Asia's Hitchcock sends chills through Hollywood

Meeting Park Chan-wook is a little like watching his movies. You may not always be certain what he is getting at, but he sure gives you fine visual details to look at.

In his first Hollywood film, “Stoker”, the mysterious image of a spider dancing up a girl’s leg, for instance, is both unfathomable and unforgettable. In person, as he speaks serenely and avoids eye contact, I find myself transfixed by his striking dark-blue tie, knotted loosely at his collar and covered in embossed dots. It reminds me of... bubble wrap.

Park, who won Cannes glory (the Grand Prix or second prize) and international fame in 2004 with “Oldboy”, a stomach-turning story of revenge, is among several Korean directors making English-language debuts this year.

Kim Ji-woon (“A Tale Of Two Sisters”, 2003) directed Arnold Schwarzenegger in his action comeback “The Last Stand”. Bong Joon-ho (“The Host”, 2006) is finishing “Snowpiercer”, a sci-fi film starring Chris Evans.

But ask Park about the Korean Wave landing in Hollywood and what it means, and he declines to be drawn into generalisations. “Each director would have his own reasons for going to Hollywood,” Park, 49, says.

Speaking for himself, however, he admits he hopes to “go back and forth between America and Korea” henceforth, though he declines to discuss upcoming projects.

“Stoker”, a Gothic coming-of-age chiller starring Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman, is stamped with Park hallmarks  – extreme violence, baroque art direction and intense colours. The director is a famous fan of suspense master Alfred Hitchcock. It was after watching“Hitchcock’s Vertigo” (1958) in his youth that Park became obsessed with film-making.

Certainly, American studios noticed Park’s crossover potential as early as 2004 and deluged him with screenplays. But none spoke to him till he read “Prison Break” actor Wentworth Miller’s screenplay for “Stoker”. The story about a teenager’s awakening to her destiny, after her father dies and her creepy uncle turns up, had a “very quiet” quality which set it apart, Park says. The one thing he found hard to translate, however, was humour. But at the premieres of “Stoker” at the Sundance Film Festival and in London, “they reacted to every detail of humour I built into the film, and that was a very happy moment”.