Recently I was introduced to Chan-Wook Park’s
2012 masterpiece, Stoker. When I began to watch I was completely unaware of
what was to come as I did not have any knowledge of this film before it bgan
playing. And needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Cinematically this
film is beautiful, with conscience yet immaculate appreciation of framing and
composition the overall style was something which I found compelling. The film
is a mystery crime thriller surrounding the life of 18 year old India who is
introduced to her previously inexistent uncle after her father dies. The pair
are shown to have a connection, this is done through cinematic references
through camera angles and framing of the pair together, however this connection
is something a little out of the ordinary. India seems to become infatuated
with her Uncle Charlie, yet there are elements which would leave the audience
to believe it is the other way around. As the film progresses more is learned about the life Charlie had been leading up until his momentous reencounter with his niece, and it is something which I will not spoil for anyone as I will defiantly be proposing anyone interested to watch this film. 
Along with the beautiful cinematography comes a clever use of sound, shots and editing. The film is in fact quite morbid and never seems to pick up the tempo which would be expected from a regular mainstream film. Conventionally in films of this nature there are uses of particular lighting techniques such as low key and much more contrasting lighting creating darker effects. However within this film Park takes to a much more experimental approach. Linking back to the titles reference to Bram "Stokers" Dracula, each of India's senses are supposed to be enhanced. This is explored in the cinematic way of enhancing the visual and audio elements within the film. Instead of deepening the lighting and desaturating the colour like it would have been expected, throughout the film the colours are enhanced. Bright colours are used to make objects stand out, but overall everything is much brighter than it should be. In some ways this begins to create even more of an atmosphere than say, low key lighting would have done.As someone who is very interesting in films which showcase unusual elements but still sticking to a narrative structure, Stoker was defiantly a film that I have fallen in love with. Beautiful cinematography never goes a miss throughout the whole film, and with key attention paid to each of its influential elements there is no doubt that you should watch this film!
