Entertainment

'Oldboy' Turns Classic Character Into a Lady

Chan-wook Park's now-classic 2003 revenge film Oldboy broke barriers with its physical, emotional, and stylistic ruthlessness when it was released, and now Spike Lee's Oldboy remake is close to its own controversial November release. Many fans are wary, or downright enraged over the prospect of a remake. Naturally, the film took New York Comic Con as an opportunity to screen unseen footage (that will never be seen again... until the film's release) from the remake and reveal a new twist: Mr. Han is no longer a Mr.

Oldboy stars Josh Brolin as a man who's imprisoned for 20 years for unknown reasons until he's released as a much older man and forced to solve one very important mystery: why did the architect of this scheme do it? And why did he release Brolin's Joe Ducett after 20 years of captivity?

Before showing the brutal clip featuring Joe on a journey to solve that mystery (along with the 2003 film's classic hammer in-hand), actress Pom Klementieff revealed a little something extra. Her character, who can be seen on the poster (and the image above) carrying a yellow umbrella with red hash marks, is actually the same character as the original's Mr. Han. Fans know Mr. Han as the bodyguard of the man scheming against Joe. When fans in New York's Javitz Center cheered at the news, Klementieff simply replied, "Yeah, I'm a girl." And just like that, the gender swap was less of shock and more of a prelude to the violent footage from the film.

In a moment that will remain between the crowd at the Javitz Center and the film's writer Mark Protosevich, Michael Imperioli, Klementieff, and two rows of women carrying replicas of the newly memorable yellow umbrella, the first real footage of the hotly debated remake debuted. And since there will be no embed available for you non-NYCC folks, we'll deliver you the next best alternative:

BRUTAL PLAY-BY-PLAY OF THE NEW OLDBOY FOOTAGE

The scene opens with Joe grimacing in a bustling restaurant, keeping a keen eye on a thug entering to pick up a rather sizable delivery order. Giving him a bit of a head start, Joe stealthily tails the man with the pickup order, grabbing a hammer right out of a woman's hand and stealing a delivery bike so that he can silently chase the man in his Escalade. (Spoiler: that hammer is about to be really important.) He and the Escalade proceed into a low-impact chase scene through side streets and back alleys until the SUV pulls into a loading dock. As the dock's door slowly closes, Joe sneaks inside and up to the driver, smacking him in the face with the hammer. There's blood, but we haven't seen anything yet.

Covering his face with the food delivery bags, Joe fools the guard and makes his way to the second floor, where he gives his name as The Count of Monte Cristo. Before the man can protest, he's got Joe's hammer jammed in his skull. His head hits the desk as his eyes bulge from the impact and the guttural sounds of death eke from his mouth. From there, he moves onto the big (sort of) guy: Samuel L. Jackson's Chaney.

Joe lays him out at his desk and draws a dotted line on Chaney's neck (as we've seen in the trailer) and as Chaney protests profusely, Joe simply grunts, "Shut the fuck up." To Chaney's immediate, "fuck you, man," Joe delivers an equally gruff and plain, "Nah, fuck you" before he begins cutting out slivers of skin where the dotted line is drawn. He's perforating Chaney's neck. Sam Jackson's only reaction at this moment is to shout "Ow, ow, ow, OW" and threaten Brolin's Joe, saying if he wants to leave alive, he'll stop now. To that, Joe has only one stomach-dropping response: "I'm going to keep going until I can pull your fucking head off with my bare hands." And scene.

You should probably reserve judgement of the film or this scene until you see it yourself, but as I mentioned, that won't be for a while, so hold this information dear, folks. But if you're really desperate to see a video, here's the trailer. They showed that at NYCC too.