Summary
Ahead of her MCU debut inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol.
2,Pom Klementieffwasprofiled inHarper’s Bazaaras part of a Girl on the Rise series.
Despite being a [newcomer] on the verge of stardom, her interview isnt full of exclamation points.
Image via FilmDistrict
She comes off as reserved, not starry-eyed.
I wanted to be inside the movie.
The American remake ofOldboy.
Obsessed with vengeance, a man sets out to find out why he was kidnapped and locked into solitary confinement for twenty years without reason.
What Is Spike Lees Oldboy About?
As one of the quintessential titles of the Korean New Wave, Park Chan-wooksOldboywas a natural candidate.
In 2011, the dead horse was resurrected as aSpike Leejoint, starringJosh Brolin.
This time, Choi Min-sik is the villain.
By this point, the Korean remake craze had died down.
He usually writes the screenplays he directs, but this one was written byMark Protosevich.
What Makes Pom Klementieff’s ‘Oldboy’ Performance So Impressive?
Surprisingly, the remake ages pretty well.
Spike Lee cherished that opportunity, and so did Pom Klementieff.
Image via FilmDistrict
She was blown away by the original, watching it at the impressionable age of 16.
Klementieff went searching for work in America because she wanted to play strong, independent female characters.
Imagine her excitement whenthe villains henchman, Mr. Han, was written by Protosevich to be female.
Like Mr. Han, Haeng-bok is a mysterious but deadly fighter.
Klementieff had recently taken up boxing, which came to Spike Lees attention.
What followed was an audition process straight out ofWhiplash.
Klementieff showed up in an outfit similar to Mr. Hans, ready to demonstrate her new martial arts skills.
Lee asked her to go home and change into more feminine attire.
Locked out of her house, she had to buy a new dress before rushing back to the studio.
Fortunately, she fared better than Andrew Neiman and arrived in one piece and won the part.
Klementieff worked so hard because Lee was so exacting,every bit the perfectionist as Park Chan-wook.
TheOldboyremake was not, in fact, a Spike Lee Film from the start.
Why Did Spike Lee’s Oldboy Remake Fail?
A significant factor inOldboyscritical and commercial failure was that old chestnut, studio interference.
The interference is sometimes obvious, with spots of awkward ADR or jump cuts.
He wanted to do something different, or at least, something in line with his creative sensibilities.
What does survive the studio edits, then, is the films comic book world.
Funnily enough, there areshades ofJohn Wickhere, with a light touch of world-building.
In the original film, there was no real explanation for the hotel.
It was just another bizarre thing that existed in the dream logic of the hero’s nightmare.
Even themovie’s gut-punch final revealis punctuated byChoi Min-siksgoofy stare reflected in the photo albums glossy pages.
The remake has one mode: grim.
Every scene is pitched exactly the same, and sometimes its a matter of music.
When Joe learns his terrible truth, the score swells rather than allow Brolin to convey the anguish.
There was no guidance for us to arrive with them.
Ofher role inMission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, she says, I trained for months!
For months and months, and I’d been training even before.
The only difference is were paying attention this time.
Oldboyis currently available to stream on The Roku Channel in the U.S.
WATCH ON ROKU
