Regardless of genre, 2013’s Oldboy might just be one of the worst remakes of all-time, based entirely on the volume and level of proven talent assembled to reinterpret an already-established modern classic.
A Hollywood version of Park Chan-Wook’s inimitable manga adaptation seemed like a fool’s errand to begin with, but there was no shortage of optimism once it was revealed that Spike Lee would be taking on a rare studio hand-for-hire gig, never mind the incredible ensemble cast he gathered together.
Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, Samuel L. Jackson, Pom Klementieff, Lance Reddick, and Rami Malek are just a smattering of the names involved, but Oldboy V2.0 proved to be every bit as inessential as first thought after taking a pasting from critics and imploding at the box office, barely clearing $5 million in ticket sales against a $30 million budget.
And yet, when Chan-Wook was asked for his thoughts on Lee’s version during a 20th anniversary retrospective interview with Inverse, he ignored the fact that it sucks and opted to praise the film instead.
“I was first of all very honored that it was made by a director I respect and have been personally influenced by. Watching the film, it felt very eerie because it’s the story that I’ve created, but it’s different. It’s almost like a familiar face, but also very new at the same time. You know when you go to amusement parks and there’s the hall of mirrors and you see your contorted reflections in these strange mirrors? It was a fun experience similar to something like that.”
There’s not a lot of people who’d be “honored” at watching their work butchered like that, so fair play to the filmmaker for maintaining such diplomacy in the face of his stone-cold great being murdered by its A-list contemporaries.