Directed by one of South
Korea’s foremost film directors, Stoker is the first of acclaimed filmmaker
Park Chan Wook’s works to be made in the English language. With the story of
this British / American co-production being primarily based around a girl in
her late teens whose father has recently passed away, only for her estranged
uncle to show up out of the blue at his funeral. The uncle soon becomes
involved with his dead brothers wife, but not all is right with the mysterious
stranger. Things later take a more sinister turn as the young girl finds a dead
body in the house.
The film is really quite
well directed as you may expect from seeing Park’s previous work. There is a
real aura of suspense building throughout the movie that is well handled for
the most part. The film is also well shot with some really interesting
sequences to the cinematography. Acting in the film is well handled as each
actor fully embodies his or her role. However, what did stand out as an
off-putting component to the film was some of the blatant plot holes in the
movie.
Let me explain. Throughout
the film there are points of revelation of information relating to the plot and
characters. There is a suspense that builds here around character motives and
the possibility of danger they may hold to the protagonist. Ominous events
occur, as a precursor to these larger moments of revelation, but one of things
we expect to rely on is that the protagonist will react in a way that is relatable
for the audience. Case in point, early into the film the protagonist (India) finds
a body in her house that may or may not have been put there by her uncle and yet
she doesn’t ring the police. Why? She is in no way related to this death and
already suspects her uncle. But still she doesn’t go to the police.
From this point the film
seems to trail off into it’s own bizarre fantasy world. Whilst at school one
day, a group of caricature school bullies who are so over the top they would be
out of place in a Looney Tunes cartoon attempt to confront India. She then
stabs one of them as her uncle is seen watching on. It is here that she meets
another classmate who seems quite friendly until a later scene, where he seems
to within only a few seconds, switch into a completely different character, and
attempts to rape India! None of this makes any sense! His character switch is
completely out of nowhere and is in no way believable.
Her uncle Charlie, who
proceeds in murdering her classmate, saves India, which is then intercut with a
shower scene where India is masturbating over the murder. None of this makes
any sense! Why is she suddenly displaying psychotic behavior? Why does she
continually not ring the police? How can we relate to a character when there
are no grounded qualities to her personality?
In some of Park’s Korean
thrillers people are often forced into violent situations for a reason.
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (2002) and Oldboy (2003) see multiple characters act violently for revenge or in an attempt to achieve some goal, but here in
Stoker it seems as though everyone is aimless. Action is random and there is
never any sense of reason to what is going on. A suspense thriller builds to
confrontation; a mystery thriller builds to revelation and, in the end it feels
as though Stoker built itself to nothing. The film seems to get lost around
half way through and only really manages to stumble to the finish. That’s not to
say there is no confrontation to Charlie’s actions, there is. But when it comes
to a conclusion it just feels anticlimactic.
Overall the film wasn’t
what you might expect from the advertisements. Its well acted, shot, edited and
directed, but there are just too many plot holes to give this a good
recommendation. Many critics have failed to notice these flaws and I’m sure other
audience members will to, but still, this would be no reason to simply give the
film a pass because of these facts.
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