20 Years After Premiere, Best Foreign Action Thriller Ever Gets a Second American Remake
If we had a dollar for every time Hollywood decided to remake the best South Korean action thriller ever, we’d have two dollars. Which isn’t a lot, but we’re happy with that.
Apart from the more obvious components like stunning fight scenes and energetic tension, what makes a good action movie? A protagonist hellbent on revenge, of course. Think Quentin Tarantino ’s Kill Bill or Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: sure, they’re cinematic masterpieces in their own rights, but it’s that extra fire coming from the pure hatred and vengeful motivation that elevates these films from the rest.
Hollywood isn’t the only place where they know how to play this game, though: one South Korean action thriller from 2003 took the vengeful protagonist trope to a new level, and Hollywood just can’t have enough of adapting it for America, it seems.
Oldboy’s Plot Starts Off Bizarrely
In most cases, protagonists are trying to avenge someone else, don’t they? Their loved ones were killed, kidnapped, or harmed in other ways, and now they’re trying to get back at the culprit by massacring everyone standing between them. In Oldboy, a 2003 South Korean action thriller, the motivation is rooted in a bizarre event.
After a drunk incident, a man is kidnapped on his way home and held in captivity for many years. His captors’ motivations are unclear, but they prevent him from self-harm, feed him regularly, and even provide him with a TV in his sealed hotel room. From watching the news, the man learns that he was framed for his own wife’s murder, but can’t do much about it. Then, 15 years later, he’s suddenly… Released.
Oldboy Gets Remade Again and Again
Its bizarre premise and great execution immediately elevated Oldboy from other action movies. On Rotten Tomatoes, Park Chan-wook’s flick is sitting at 83 and 94% Critic and Audience Scores, respectively, and its 8.8/10 IMDb score supports that. The original Oldboy’s glory bothers Hollywood as it keeps coming up with remakes.
Spike Lee’s first remake in 2013 didn’t fare well despite having Josh Brolin’s protagonist spend 20 years in solitary confinement against the original’s 15 years: it was rejected by both critics and viewers and has 39 and 37% on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively.
But old mistakes won’t be repeated. The next adaptation will be created by the original director Park Chan-Wook as he’s currently developing an Oldboy TV show under Lionsgate, according to Deadline. This gives us hope that the new remake will be on par with the original — or, perhaps, even better, seeing how Park now has additional 20 years of experience.
Source: Deadline