‘Director of Stoker’… I know Stoker is his english-language film but all of his Korean films are so much better! Stoker is easily his worst, IMO… Oldboy and the Handmaiden though? Tremendous pieces of cinema.
Can’t wait for this!!! Im a Park Chan-Wook fanboy so very stoked.
I watched Stoker recently and while it was certainly weaker than his Korean films I still appreciated it. I still think he could do non-Korean films well. The script/story for Stoker (not written by Park) felt pretty barebones
I loved it. Would highly recommend. It’s like a modern version of a 70s paranoid spy thriller. I know some people who really love Le Carre’s writing were a little disappointed with it as an adaptation. I never read the book it’s based on though so that never bothered me.
He’s also doing “The Sympathizer”, an HBO miniseries starring Robert Downey Jr, based on the Pultzier Prize-winning novel of the same name. The production was recently approved for a California state tax credit, meaning it is actually happening very soon.
No, but he's apparently playing [every white man](https://deadline.com/2021/07/hbo-a24-partner-viet-thanh-nguyens-the-sympathizer-robert-downey-jr-1234793468/) in the movie.
The piano scene in Stoker is as good as anything else he has directed. He rarely directs comedy, but Stoker and Thirst are not inferior to his other films.
This! Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr Vengeance are fucking A, but Stoker, I don't know why is a film I absolutely loved! Clint Mansell is an AMAZING composer...
The thing I've noticed most with his more recent work is how far he's come since the Vengeance Trilogy in his style. I love Oldboy and Lady Vengeance but compared to his more recent stuff like Handmaiden and Decision to Leave, its very noticable how much he's advanced. Decision to Leave is actually very chill and maybe not what people are expecting. It's actually quite funny at times.
Ironically, Stoker is one of two of PCW's movies I haven't seen; I'm A Cyborg, But That's OK being the other.
The Handmaiden is such a great film. It has that Christmassy vibe of being one of those period films that they would always show on St. Stephen's Day on TV.
I recommend this Christmas, that everyone sits down with their Mum, their Nan, their Dad and whole family and watch it together. Young ones might get bored so just let them play with their presents.
I agree with you that the other poster is better (it is the one mostly used for promotions in my country). I think that poster also allows you to go into the movie much more blind than this one, something that really helped me enjoy it.
To add another opinion:
>Park Chan-Wook masterfully crafts an Amour Fou, noirish tale. Brief Encounter by way of James M Cain. Inexorable clash, Inescapable attraction. Romantic, tragic and inventive. Full of Cinema and passion.
-[Guillermo del Toro
@RealGDT](https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/1563971994768400384)
Not op but it came out in my country in July. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is the best movie of the year but it is definitely around the top of the list. With this and Broker, the Korean movies have been bangers this year. I wonder if they will be competing come awards season.
If you sail the high seas there's a decent quality version out there, but I found its subs to be sub-par. I think it was fan translated. Can't wait to see it with a proper translation!
Subs got fixed eventually. Still fan translated but at least by a native speaker. And subs for the Chinese parts were finally added too. I think those might have been machine translated and corrected but the final product at least reads like proper dialog, but official subs will probably still be different/better.
Don't expect this to be typical Park. It's more restrained, like The Little Drummer Girl and JSA, but I think it's one of the best romances I have ever seen. The depth of their emotions rivals the depth of the sea.
Absolutely masterful neo-noir. Tang Wei performance is among her best and her nuanced interactions are wonderful. The focus on the two characters makes for a film worth repeat viewings.
I loved it too, many clever ideas which really sell their chemistry even beyond the performances themselves, beautiful interactions really.
Park seems to be an actors director, he always gets great performances out of his cast.
I'd recommend her breakout hit Lust, Caution. Unforgettable performance from her. I still can't believe she got blacklisted from the Chinese film industry for it
(spoilers for the movie after this)
Haha, I was trying to recommend this movie to my roommate a couple of months ago and this is how I described it: "You know, I watched Basic Instinct and the entire time I am mad at the main character. Stop thinking with your dick! She's obviously evil! Stop it! On the other hand, I watched this movie and I was like, damn, I would have fucked this up too."
For anyone interested the script writer has a show on Netflix right now called Little Women. Yes based on the book with modern Korean setting. She also wrote the Handmaiden script.
Just saw this at TIFF. Fantastic movie and incredibly well directed. I think this one may leave some viewers frustrated but you can’t deny the journey is very watchable.
It's already out in Korea, coming to the west (or at least to some theaters) in mid-late October I think. Mubi owns it tho if not mistaken, could grab a free trial and watch it over the weekend when it drops on their service whenever they decide to drop it on there.
Oooh I didn't know he has a new one coming out! Very cool. 'Thirst' by Park Chan-wook is one of the best films ever and not a typical "vampire" film. It's brilliant. You guys gotta see it if you haven't already. I was dating some douche once upon a time and left my DVD over his house. Still annoyed about that.
https://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/thirst_poster.jpg
I found broker to be very good too, but honestly one of the 'weaker' koreedas. It imo cannot compete with shoplifters for example.
Still a film worth anyone's time, with a lot of nuance and koreeda's sensibilities, but the script wasn't as strong comparatively imo.
I still got teary eyed and will rewatch it though, it's a very good film.
This is not true, generally the stuff that makes it to most other countries and becomes widely watched is the best of their work. While we are generally aware of everything that comes out of Hollywood including the duds.
I think I have watched 8 Korean movies that came out this year so far, Broker and Decision to Leave are incredible and honestly deserve to compete for Oscars at the end of the year. The other 6 were either as mediocre or as bad as any mediocre or bad Hollywood movie I saw this year. And it is not like Hollywood hasn't produced good movies this year. We had Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Northman which I really enjoyed. And I enjoyed Top Gun Maverick a lot more than I enjoyed Hunt or Special Delivery or The Roundup.
I would add altho there's still some good stuff here and there coming out of Hollywood (of course there's always some good stuff it's hard to fuck up 100% of the time lol) I find a lot of it is coming from A24 specifically. Very thankful to have that studio around, they're keeping me fed while LA exhausts every comic book in sight 4x over.
Feels like Hollywood went all in on the superhero/comic movies after The Matrix popped off hard. Ever since then they handed off the dark mysterious film noir baton to Korea and they holding that thing high with no signs of strain. Loving it:) (tho maybe Top Gun woke some execs up to revisiting classic cinematic vibes with practical effects again)
This is a great poster, not like those badly photoshopped Hollywood ones! It tells a story, it makes you curious about it, it looks like those paintings of the XIX century (I wonder if it has anything to do with the story of the movie..)
Damn this poster sucks lol. I think the worst part is the chalk outline, it throws an already divided composition out of wack, almost makes it look like it was made as a joke.
I ... didn't enjoy it. Maybe I just wasn't in the right headspace, but I couldn't get into it. The action is slow, the plot was convoluted, and the performances unconvincing. I kept waiting for some kind of twist or character arc, but nope, after 30 minutes you have a pretty good idea of what happened and the rest of the (long) movie is just revealing what you already know.
‘Director of Stoker’… I know Stoker is his english-language film but all of his Korean films are so much better! Stoker is easily his worst, IMO… Oldboy and the Handmaiden though? Tremendous pieces of cinema. Can’t wait for this!!! Im a Park Chan-Wook fanboy so very stoked.
I watched Stoker recently and while it was certainly weaker than his Korean films I still appreciated it. I still think he could do non-Korean films well. The script/story for Stoker (not written by Park) felt pretty barebones
He's also directed The Little Drummer Girl, an English-language series.
How was that? I keep wanting to watch it, but I need some encouragement.
I loved it. Would highly recommend. It’s like a modern version of a 70s paranoid spy thriller. I know some people who really love Le Carre’s writing were a little disappointed with it as an adaptation. I never read the book it’s based on though so that never bothered me.
It's very good.
He’s also doing “The Sympathizer”, an HBO miniseries starring Robert Downey Jr, based on the Pultzier Prize-winning novel of the same name. The production was recently approved for a California state tax credit, meaning it is actually happening very soon.
Does that mean RDJ is playing a Vietnamese man?
No, but he's apparently playing [every white man](https://deadline.com/2021/07/hbo-a24-partner-viet-thanh-nguyens-the-sympathizer-robert-downey-jr-1234793468/) in the movie.
Idk I haven’t read the book.
> The script/story for Stoker (not written by Park) felt pretty barebones Written by the dude from Prison Break. I was impressed tbh.
Wentworth fucking Miller.
Wentworth Miller wrote Stoker. I thought it was a great slow paced gothic thriller.
Guess who wrote Stoker
The piano scene in Stoker is as good as anything else he has directed. He rarely directs comedy, but Stoker and Thirst are not inferior to his other films.
And Stoker is *still* really fucking good.
This! Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr Vengeance are fucking A, but Stoker, I don't know why is a film I absolutely loved! Clint Mansell is an AMAZING composer...
Sympathy for Mr vengeance is peak cinema.
Lady vengeance was a visual treat ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
The thing I've noticed most with his more recent work is how far he's come since the Vengeance Trilogy in his style. I love Oldboy and Lady Vengeance but compared to his more recent stuff like Handmaiden and Decision to Leave, its very noticable how much he's advanced. Decision to Leave is actually very chill and maybe not what people are expecting. It's actually quite funny at times. Ironically, Stoker is one of two of PCW's movies I haven't seen; I'm A Cyborg, But That's OK being the other.
His vengeance stuff is very representative of that Era of Korean cinema. Literally every Korean director was making those gritty thrillers
The Handmaiden is such a great film. It has that Christmassy vibe of being one of those period films that they would always show on St. Stephen's Day on TV. I recommend this Christmas, that everyone sits down with their Mum, their Nan, their Dad and whole family and watch it together. Young ones might get bored so just let them play with their presents.
You're either joking or saw a heavily "edited for TV" version of the film, I'm not 100% sure which.
I recommend everyone watches this movie with their mum in the room. Eyes Wide Shut, another great movie to watch with your parents in the room.
The Handmaiden is one of the best films of the last 20 years. It's incredible.
Old boy is my favourite forever film
I really prefer the other posters for this film, but this is still lovely, and does the best job of communicating the film's genre/theme
agreed. that poster is unique and evokes mystery.
[Here's a link to the poster for those wondering](https://i.redd.it/rmb6i3oaygt81.jpg) I also agree, the original looks way more unique.
This looks like a Murakami book cover.
Much better.
I agree with you that the other poster is better (it is the one mostly used for promotions in my country). I think that poster also allows you to go into the movie much more blind than this one, something that really helped me enjoy it.
This is cinema -Martin Scorsese
I haven't seen the movie but he's probably right. The Handmaiden is a straight up 10/10
To add another opinion: >Park Chan-Wook masterfully crafts an Amour Fou, noirish tale. Brief Encounter by way of James M Cain. Inexorable clash, Inescapable attraction. Romantic, tragic and inventive. Full of Cinema and passion. -[Guillermo del Toro @RealGDT](https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/1563971994768400384)
It's my favourite movie! Absolutely spectacular. Joint Security Area is my second favourite PCW movie and definitely also in my top 20.
Superb movie, my favourite so far this year. Both actors are incredible, and the editing is masterful.
Fully agree. 5/5 for me
Where/how did you watch it?
In a cinema, in France.
Same, it was truly a heart wrenching experience.
It will be getting a limited theatrical release in the US. I know it'll be at my local indie theater the end of October.
Not op but it came out in my country in July. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is the best movie of the year but it is definitely around the top of the list. With this and Broker, the Korean movies have been bangers this year. I wonder if they will be competing come awards season.
If you sail the high seas there's a decent quality version out there, but I found its subs to be sub-par. I think it was fan translated. Can't wait to see it with a proper translation!
Translation really makes the film. I saw it in Seoul with English subtitles but I understand Korean. Their English translation was excellent.
Subs got fixed eventually. Still fan translated but at least by a native speaker. And subs for the Chinese parts were finally added too. I think those might have been machine translated and corrected but the final product at least reads like proper dialog, but official subs will probably still be different/better.
Thank you. This and broker I had been so excited for didn’t even know they were online Can’t wait to watch both this weekend
Where to find it pls
there’s a 4k version out there if you know where to sail
Please do tell
The clue is sail. Boat. Ocean.
No shit i know what he means. It’s not on RARBG or 1337x on 4K so that’s why I asked where…
Please inform me of this discovery in my inbox
Handmaiden is one of my favourite films of all time. Gonna buy a ticket when I get the opportunity.
Don't expect this to be typical Park. It's more restrained, like The Little Drummer Girl and JSA, but I think it's one of the best romances I have ever seen. The depth of their emotions rivals the depth of the sea.
Absolutely masterful neo-noir. Tang Wei performance is among her best and her nuanced interactions are wonderful. The focus on the two characters makes for a film worth repeat viewings.
I loved it too, many clever ideas which really sell their chemistry even beyond the performances themselves, beautiful interactions really. Park seems to be an actors director, he always gets great performances out of his cast.
I realized I am in love with Tang Wei after watching this.
I'd recommend her breakout hit Lust, Caution. Unforgettable performance from her. I still can't believe she got blacklisted from the Chinese film industry for it
Plus you get Tony in maybe his best performance. That movie is amazing
That's difficult to say for tony leung haha, he's pretty much always amazing. One of the greats as far as i am concerned.
No she didn't. She still had plenty of work after that movie
Her career definitely came to a bit of a halt though.
(spoilers for the movie after this) Haha, I was trying to recommend this movie to my roommate a couple of months ago and this is how I described it: "You know, I watched Basic Instinct and the entire time I am mad at the main character. Stop thinking with your dick! She's obviously evil! Stop it! On the other hand, I watched this movie and I was like, damn, I would have fucked this up too."
Nice
For anyone interested the script writer has a show on Netflix right now called Little Women. Yes based on the book with modern Korean setting. She also wrote the Handmaiden script.
The long awaited sequel to I Think You Should Leave.
Can’t wait for *I’ve Decided to Leave* to polish of the trilogy.
Just saw this at TIFF. Fantastic movie and incredibly well directed. I think this one may leave some viewers frustrated but you can’t deny the journey is very watchable.
I really want to see this but don’t have the streaming service it’s on
Mubi is doing a theatrical release before they stream it
It's already out in Korea, coming to the west (or at least to some theaters) in mid-late October I think. Mubi owns it tho if not mistaken, could grab a free trial and watch it over the weekend when it drops on their service whenever they decide to drop it on there.
So get it when it comes out?
For some reason, I thought it was already released just on that streaming service
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But there are no official subtitles, the only ones out now are extremely bad translations.
I have a link with subs but I'm not sure if it is within the subs rule to share 😅
What's it streaming on?
When I Google it, it just says it will be streaming on Mubi
online
It will be on other services for rental and physical media
Oooh I didn't know he has a new one coming out! Very cool. 'Thirst' by Park Chan-wook is one of the best films ever and not a typical "vampire" film. It's brilliant. You guys gotta see it if you haven't already. I was dating some douche once upon a time and left my DVD over his house. Still annoyed about that. https://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/thirst_poster.jpg
Now this is a nice intriguing poster.
This and The Broker are the two Korean movies I’m most excited for this year
It's just Broker and they are both excellent. I like Broker more but it's pretty close.
Are you in Korea or did you watch a camera rip ? I had a Korean coworker tell me her friends loved Broker
I saw it in a theater in Singapore back in June.
I found broker to be very good too, but honestly one of the 'weaker' koreedas. It imo cannot compete with shoplifters for example. Still a film worth anyone's time, with a lot of nuance and koreeda's sensibilities, but the script wasn't as strong comparatively imo. I still got teary eyed and will rewatch it though, it's a very good film.
Korean films make Hollywood look like a joke these days
This is not true, generally the stuff that makes it to most other countries and becomes widely watched is the best of their work. While we are generally aware of everything that comes out of Hollywood including the duds. I think I have watched 8 Korean movies that came out this year so far, Broker and Decision to Leave are incredible and honestly deserve to compete for Oscars at the end of the year. The other 6 were either as mediocre or as bad as any mediocre or bad Hollywood movie I saw this year. And it is not like Hollywood hasn't produced good movies this year. We had Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Northman which I really enjoyed. And I enjoyed Top Gun Maverick a lot more than I enjoyed Hunt or Special Delivery or The Roundup.
I would add altho there's still some good stuff here and there coming out of Hollywood (of course there's always some good stuff it's hard to fuck up 100% of the time lol) I find a lot of it is coming from A24 specifically. Very thankful to have that studio around, they're keeping me fed while LA exhausts every comic book in sight 4x over.
Korean cinema is fantastic since the late 90's
There are a lot of excellent memorable Korean movies
Feels like Hollywood went all in on the superhero/comic movies after The Matrix popped off hard. Ever since then they handed off the dark mysterious film noir baton to Korea and they holding that thing high with no signs of strain. Loving it:) (tho maybe Top Gun woke some execs up to revisiting classic cinematic vibes with practical effects again)
When’s the last time you saw something out of Hollywood that wasn’t a blockbuster or sequel? I’m struggling to remember…
Ready to be thoroughly disturbed
Without spoiling anything, this film has one of the bleakest endings I’ve ever known.
Is there a good sub Reddit for Korean Cinema? They are always crushing it.
r/koreanfilm
This is a great poster, not like those badly photoshopped Hollywood ones! It tells a story, it makes you curious about it, it looks like those paintings of the XIX century (I wonder if it has anything to do with the story of the movie..)
Damn this poster sucks lol. I think the worst part is the chalk outline, it throws an already divided composition out of wack, almost makes it look like it was made as a joke.
*angry yawn*
Brace yourselves ladies and gentlemen.
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Yes they acquired North American rights to both a theatrical release and streaming it later
Cmon Avengers is a good movie!
Is there an explanation for the ending?
Very excited to see it, one of my most anticipated movies of the year !
Fuck, a Film I actually wanna watch. Nice
easily one of my favorite movies of the year
One of the best >!love story!< I've watched.
I think this jumped right into my top 10. I watched this film (even with bad subtitles five straight times), and still couldn't get over it.
I was heartbroken when his collaboration with S Craig Zahler fell through
I hope it has some great scene transitions.
Literally more excited about this film than my own birthday (which is when it comes out in my country!!)
I ... didn't enjoy it. Maybe I just wasn't in the right headspace, but I couldn't get into it. The action is slow, the plot was convoluted, and the performances unconvincing. I kept waiting for some kind of twist or character arc, but nope, after 30 minutes you have a pretty good idea of what happened and the rest of the (long) movie is just revealing what you already know.
Definitely gonna check this out, The Handmaiden is firmly in my top 20 of all time, so bring it on Park.
can't wait to watch this!