You can’t accuse Spike Lee of walking away from a challenge.

The 2003 Korean film Oldboy was the kind of crossover classic that made audiences swoon. The tale of a man who is mysteriously imprisoned for more than a decade and then seeks revenge, it picked up the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, and brought director Park Chan-wook international acclaim in the process. With a combination of brutal violence, disturbing plot twists, and magical realism, it’s the type of movie that most filmmakers would never think of remaking — yet when the decision was made to create an English-language version, the director of Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X agreed to take it on.

Starring Josh Brolin, Lee’s version isn’t a shot-for-shot reconstruction and it’s not really a love letter, either. It’s more like a game of cinematic Telephone, strongly echoing Chan-wook’s film at times while also taking chances to hopefully improve upon it. However, in a tale where the hero is constantly asking questions about his predicament, the audience may be left with the most important one of all: why?