Stoker!!!!

Stoker.

From the director of the Korean hit film 'Oldboy' comes Park Chan-Wook's first English spoken film and his début into the american movie world. And it has to be said that it is an absolute triumph and a film that is not only visually stunning but it is intense and just plain strange (in a good way).

The story of Stoker is that of the stoker family, mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman), father Richard (Dermot Mulroney) and daughter India (Mia Wasikowska). As the family seem happy enough and everything is going right, tragedy strikes and Richard is killed in a car accident. 

Soon enough the funeral comes around and on the horizon is a dark figure in the sunlight watching the funeral proceedings. The mysterious figure emerges to be Richard's younger brother Charlie (Matthew Goode). With Evelyn striking up a rather intimate relationship with Charlie it's India who is almost infatuated by her uncle and starts to become a little bit obsessed with him. As the two finally start to talk to each other you get a feeling that something lies deep between them both and something strange is going on. 

As people go around to the house to see the mourning and ever more depressed widow Evelyn, they start to disappear and India is the first one to notice this. As the relationship grows and grows the mother catches them and wishes nothing but bad things for her daughter. With India knowing Charlie's full story of where he has been and what he has been doing for so many years she decides to take matters into her own hands. 

In the matter of a story the film does have a nice easy, simple storyline which anyone can easily pick up on and it's a nice free flowing feeling. Nicole Kidman plays the depressive mother well and portrays a woman on the edge and willing to do anything to get back her own happiness. The stars of the film have to be Mia and Mathhew, the daughter and uncle. As perverse as their relationship is in the film it leaves you interested, intrigued yet confused as to what will happen next between them.

With some films you watch it for the storyline and the explosions or the fight scenes but with Stoker you look for something more with it. You can tell that nearly every single shot in the film has been thought about and has a meaning and purpose to it. Scenes like the origin of the blood red coloured flowers in a field is a clever idea, the combing of hair that as you go down the hair blends and melts into a field of reids blowing in the wind. The use a single spider slowly crawling up India's leg to eventually go up her skirt between her legs all have a underlining meaning.

Some scenes are of course weird and can be seen as perverse. A scene where India is in the shower and re-calls a murder she witnessed she masturbates at this memory and climaxes at the image of the person being killed. The playing of a piano, India plays the piano and is soon joined by her uncle Charlie. As they both play the piano and the music becomes faster and more intense India gets more and more aroused and soon enough the final note is played and India lets out a massive sigh of almost inner sexual relief. But for the uncle Charlie to have disappeared it's as if was he really there at all?.

The film in my eyes is something of incredible cinema, every single shot and scene in the film has a purpose and brings tension and suspense. The storyline of the family is great and allows all three main actors to utilise their talents and bring to life these three characters who each have their own problems in life. For anyone who likes the works of the legend Alfred Hitchcock then this film is a DEFINITE to watch as you will be hooked and enticed by it. Terribly disturbing, terribly weird but oh so terribly beautiful.

An amazing edition to Park Chan-Wook's filmography and a great first english spoken film for the Korean director. If this is his first hollywood film then just imagine what his next creation will be like and just how interesting and quirky it will be. 

I don't usually add videos to my reviews but the video below shows some scenes I have mentioned in my review.

10/10.