be viewed at Ain't It Cool News.

Under John Lasseter's committed oversight, Walt Disney Pictures has done right by Studio Ghibli so far, making the original Japanese-language version available at some venues and ensuring that the English dubbing is as faithful as possible. While we wait for the inevitable English-language trailer, here's a teaser, evidently for its release in France, that is silky, poetic, and non-verbal.

There's just something about watching the whole world go boom on the big screen, isn't there? Case in point: Independence Day. Sure, not exactly what you would call a great film, but I think most of us were sold on the flick the moment we saw the White House go up in a ball of fire. It might be twisted, but audiences just can't get enough of the end of civilization; Roland Emmerich went with a Mayan doomsday prophecy for his disaster flick, 2012, but I Am Legend's Francis Lawrence is going for something a little more scientific for his next film. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Fox has hired Lawrence to direct a feature film version of Alan Weisman's book, The World Without Us.

Weisman's book focuses on what would happen to the natural and built environment if humans suddenly disappeared. Sure, the whole thing is an educated guess based on Weisman's interviews with leading academics and scientists, but as educated guesses go, it's pretty good. So if you've ever wondered how long it would take for this civilization of ours to die out, here is your answer, and the bad news is that it won't take long at all. On the upside, though, at least Mount Rushmore would still be standing.

Mark Protosevich has been hired to write the script before heading off to work on the Oldboy update for Dreamworks. But Fox doesn't intend to make a documentary (which was done* once before) and instead Protosevich's script will make use of Weisman's science as the background for the story. I have to admit, Lawrence would seen to be the ideal choice for the flick -- especially since his vision of the world left behind in Legend was possibly the best thing about that film.

But this has me thinking: what are some of the best 'End of the Word' flicks? I'll even start you off with one of my nominations: Dr. Strangelove. Now it's your turn...


*Correction: The link provided for The World Without Us documentary was an error, and was not meant to make any political associations with Weisman's work.

Those of us who were in a moderate panic following the news of a planned Steven Spielberg-Will Smith remake of Chan-wook Park's singular Oldboy can rest a tiny bit easier. According to Will Smith, who's out and about promoting Seven Pounds, the film is in the works -- but it's not a remake after all. Film School Rejects has the money quote:

"We're looking at [Oldboy] right now. Not the film though, it's the original source material. There's the original comics of Oldboy that they made the first film from. And that's what we're working from, not an adaptation of the film."

I'm not sure it makes that much of a difference; an American version of Oldboy is an American version of Oldboy. But at least now Park's film might be able to stand as a companion film to the eventual Hollywood behemoth, without the studio trying to make everyone forget that it exists. I don't have the same hope for, e.g., the Matt Reeves remake of Let the Right One In, which I am actively dreading. Oldboy is something Hollywood can do well, if differently; Let the Right One In can only go badly.

If you haven't seen Park's Oldboy, I strongly recommend a rental. It's pretty unique, and has at least one utterly jawdropping action scene. You know which one I'm talking about.

Holy crap! Just when you think there's no chance... Back in January of 2007, Jessica posted about the woes of the impending Oldboy remake. Director Justin Lin was backing out of the project, and it looked like the whole thing would dissolve into development hell. And it did.

But now it might be getting one hell of a Hollywood power-team behind it. Variety reports that Tinseltown bigwigs Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are circling the project. DreamWorks is working on getting the rights, Universal will distribute it, I imagine Spielberg will helm it, and Smith will play the lead ... if everything works out.

If you've missed the original by Chan-wook Park, Oldboy centers on a man who is kidnapped and imprisoned in a cell for 15 years with no explanation, until he is released one day and given a cell phone, money, and clothes. He then sets out to discover what happened and get his revenge.

It'll be great, meaty material for Smith, but I don't know if a big, mainstream project is the way to go. Then again, at least it will probably barely resemble the original. What do you think? Should the project have stayed in limbo, or are Spielberg and Smith the men to make it happen?

What do celebrities really know about movies? Samuel L. Jackson, for one, demonstrates a good knowledge of recent Asian cinema with his selection of "favorite 10 New Classic Asian Films" from the past 25 years for Entertainment Weekly. The best part? He picks the type of popcorn action flicks that got me interested in Asian films in the first place.

A couple of his selections are easy to understand: John Woo's Hard Boiled and Ringo Lam's City on Fire are definite guns 'n' gangsters classics of late 80s / early 90s Hong Kong cinema. (Quentin Tarantino blatantly stole borrowed from the latter for Reservoir Dogs.) Jackson also includes the great Infernal Affairs trilogy, directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, a high water mark from 2002 / 2003 and later remade into the Academy Award-winning The Departed.

His Korean picks are Park Chan-Wook's diabolical, masterful Oldboy and the visually splendid, yet somewhat shallow Duelist, from 2005. Cut from the same cloth, he also endorsed Japanese swordplay dazzler Azumi by director Ryuhei Kitamura (The Midnight Meat Train), and demonstrated his fondness for strong directors by selecting two films by Takashi Miike, the well-known, chilling horror flick Audition and the much less known Yakuza pic Family, which I confess I haven't seen.

I've been fortunate enough to have been able to go to Cannes for the past four years now, and I'm getting ready for my fifth. And, as I often say when explaining film festivals to people who've never been to one, it's not just an adventure; it's a job. Cannes is a "get-away" the same way running from a burning building is "a tour of the grounds"; there are plenty of movies, plenty of work, and the overall emotional tone of the event is a mix of exhaustion and exhilaration. The heady moments of pure movie magic come fast and furious with the muck-and-money reality of international financing and distribution happening all about you.

Going to Cannes means seeing at least 40, maybe 50 or more movies in 10 days, never mind actually thinking and writing about them; you'd think that that kind of pace would soon turn into a blur, and it does, but it's a glorious one. Here's some of my favorite movie going moments (highly subjective, of course -- I've not included last year's ridiculously strong quartet of Persepolis, No Country for Old Men, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, as they're still so fresh in my mind) from the past four years of the Cannes Film Festival; think of these as the rushed recollections of a film critic who knows exactly how lucky he's been.

Some sicko grabs a gun and decides to kill a bunch of people to serve his own deeply disturbed means. As soon as people can pick their jaws back up again, the same old debate begins again -- Is this a result of the media? Of course -- it's all that violence in the news, music, movies and video games. Impressionable minds pop a disc in, and before they can blink, they're maniacal murderers. As we all know, there was a terrible tragedy recently at Virginia Tech, where a South Korean shooter killed two people, went back to his dorm to send NBC some mail and then shot and killed 30 more before taking his own life. The network package included -- 27 video clips, 43 stills with captions, an audio clip and a manifesto.

Some of the images have ignited a fury of speculation about whether the media he saw led him to his heinous acts. The most convincing of the bunch is a picture of Cho wielding a hammer, which is very similar to an image from Oldboy, part of Park Chan-Wook's Vengeance Trilogy. Did he watch the movie and decide to wreak revenge on those he felt alienated by, or, did he take pictures in various poses to try and excuse himself from his plan? It certainly seems that this wasn't an immediate act of desperation. Also, the Oldboy image isn't the only one that has people talking. San Francisco Gate's culture blog says that Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball is using the original image, of Cho wielding two guns, to compare it to The Matrix.

I'm growing tired of this debate. How many people mimic media when committing terrible acts compared to how many people watch the media and go on with their lives? I would imagine it's similar to the chances of getting hit by lightning. I have watched some truly hideous and violent films. I've played Thrill Kill. However, when I get upset or ticked off at people, I don't prepare a flipping media kit for the networks and go out and kill a bunch of people.

When it comes to US remakes of foreign films, there probably isn't much that hasn't already been said -- I imagine, "It wasn't as good as the original" will always remain at the top of the list. But, the grumblings of world cinema fans has never stopped Hollywood from taking a foreign property and molding it in its own image.

Oldboy was a hit on the festival circuit and won the Grand Prix in Cannes in 2004. Supposedly, it made such an impression on Quentin Tarantino that he lobbied (unsuccessfully) for Oldboy to receive the Palme d'Or over Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Justin Lin, director of Better Luck Tomorrow, had been attached to direct the US remake of the South Korean film -- however, Bloody Disgusting reports that, not only is Lin no longer on board, but the film might not happen at all. According to the site, Lin "has a lot of other projects in the works and that the only way he'd make it is if everything 'gelled' together right. He loves the original film and wouldn't want to disrespect it". The film follows a man wrongfully imprisoned who seeks revenge for the lost time. There is way more to the story than that, but it's a complicated and twisted film ... so if you haven't seen it, it's worth taking a look. And don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to catch up since it looks like it could be a while before Hollywood gets their hands on this one.

In a previous post, I detailed my fondness for old school Kung-Fu films like Enter the Dragon and The 36th Chamber or Shaolin; guys beating the crap out of each other -- complete with over-done sound effects and out-of-sync dialog -- and other mayhem of that nature. The point of the previous post -- other than to thrill you with my knowledge of Los Angeles TV history -- was to highlight a great list of the top ten mano-a-mano fight scenes of all time. Well, for those of you who loved the last post (all twelve or so of you judging from the number of comments) you're in luck because I'm back with yet another list. This time around its the top ten fight scenes of all time.

I know this list may sound similar to the last one but bear with me: While the last one dealt with one man against another, this new list deals with larger numbers of people, or groups, engaged in combat. Or, as the rules for the list state over at the site that compiled it: "It has to be individuals or a group fighting in (reasonably) close quarters, so no vehicle combat (Mad Max 2), no space battles (Return of the Jedi) and no epic warfare or sieges (The Return of the King)." Sounds simple enough, right? Fortunately, it is.

Some of the fights highlighted on this list include Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, the corridor fight in Chan wook-Park's Oldboy -- wherein our hero takes out a bunch of baddies all while confined to a narrow corridor -- and one of my personal favorites: the Girl Scout fight in Airplane -- brutal and hilarious at the same time. At the number one spot they put Arnold vs The Predator in Predator. Now, I like Predator but I question putting it at number one. Looking at the list I think I would put the scene from Phantom Menace near or at the top. It's an exciting scene that sets the stage for Obi-Wan's development as a Jedi and a man. On top of that, it showcases some amazing fight choreography and swordplay. It's an outstanding scene in a not-so-great movie that I think deserves to be recognized.

What's your favorite movie fight scene?

One of the keys to the sneaky emotional power of Park Chanwook’s “Revenge Trilogy” (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance) is the distance he keeps from his characters. All three films center on characters of complex morality, doing things that are foreign and often shocking to most viewers. Park, however, refuses to either judge or endorse their choices. Instead, he simply records events as they happen, allowing his characters and their actions to speak for themselves.

Such is the case with Lady Vengeance, Park’s follow-up to the showier Oldboy, the film that won him not only the Director’s Prize at Cannes in 2004, but also instant world-wide regard. The film is the story of Lee Geum-ja (Lee Yeong-ae), a lovely young woman who, while still in her teens, was forced by an older man (Oldboy's Choi Min-sik) into confessing to a brutal child-murder she didn’t commit. Through her 13 years in prison, she was revered by her fellow inmates for her kindness, and known to the outside world for her great piety; upon her release, however, Geum-ja coldly begins calling in favors from her former cell-mates, and sets in motion a plan for revenge that has been in the works for all those long years in jail.