come anticipate Park Chan-wook's English-language debut STOKER with me (Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode, Mia Wasikowska)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXaanQkzrXU

written by wentworth miller of tv's 'prison break'(!)

inspired by 'shadow of a doubt', though i understand it only goes as far as a character named uncle charlie and some other minor bits.

kidman can do no wrong imo. intrigued!

bwa ha, she's done plenty wrong

thirst was a misstep but this has his look and feel, interested to see if he can bring the buck wild to our distant shores

it's always painful to listen to kidman struggle to keep her accent in check tho

good job to that fish guy from that Buffy episode

oh don't get me wrong, she's been in piles of shit, but she rarely gives the impression of check-collecting.

i liked thirst - overlong but visually unpredictable in a cool way. psyched for this.

kidman is bad half the time but always super compelling. this looks really great

looks amazing imo

yeah I'm pretty psyched. apparently filmed in sept 2011 in nashville, wonder why the far out release date and no festival screenings.

either a financing issue or a quality issue, or both

quality's my guess but i still want to see this

I will watch dees movie

Want to see this. Also want Matthew Goode as my "uncle."

your uncle who touches you inappropriately

ok Eric, sometimes you hit paydirt.

My guess on the release date is post was taking awhile or they couldn't figure out how to market this film or when a logical release time would be.

given korean successes at film festivals, and park's own palm d'or, it's weird that they wouldn't shoot for venice or push that march 2013 back a couple months for cannes, especially since a trailer's being released like 6 months in advance

maybe it's not finished lol

the sound design in this is really really cool. The plot not so much

welcome to s korea

this looked p corny until they revealed what i assume is the 'twist,' and then it seemed cool but the twist was ruined :{

this is out in 2 days!

this is the trailer they're using in uk cinemas - works really well when the music is loud:

http://bcove.me/wj8n467v

commercial I saw for this was pretty rad.

Jesus, what a stupid thing this was! I am sort of baffled that anyone decided this was a movie that needed to be made in 2013. It's one of those films that's boring and doesn't make sense for a while and then "all comes together at the end" but when it does come together it's totally underwhelming and a bunch of stuff is left sorta unexplained and mysterious but I couldn't even be bothered to try to make sense out of it because I just didn't care. It was shot and edited competently enough so it wasn't as insipid as it could have been, but it was still fairly bland.

STOKER is ridiculously dull. a poor by the numbers attempt at doing a proper 'arthouse' movie. handmaiden is better, but also a bit boring, strangely dully twisty, too plotty, constrained by its period setting, no real interest in the interior lives of its two lead females, and feels strangely detached for most of it, sort of gleeful, but never really giving you much of the stuff you would expect. even the sex scenes are weirdly pedestrian. its like he couldnt get interested in it beyond the surface visuals, which admittedly do look pretty incredible. not seen all PCW's films, but i think he might be better at violence than anything much subtler/character-based and this film didnt really let him do much with that part of his expertise. no wonder QT loves him so much. last thing i liked of his was thirst really. he might need to stop trying to enter the international market so hard.

Handmaiden rules

even the sex scenes are weirdly pedestrian. its like he couldnt get interested in it beyond the surface visuals, which admittedly do look pretty incredible.

sounds like u watched the wrong movie

I love the term 'surface visuals' as if Film isn't a visual medium. Yeah, The Handmaiden is a visual film, and all the better for it. By far my favorite of his films.

'surface visuals' is sort of like saying a record is 'incredibly produced'.

It's nonsense...

First of all, it's a softcore lesbian heist-film, it's not really a genre known for deep thoughts. Second of all, thematically, the film is so much about objectification, gaze, pornography; the handmaiden treating her mistress like a doll, the spectacle of the woman performing erotica for the men, the final act of the women in the library. It's not really a subtle character based film. It's about surfaces, bodies, objectification.

im not expecting some deep penetrating character study, but it wasnt even that good as a sort of delicious female exploitation revenge movie, cos it seemed too caught up in making sure the period drama visual flourish part of it was done right, more than the women-in-love-against-the-patriarchy angle. maybe i will watch it a second time when less tired after work and have a completely diff response but after stoker, i wonder if PCW is more interested in making brilliant looking films, rather than visceral ones.

Well, I agree that Stoker is crap :) Also, perhaps he is interested in making both kinds of films, and he just tries to make different types every now and then? I was really surprised at how much I liked The Handmaiden, and I wouldn't just say it's period drama visual flourish, he really goes for something very unique and interesting, especially in the editing. It hits a sort of manga feel in a way a manga adaptation like Oldboy really doesn't.

it did make me think of certain manga stuff, yes. i might watch it again though im not feeling quite that inspired. basically i like PCW less inhibited.

I also really need to watch it again as well at some point, but preferably from my couch where I can pause and rewind and figure out why I thought so many little things were so weird.

I probably like Park most at his most inhibited, my other favorite is probably Sympathy for Mr Vengeance. Beautiful compositions in that one.

oh wait sry i can't tell if you were calling Handmaiden or STALKER's sex scene's pedestrian. if the former, U RONG (the scene where she sands down her tooth with a thimble!!!!!!) if the latter i haven't seen it

Liked it quite a lot. Was the extended version the one most cinemas got? Because it seems that was the only version shown in UK.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/t-magazine/park-chan-wook.html

weirdly, his new thing is a six part adaptation of a John Le Carre novel for the BBC & AMC.

http://collider.com/little-drummer-girl-images-alexander-skarsgard-michael-shannon/#images

that looks kind of awesome

Is this the only Park Chan-wook thread?

Not gonna lie, feel a little sick with excitement for the new one

he's yet to make a truly bad film imo

God yes, trailer for the new one looks great too

I feel like he's still getting better, The Handmaiden probably my favourite at the moment

DECISION TO LEAVE is an utter masterpiece

I was planning to concentrate on smaller LFF fare this year instead of big galas with films that are coming to the cinemas here anyway but this one's giving me major fomo.

the subs are a little poorly translated on my copy which is my excuse for watching it twice already

I have been trying to download this from my nzb site and keep getting "article not found" which is a pisser.

actually got it from Pirate Bay i think

i'm having a look at upload options if anybody's interested

finally got to see this last night, was relieved to see someone else posting that they were quite confused with the plot in the first half hour. I think this one will get better with every rewatch. Keep thinking about that luxury sushi set.

Without wanting to spoiler, and the bad subs I've got don't help, but the characters imagining their presence in the conversations they're eavesdropping on is definitely a little confusing at first, but you get used to it and that density of narrative as the film unfolds

yeah the subs are very ropey and its probably the same rip I'm watching because there wasn't a lot of them

It's on at the cinema here in December so I'm hoping i can go watch it then with a better translation lol

Got my ticket to see it Thursday; meantime the Alamo here is doing a one-off screening of Joint Security Area I'll be seeing in a couple of hours.

that scene where he is texting his grandma and keeps changing the reply, that's pure cinema!

i haven't seen Joint Security Area, that's one i'd like to get round to at some point

It's great! You wouldn't expect it because it's so distant from Wook's usual concerns, and being a debut I'd always assumed it was just work for hire, but I remember it being tense as fuck and not going soft on corruption in South Korea.

Just saw DtL, will report back tomorrow after it has fully sunk in.

Okay, this thing lived up to the hype.

i worry i get over-excited about PCW but on the level of craft alone he's a master

I loved this film.

What a way to take jumper cables to a genre exercise. The kind of film where if you bend down to tie your shoelaces or something you miss a subtle editing choice.

and, yeah, Noodle Vague otm about a certain staging decision.

there's a lot of Hitchcock in this one but done with such joy, the Vertigo parallels aren't overplayed, and for a film that's very funny at times it still earns its ending

it is so layered and subtle that I reckon I'll still be noticing things I missed on my first viewing after half a dozen rewatches.

i promised myself i wouldn't rewatch until i can see an official UK release but yeah there's a lot to go back to

bumped into xyzzz at my screening last night, all the cool kids are watching this

will say I've seen someone somewhere (I thought this thread but no) refer to it as a romantic comedy, and I can see where that take comes from, but it left me v much unprepared for the places this goes

lol i've seen the romantic comedy line somewhere. i guess genre tags are only good for jokes really

Just saw, but didn’t click on yet, something about him claiming he wasn’t intentionally channeling Hitchcock!

well i'm not gonna insist on influences but Stoker was an acknowledged remake of Shadow of a Doubt (ok PCW didn't write that one) and i thought about Vertigo in the middle of Decision to Leave without being prompted

but yeah, not intentionally, we all have things swimming around in the stew of our unconscious

https://www.avclub.com/park-chan-wook-hitchcock-inspiration-decision-to-leave-1849672024

Vertigo and also Rear Window as well. But yeah, I’m not going to worry about sinkah’s i-word if the director says it wasn’t intentional, despite the obvious deep connection.

“I think it’s related to the fact that I have bad memory,” Park continues. “I don’t clearly remember the films that I’ve watched, so it’s difficult to pull out of those.”

lol, same

Oh -- I don't consider NV's spoiler a spoiler. It's essential to understanding the thing.

“Vertigo? Don’t remember that one, but I did quite like Guy Maddin’s The Green Fog.”

“La Jeteé? Now there’s a film for you!”

I guess my point if I have one is that Vertigo’s, um, shadow is so long at this point that it may or may not need to be acknowledged so long as the film in question doesn’t suffer by comparison and this one doesn’t.

It also reminded me of De Palma as well tbh.

bumped into xyzzz at my screening last night, all the cool kids are watching this

― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 19 October 2022 bookmarkflaglink

That's right.

I liked how phones and their use were integrated into the plot, though I think there was too much fat on the plot as well.

yeah it's a lot of modern life as plot points - texts, siri play this song, using phones to translate

I agree with xyzzzz -- it's about 15 minutes too long.

I felt that a bit too but tbf what were we doing going to a 20:45 screening

Ha, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit through a late screening.

watching at home allowed for an old man bladder break. it could be tighter, but there's no need when there's so much pleasure in each shot tbh

btw I'm not yet sure what happens in the last 10 minutes

well i thought i was but now you've cast doubt...

I mostly thought I knew but looking forward to a rewatch.

I feel much better now there are more than a few people who are not certain about the plot, and I've seen it twice now! But watching it home it's much easier to be distracted by things like cans of lager and the dog for enough time to miss vital details.

I've just accepted I suck at deciphering plot details.

Think the script/flow of the story was a bit tied up in knots. Had a few questions which I then forgot about in the morning.

I am still being bombarded by the MUBI Squad and the algorithms with trailers to see this. Really just want to watch it again from beginning to end.

MUBI’s campaign for Decision to Leave firing on all cylinders pic.twitter.com/WdNZ3PGWxE

— Reel and Roll Films - Jupe & Jobu Tupaki Freak (@reelandroll) October 20, 2022

good work

Heh

A very involving watch (catching up from my Thursday viewing). I thought the very careful choices in how the subtitles were presented for non-Korean/Chinese speaking audiences who pretty clearly wouldn't catch the important distinctions being made by how one character is able to understand or convey was a real strength.

As I muttered on Twitter, I was also pretty bemused/amused to have Mahler's 5th have a role on it after seeing Tár the other week. But another point of commonality was how both those films and Martine Syms's The African Desperate (also a MUBI thing and just hit the channel yesterday -- highly recommend) found their own distinct ways to work with filming texting/phone use in the present day. And as calz noted the one text conversation in DtL that had the constant changing of a reply was pretty brilliant.

just caught it at the GFT, great piece of cinema. found the second half harder to follow than the first but that's usually when my mind starts to wander

DECISION TO LEAVE is an utter masterpiece

Feel like maybe we should (re)watch every October 26th, sorry I was off a day this yeat.

heh, I made a typo, just like they do in the movie whilst texting

Hoping to see this tomorrow when it opens in Chicago

Okay cool. Maybe we will see you back here in 24 hours or so.

Upon second viewing the thing really held together well. Noticed lots of little things that got repeated and echoed even
blue-green dress/blue-green pills!
just to name one.

Yeah this is super brilliant and insanely, beautifully convoluted. breakneck delivery of story with a ludicrous amount of density and consideration to the plotting and the execution of a thousand tiny important details. And yet, everything is neatly tied up! Super impressive puzzle box work, matched only by the creative and expert camera work. I have other thoughts that need to wait until I can get off the phone and access spoiler tags

Which theater did you go to, The Angelika?

Anyway, while I reserve the right to change my mind, I couldn’t find a hair out of place.

i went to nitehawk which was a weird way to see this but whatever
so am i correct in thinking that what he says to her in korean when he says "bury it deep in the sea" etc can be phonetically translated to chinese as "I love you" and that's what he realizes while he's on the beach?

I thought this was great and there were just so many interesting things going on visually that made it a delight to watch. Not sure I'd call it an utter masterpiece though - like others upthread I think it could have been tightened and was a bit too long, also I found the end a bit histrionic and over the top

the ending made more sense to me this time, but yeah

Long Criterion post here that halfway skimmed but didn’t read yet: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7811-park-chan-wook-s-decision-to-leave

Don’t know it’s just because she has a retro on right now at the Film Forum or not, but something about Tang Wei’s performance reminded me of Isabelle Huppert.

she was fucking great

Something about her performance also reminds me of…the subject of my 2023 1DS.

Although that’s probably a more obvious comparison.

His official statement that he wasn’t consciously channeling Hitchcock but he sees why people might say that is almost laughable given that some of the Hitch callbacks seems as obvious as the nose protector on Mickey Rourke’s face in Angel Heart is an obvious reference to Chinatown (RIP Mike Davis), but who knows, maybe Hitch is just in the water.

Or just in the mist, I should say. It’s in his mist.

I wasn't particularly thinking of Hitchcock while watching it, I'd say the plot driver - troubled cop falls for prime suspect - is a pretty well-established noir trope rather than Hitchcockian per se...

Plot stuff, yes, is standard, but some of the tropes and a few specific scenes are more in his particular line.

so am i correct in thinking that what he says to her in korean when he says "bury it deep in the sea" etc can be phonetically translated to chinese as "I love you" and that's what he realizes while he's on the beach?

Where did you get this from? Do you speak Chinese and/or Korean?

I didn't notice this linguistic component at all but that recording is clearly an admission that he loves her in its substance without him having to literally say it.

oh no I meant to put the end spoiler tag at the end of the post, sorry all

Daniel:
it's a total guess based on context clues and the movies overarching themes of desire to be understood being mangled by emotional/personal distance and technology, but it clarifies the ending neatly so i'm giving it a test run here! Can't find anything immediately from reviewers but there's been a great deal of conversation on the movie server i frequent about how hard this film is to translate for lots of reasons.

what i enjoyed most was how the puzzle pieces in this fit together without pomp or circumstance, sometimes clarifying only when you look back. her decision to commit suicide in a way that echoes exactly what he's told her to do but to do it so that he can never truly know what happened to her is the only way she can be sure she'll never lose him. he'll obsess over her forever and that's enough.

^this

I was thinking it might be a little more simple than translation, just some kind of pronoun trouble. Maybe some of the pronouns for “it “ and “you” are the same in Korean (I only know a handful of words myself) so “throw it into the sea” could also be interpreted as “throw yourself into the sea.”

Hmm, that seems to not be the case, but maybe some similar thing. I guess sooner or later we’ll find out, hopefully before the next October 26th, but maybe exactly then

In addition to the film noir side of things, this obviously has one foot in the doomed, star-crossed, geographically-challenged couples pantheon with things like JR&tB's favorite Lovers of the Arctic Circle.

Saw Decision to Leave without reading anything about it beforehand. Instantly thought of Hitchcock… Vertigo yes, but also Tne Birds, with which it shares a blue-green color palette. In fact, blue vs green is an important plot point in the film. The plot did lose me, though I’m not good with complicated plots in general (cue people to say the plot wasn’t at all complicated… well to me it was). The subtitles often felt stilted to me, though I saw the film with a Korean friend who said the translations were spot-on.

"cue people to say the plot wasn’t at all complicated"

don't worry, that certainly won't be happening! So there might not be some better subs when this gets a dvd release.

it is a very complicated fast moving plot!

Again, check your phone once and you've missed a crucial millisecond.

Including milliseconds on phones.

the moment where they jumped ahead thirteen months and now the lead actress is being beaten up by "slappy", happened so abruptly and with so little explanation that I heard someone in the audience loudly say "WHAT?" and then i realized it was me

A dissenting voice: https://www.vulture.com/article/decision-to-leave-movie-review-directed-by-park-chan-wook.html

The kind of film where if you bend down to tie your shoelaces or something you miss a subtle editing choice your hands get wet because you're standing in an apocalyptic tide

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, October 19, 2022 4:56 AM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lol!

Trying to watch THIRST before it leaves Criterion.

https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/what-i-learned-translating-decision-to-leave

a park chan-wook film with the highest ratings from the festival just went home empty-handed..... pic.twitter.com/2qOc0YxwCJ

— ✉️ (@seoraehaejun) September 6, 2025

Alexander Payne getting some well earned pelters

Very excited for new Park, it's coming to the London Film Festival soon.

Only found out the other day that No Other Choice is based on a non-comic Donald Westlake novel - that's already been filmed by Costa-Gavras! Always happy to see Westlake's work kept alive in this way...

very excited for this film. but complaining about the venice jury ignoring the "highest rated" film, as though film festival juries were required to consult rotten tomatoes before voting, is pretty dumb.

some were suggesting it was a political decision because Alexander "not prepared to talk about Gaza" Payne didn't like Park speaking out about US backed genocide. Anyway it's not just about ratings, Park's one of the greatest directors of this era.

or maybe payne and his fellow jurors simply preferred the jarmusch film? we're talking about the difference between a 100% rt score and a 95% score, so a small group of people favoring the latter doesn't seem egregious. (also, jarmusch did better than park on the ics critics' panel, whose highest rated film was something else entirely.)

I don't see a conspiracy yet either.

Jarmush has spoken out about Gaza as well.

I'll probably enjoy the Park more than the Jarmush but I can't be bothered to care what wins Venice, neither of them are in danger of obscurity either way.

I'm kind of with the mindset of people suggesting that Alexander Payne sucks and as well as being a shit director and a terrible coward of a human being, also he isn't fit to preside over a festival jury. I'm going to bet from a later perspective, it will be much clearer that he made some questionably biased and shit decisions here.

more bummed by this tbh: https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/park-chan-wook-expelled-wga-breaking-strike-1236482956/

oof!

Yeah he def fucked up on that one.

Friday night entertainment sorted - just acquired a leaked screener of No Other Choice. Quite psyched because watching a new Park always feels like an event.

I suspect you'll like it.

It's very good. Westlake the perfect fit for him.

Oh you lucky boy calz

I've been assuming that Westlake is an inspired choice of source material

Didn't realise this had leaked might need to explore the Web when I get home

Lol at Park being maybe the only working director i get this fanboy dreamy about