Oldboy

The thing about Oldboy is that it leaves you thinking long after the credits. The next night after seeing it, I ended up dreaming I was trapped in a hotel room, with my hair growing out of control, with the exception being that there was no TV. It certainly makes you think how you would cope in that situation - the only situation similar to that would be prison. But at least in prison you get some luxuries.

The story is based around Oh Dae-Su, who is taken from the streets after a drunken night out, and held prisoner in a hotel-style room, with no way out and nothing but the TV for company. He keeps up with the events of the world through this, and also learns of his wife's death and his young daughter's subsequent adoption. When his hair needs cut, or his room needs cleaned, he's gassed. After 15 years he's released, to a whole new world, and a wallet full of a cash, and a mobile phone.

What happens after that is an absolute whirlwind of emotions and imagery. I won't spoil any of the film for you, but be prepared to concentrate. Unfortunately, the film does lose its momentum part way through, and then it all comes together at the end.

When you think you know exactly what is happening in this film, it takes a sudden twist, and you're left thinking again, and puzzling over it, trying to work out what's happening, and where it's going before it gets there. The film comes to an absolute through-provoking climax, where I was still left wondering what on earth was going on, and it will take a few minutes to work it out. But I did go home babbling about it to my dad (who'd already seen the film) which is normally a good sign.

I didn't really like Sympathy For Mr Vengence, but Oldboy has more than made up for that. It's a thought provoking and intriguing movie and yes, gives you a reason to watch it again.

Written By: Lisa Fore
© Dystopia Magazine | Asian Edition | June 2007
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."

After getting busted for being drunk and extremely disorderly, rumpled businessman Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) gets angrier and angrier as he sits at a station waiting for the police to release him because he has to go home--it's his little girl's birthday. Getting nowhere with the standard inebriated outbursts and tantrums, he tries to flip on the charm and show the police he's a nice guy (in a fantastic set of hysterical cut shots): a proud papa--shoving pictures of his daughter at the cops; an entertainer -- dancing and singing while wearing a small set of angel wings he bought as a birthday present for his little angel; and finally as a regular Joe--by flirting with a younger girl (who also happens to be sitting right next to her boyfriend). It's still a no-go with the cops however, until Dae-su's best friend, Joo-Hwan, comes to bail him out. While his friend apologizes profusely to the police, Oh Dae-su waits (quietly--to everyone's surprise I'm sure), until he does the regional equivalent of giving the cops the middle finger and scrambles from the station.

We find him in a phone booth calling his daughter to apologize for being late, and he suddenly puts his friend on the phone (looking to avoid a screaming wife who's bound to jump on any second--well maybe in Asia it's considered `concerned nagging') and steps out of the phone booth.

It becomes the biggest mistake of Dae-su's life.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Oldboy is a true rarity. While it's the second film that ever made me restart the DVD immediately after the final credits (Usual Suspects being the first), it's the first to make me do it four times in a row.(When it's that good, I tend to get "a tad" obsessive-compulsive.)

This three act thriller is a total descent into the power of human will, that while full of raging action is even more horrific than any giant deity flailing a chainsaw through ridiculous sequels or CGI boogeyman (or woman or child) because this is the ultimate psychological game, and for all of it's intricate details, Oldboy is actually plausible...with the right kind of connections and patience.

The screenplay is brilliant, with dialogue that's actually practical and informative---no weak red herrings or filler chat-chat here; the direction and cinematography are phenomenal, smooth and (here's another rare part) ultimately and intimately involving---Park brings the audience Dae-su's ordeal with moments of claustrophobia and even the relief of space (I actually caught myself inhaling deeply once he was released) that can't help but bring us right into his head, and naturally sympathize completely with his plans of revenge.

The extent of his captor's cruelty and the purity of Dae-su's determination for absolution are truly astounding. I also definitely recommend watching it in it's native language (Korean) with subtitles, even though it has the option of English audio; Choi's tone and passion put the final stamp of perfection on the entire film. If you aren't emotionally exhausted by Choi's magnificent performance, then check your pulse, cuz the man has got serious game.

Sir Anthony Hopkins. Robert De Niro. Al Pacino. Choi Min-sik.

Oh yeah people, he's easily sits among the greatest in the world.

Oldboy is an absolute masterpiece: psychologically brutal, darkly hilarious, beautifully presented and completely disturbing---results only possible by those who understand true human frailty and drive.

I became a fan of Choi Min-sik and Park Chan-wook after the first run--they totally broke my mind and I absolutely love them for it.

Excellent film. The 1st time I watched this movie it was dubbed and with subtitles (which was a little distracting). You do NOT want to be distracted when watching this movie. Every detail is important to the plot. I think that you will enjoy this movie.

Wow, what can I say about Oldboy. It's definetely one of the best films I've ever seen, it takes the formula of a revenge plot driven storyline and turns it around and makes it different than anything you've ever seen before. I've also noticed that some reviewers have compared it to some of Tarantino's work which is about half right, even though some parts were similar to Tarantino's and Takashi Miike's stuff it was still a highly original and entertaining crime thriller with some gruesome scenes of violence. The screenplay was brilliant and the characters were developed very well and it was extremely complex not to mention the plot which was ingenious and has the most amazing plot twist I've seen so far with a great payoff and the acting from all of the cast was superb, I actually thought it was quite disturbing while watching it the first time last year but I must admit that it didn't have the same impact the second time around oh well. The story focuses on Dae-Su (Min-Sik Choi) who is drunk and disorderly in a police station on his young daughter's birthday gets posted bail by his best friend and then gets kidnapped and thrown in what looks like a cheap motel room only to be held captive there for fifteen years with only his rage, anger and confusion to keep him company. He has a small t.v. and he obviously has no idea who kidnapped him, as he passes time lifting weights and trying to break out by digging a hole on the wall. His imprisonment is both horrifying and absurd and anyone in that situation would obviously feel the same as Dae-Su would, things actually go from bad to worse as it is found out that he is the chief suspect in his own wife's murder and just as he's about finished digging a tunnel out through the wall Dae su is released under mysterious circumstances and filled with rage he vows revenge on his captors...he also has a cool and crazy haircut. He then meets a female companion in a sushi bar and they develop a quick relationship but this female companion has a dark secret which is about to be revealed later on and Dae-Su seems to be losing his sanity trying to find the identity of his tormentors.

While the majority of the film follows the lead character's attempt to find his tormentors and exact revenge the true conflict transpires behind the scenes, the plot was very intricate and clever and it seems like Dae-Su was the type of person who was indeed guilty of causing much suffering to himself and to others. If you like Korean or Asian cinema then your going to love this, Choonwok Park has done a great job with this stylishly made and slick looking drama or Crime/Thriller which is such a fantastic film , the best scene had to be the one in the hallway where Dae su proceeds to beat the crap out of a bunch of thugs with only a hammer and his fists, this scene was excellently choreographed and beautifully shot using a tracking shot camera moving across the hall as Dae-su punches and kicks his way out, such a fantastic moment. The film also has plenty more memorable scenes as well like the shocking ending which I'm not going to reveal and Dae su eating that tasty looking live squid YUM ;-). The film was also quite violent so if you're squeamish about that stuff then forget it, theres some teeth pulling scenes that made me cringe abit. If you liked Oldboy then make sure you check out Chanwook Park's other films in the vengeance trilogy like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance those two films were just as good, oh yeah and the film also used some stunning cinematography and great music which was very effective. The extras include a bunch of informative interviews with the director and some deleted and extended scenes and some trailers along with a commentary track. I hope you enjoy this beautiful ode to suffering and revenge, Asian cinema at its finest.............

The great composer Gustav Mahler reportedly once said, in reference to his contemporary Puccini, "These days any idiot can orchestrate to perfection." I happen to love Puccini, but I think I understand the point Mahler was trying to make, that an artist can be technically proficient, a master craftsman in fact, and still create art that is slick, soulless and pedantic. This idea applies as much to film as it does to music. To paraphrase Mahler, "These days any idiot can edit to perfection." He can cut, paste, slice and dice, pan and scan with the best of them, he can rearrange his narrative so that it becomes a complicated jigsaw that the viewer has to invest some mental effort in putting back together, but that doesn't necessarily make him a great director. Oldboy is proof positive. Now, I don't mean to suggest that Chan-Wook Park is an idiot, I just think he's the kind of artist Mahler was talking about, a master craftsman whose film is slick, soulless and pedantic.

Past masters such as Ingmar Bergman and Luis Bunuel made obligue, complex pictures as well, cinematic puzzles so to speak, the kind a viewer has to think about before he can reach understanding, but the puzzle isn't so much about what happens onscreen, it involves piecing together what the film is ABOUT. Take Bergman's Through A Glass Darkly for example. The narrative part of the film is linear and straightforward, any ten-year-old watching the film could tell you what happens, the sequence of events, but could he tell you what it all means? The beauty of Through A Glass Darkly is its ability to make the viewer grow while watching it, make him contemplate his own feelings about God, family, relationships, spirituality, madness and art, and in effect he has the opportunity of becoming a more thoughtful and self-aware person via the experience. Does anybody really think that the decadent-for-its-own-sake Oldboy could have that kind of an impact on its viewership? Park's film is all about confusing the audience in a far less meaningful way, making the viewer work to reconstruct its fractured storyline, which to me is a more shallow form of complexity. That might sound like an oxymoron but it certainly applies. I'm not denying there's a message to the film, that obsessing over vengeance can turn a civilized person into a beast, into his own worst enemy, but that concept alone is hardly new or earth-shattering considering that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet centuries ago. A film that wants to pass itself off as great art needs more than that to qualify as substantive, instead, Oldboy uses its thematic pretensions, as well as its edgy, hyperkinetic editing, its swallowing orchestral motifs, its off-putting violence and depravity, in short its self-conscious artiness to distract the viewer from its nonsensical plot.

Be warned, the following paragraph contains spoilers, but since the purpose of this review is to dissuade potential viewers, the spoilers don't really matter. The story of Oldboy is basically a comic book plot blown up to pseudo-artistic proportions. It involves an absurd villain who blames the death of his sister on a fellow student from their high school years, but instead of confronting the guy years later, maybe punching him out, or holding a gun to his head and saying, "You ruined my life, you scumbag!," he comes up with an elaborate plan to carry out his vengeance that involves kidnapping the man, holding him prisoner in an apartment for fifteen years, hypnotizing him, murdering the man's wife and framing his victim for the crime, hypnotizing the man's daughter while financing a cover-up that leads the man to believe that the young woman is living in Switzerland, all this so that by the time the man escapes the daughter will be old enough, and unfamiliar, for him to unknowingly sleep with her!(Of course she also happens to be beautiful and sensual, a plain, sexless daughter would have very little use in the film, although I suppose the villain could have anonymously financed her plastic surgery, he manages to do everything else!) The reason for all this? While in high school, the man inadvertently started a rumor(which by the way is true) that the villain and his sister had sex. His crime was talking too much around the wrong people, as high school boys are wont to do. Anyone who thinks that the folks who appear on the Maury Show to confront bullies from their past need to get a life should take a serious look at this guy! He makes No Country For Old Men's Anton Chigurh seem like a subtle, realistic, and down-to-earth baddie by comparison. Of course our dastardly fiend has unlimited resources at his disposal, as all comic book villains do, he has wealth, a bodyguard, an army of thugs, access to hypnotists, hallucinatory gases, numerous penthouse apartments, revolutionary surveillance devices and other convenient technology, everything he needs to carry out his mad scheme, plus a heartlessness that allows him to exploit and maim and destroy(in some very gruesome sequences I might add, gruesome to the point of being almost unwatchable) until his vengeance is complete. All of this is presented in a style that is very garish and over-the-top, which is necessary, otherwise the viewer might think too much and recognize the preposterousness of it all. The prisoner becomes just as hungry for revenge, blurring the lines between good and evil but not in any way that is convincing, because Chan-Wook Park isn't interested in presenting us with a serious examination of violence and its causes, he's more interested in indulging his deranged imagination.

Modern film, television as well, has fallen in love with this in-your-face style of filmmaking, with circuitous storylines(here a twist, there a twist, everywhere a twist twist), graphic yet stylized gore, frenetic pacing and hallucinatory editing, but with little if any substance, and this is what passes for "smart." "These days any idiot can orchestrate to perfection." I hear ya, brother. I think I liked the old days better.