A New Look for "Oldboy"?

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A New Look for "Oldboy"?

Written by Lex Walker

Thursday, 06 November 2008

We'd reported a while back that Justin Lin had stepped back from an Oldboy remake for creative differences as well as a different gig in the form of the Fast and Furious sequel. In that exchange he'd mentioned he had an entirely different angle from the older film and the studio had wanted a carbon copy. Justin Lin stepped down and noted the project had gone on to "some big filmmaker." We now know who.

Apparently raping Indiana Jones wasn't enough. Variety reports Steven Spielberg is looking into a remake of Chan-Wook Park's Oldboy, the second of his Vengeance trilogy. Personally, I hold this trilogy in a special place in my heart and this news consequently... well it stings—faithful carbon copy or not.

Oldboy sees a man held prisoner—for seemingly no reason—in a dank, dark cell for 15 years. One day he's released with no explanation - given clothes, money and a cell phone to help lead him down the path towards discovering who did this to him and why. This obviously won't be the first time an American studio has adopted [read: butchered] an Asian film for American consumption. In fact it's a long-respected tradition that even Kurosawa's films have fallen pray to. But you'd think the recent abundance and eventual floundering of the most recent entries would have some discouraging effect. Nope.

It seems residual success from the Ring and Grudge adaptations have remained while the sour taste of a certain cell-phone ghost horror flick has been willfully forgotten. Oh how we forget. But goddamn Spielberg - if [read: when] you mess this up you better apologize. Oldboy's far too good to tinker with. The fact that he wants this to be his collaboration piece with Will Smith only further fills me with dread. I know Will Smith did a decent job in (amid the trainwreck that is) I am Legend. He played the "last man on earth" role well - and I imagine there will be more than 15 minutes in the Oldboy remake where he's sitting in that room displaying, in a way that apparently only Will Smith is able, the ways that solitude destroys a man.

What frightens me most is what this means for another Korean favorite of mine: The Host. Heralded as one of the best monster movies of all time by a large number of critics, with the remake of a classic film in a trilogy such as this - it suggests that no matter the quality of the original, if it's not in English it NEEDS translation. I know this isn't a new trend by any means, as I said it's been happening since (and even before) Kurosawa, but to take such a brilliant trilogy as Lady Vengeance and begin bastardizing it with Will Smith of all people just makes me hurt. Deep inside. Where wounds don't heal.

I hope this falls through.

November 19, 2008, kyle rea said:

Hollywood,

First off, let me explain that the very existence of my nature is to create and enjoy art.

Now tell me why it is that Hollywood puts a dollar sign on everything that steps foot in its boundaries? Are there any filmmakers these days that actually want to create art or is everybody so worried about making millions of dollars and becoming famous that they forget the whole point of art? For instance, I deem the Korean masterpiece “Oldboy” as my favorite movie of all time (alongside “Braveheart”). They are my favorite films because in my opinion, there is absolutely nothing anybody change about them to make them better films.

I’m also obsessed with movies. I’ve seen around 6,500 movies, if not more, in the past five years. I’m an artist obsessed with beauty. I found out today that “Oldboy” is going to be remade by Steven Spielberg. The thing that upsets me the most is the fact that Hollywood is once again ruining an already perfect film in order to make some quick cash. It wouldn’t bother me as much as it does had Steven Spielberg not decided to cast Will Smith as the lead character, Oh Dae-Su. The problem with replacing Min-sik Choi with the American version, Will Smith, is that Will’s acting style is NOTHING like Min-sik Choi’s. He is, for the most part, a mainstream actor that makes blockbuster films, not artistic films.

The troubling part to all this madness is Steven Spielberg, which generally makes blockbuster films for the mainstream audience, is not obsessed with upholding a perfected script, by perfected performances, to make a perfected film, which has in the past, already been perfected. You see, Spielberg, a GREAT director in my opinion, made “Saving Private Ryan” and “Schindler’s List”, masterpieces. Those films are masterpieces and if another director were to remake those films, it would be the same exact thing as to what he’s doing with the already master pieced, “Oldboy”. It’s like taking Abraham Lincoln out of office and replacing him with George W. Bush Jr.

The biggest problem to remaking “Oldboy” in my belief is that Hollywood has a way of undermining the graphic details of foreign masterpieces in order to tame the essence of the film so they may reach more viewers. The eating of the live squid and sleeping with the daughter will most assuredly be pulled out for being too “graphic” for American audiences and allowing the film to be more “mainstream” and pull in more cash at the box office. It’s scenes like this that are the essence of “Oldboy” and if they are taken out for the American version of the remake, then I rest my case. For now, only time will tell but I will forever ridicule Hollywood for its lack of respect towards art. I hope one day that my own films will bring light to artistic film making once again and open doors to all that are also against the morals of Hollywood’s unoriginal get quick schemes.

This blog is based on my opinion only and I write it to make a point that not everybody has to follow the mainstream crowd. I still love some of Steven Spielberg’s work but don’t necessarily believe Will Smith even remotely comes close to the type of actor that should be cast as the lead, Oh Dae-su. I also pray, wish, and hope that Spielberg doesn’t take away the essence that is “Oldboy” or I will forever hold a silent grudge in my head for the rest of my life on Earth. Long live art over m

Votes: +1