Oldboy

[ravenus]

OLDBOY - Chan-wook Park

Oldboy is not everyone’s cup of tea for sure and there are likely as many nays as yays for it but if you’re receptive to an unconventional revenge drama and can swallow some daunting logical leaps (along with a bit of torture and mutilation) you might find this interesting.

Oh Dae-su, a Korean family man is abruptly kidnapped one night…and for the next 15 years is placed in solitary confinement without knowing who his abductor is or why he has been taken. During his long incarceration Dae-su spends his time watching daytime television, boxing against the walls, making tattoos to mark the passage of time, laboriously digging a secret tunnel to (hopefully) freedom. Then one day he is, as abruptly, set free. A middle-aged Dae-su moves in the city, determined to revenge himself on the abductor but finds himself falling into a cat-and-mouse game where the abductor taunts him to find out why he has been incarcerated. In the while Dae-su takes up with a pretty young girl Mi-do who is apparently in love with him and wants to help…or does she?

Oldboy is shot in a gritty but stylish manner with very nicely done scene transitions. Park obviously draws from the likes of De Palma and Takashi Miike but he’s no aimless ripoff and has definite ideas of how he wants to present his story. He also has a great ear for music and the score of the film is quite interesting. Performances are decent although most characterizations aren’t really very developed; Mi-do is especially one-dimensonal considering she occupies significant screen time. The main flaw of ‘Oldboy’ IMO is that it’s somewhat indulgent allowing itself far too much length after major plot points are unveiled. A sprint towards the end would have helped.

Without putting out spoilers, I would say that your acceptance of Oldboy mainly relies on how you react to what I call plot device X. Plot device X is on its own a huge pill to swallow and in a less agreeable film I would probably have railed against the implausible contrivance. But in this case I was willing to swallow it because it made an interesting story on the whole for me.

TRIVIA: American remake scheduled for 2006…shudder.

[Wanderer]

A great movie. I enjoyed it very much. The movi is little sick but still great. The scene when Dae - su is pulling teeth with the hammer to that guy is one of a kind. The hole story, the things that are going on in that movie great. The reason why they kidnaped him...
simply great!! the movie is one of a kind.