Oldboy
by Chan-wook Park
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dae-han Ji, Dal-su Oh, Hye-jeong Kang, Ji-tae Yu, Min-sik ChoiDirector: Chan-wook Park
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Korean (Original Language), Dolby Digital 6.1 EX; English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-23
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Tartan Video
Movie Reviews of Oldboy
Movie Review: A masterpiece of brilliant filmmaking
Summary: 5 Stars
2003 would go down as the year a master filmmaker emerged from the ranks of the independent circles to the forefront of elite directors. Chan-wook Park was already well-known amongst the indie circuit as an innovative director coming out of South Korea's burgeoning film industry. He'd already released such well-received films as Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. In fact, the film in question that's propelled Mr. Park to the forefront would be the second part of a film trilogy dealing with the existential nature of vengeance and its effect on all involved. Oldboy follow's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance like a sonic boom and inproves on the first leg of the trilogy in every way.
Oldboy at its most basic is a revenge film. It is a film about a man wrongly and mysteriously imprisoned for reasons unknown to him and to the audience. We see Dae-su Oh --- the man in question --- through his 15 years of mysterious imprisonment and we see him change from the Average Joe from before his kidnapping to a taut, volatile and somewhat insane individual whose only goal in life is to find whoever did this to him and make him pay. Dae-su Oh's imprisonment takes a good part in the telling and makes up the first third of the film's tale. As the years go by we see him spiral down to the lowest depths a man can get to before sanity leaves him. There's no evidence that he didn't go insane during his imprisonment, but Park sure does show us scenes that Dae-su Oh's singular focus to find out why he was imprisoned and to exact revenge on this involved might have just unhinged the poor man in the process.
The second part of the tale being told occurs the moment Dae-su Oh is suddenly --- as mysteriously as his imprisonment --- released. One moment he's still in his prison where his only contact with the outside world is the TV in his room and then he's on the rooftop of a building with new clothes on and a suitcase with more clothes and his notebooks where he's listed all the names he thinks may have caused him this wrong. From here Dae-su goes on a whirlwind search to find clues and information on who may have imprisoned him. Along the way he meets the young sushi chef Mi-do who seem to have taken some interest in Dae-su Oh's well-being and who slowly falls in love with him. It is their journey through the maze and labyrinth of false leads and trails that dominate the second third of this tale. It is also the part of the film where Dae-su Oh's monster persona takes precedence as he wreaks havoc on anyone and everyone who may have the information he needs to solving the mystery of his imprisonment.
Many have already mentioned the wince inducing pliers scenes and the single-take corridor fight scene. But it is the lovemaking scene between Dae-su Oh and Mi-do that I consider the most pivotal scene of this part of the tale. With the two characters finally consummating their mutual attraction to each other we see the two as not separate entities but a singular one where both will reap whatever their search will sow in the end. Mi-do becomes less of a sidekick and more of an equal partner in Dae-su Oh's search. She knows that the only way she and Dae-su would find true happiness together is if she helps him finish his quest even if it means finding the truth that may not be to their liking.
The third and final part of this tale finally puts to light just who exactly is the mastermind of all that has transpired. The clues picked up by Dae-su Oh starts to fall into place and the puzzle that opens up for him and the audience is nothing less than tragic and Shakespearean. This third part really hits the audience between the eyes about the nature of vengeance and how all-consumming it can be if allowed to simmer, grow and take root. We see how it has already driven Dae-su Oh to the brink of madness and how he teeters just beyond the point of no return. Then on the mastermind of the whole thing we see how one slip of the tongue in the distant past of all involved has consumed this individual to exacting a complex and appropriate plan of revenge on Dae-su Oh. As the tragic and heartwrenching final part of the tale weaves and continues to the end no one ends up being the victor and all become just the victim of the cycle of violence and vengeance thats taken hold of everyone.
Chan-wook Park's direction was flawless and there's not a wasted scene from beginning to end. Every scene was shot and edited with a sense of purpose to convey the mood and feel of the situation. It didn't matter whether it was a a slower-paced scene where the actors conversed in intelligent dialogue or a scene full of frantic energy where burst of violence seemed both randomly shot but choreographed at the same time. The composition of the scenes and his judicious use of wide-angle and static shots with little editing helps convey the the single-minded focus of Dae-su Oh and his main antagonist. Some of the scenes even show hints and clues to the audience that --- as unlikely as it might seem --- the whole film might be a figment of Dae-su Oh's fractured mind as a consequence of his imprisonment. Chan-wook Park doesn't answer whether it is a figment of Dae-su's imagination, but the theory is there for people to ponder.
The screenplay as Park has written from the original Japanese manga is excellent and doesn't waste unnecessary exposition to distract the audience from the main tale being told. Everything said and acted on the screen ultimately leads to the shocking climax in the end. In fact, I would say that the climax of the film doesn't happen until the very last second of the film before everything fades to black and the credits roll. That's how tightly written and focused the screenplay was.
Then there's the three main characters as played by Min-sik Choi, Ji-tae Yu, and Hye-jeong Kang. These three actors play their parts to perfection. Min-sik Choi as Dae-su Oh was a picture of focused madness. We invest in his quest for vengeance and as the final secret was unveiled we truly feel his shock, horror and anguish. Ji-tae Yu plays the mastermind of the whole thing with icy calculation. This was a man who had spent half his life working on, preparing and letting loose the events that would lead to him finally getting his revenge on Dae-su Oh. The two, though after the same goal of vengeance, are diametrically opposed in terms of look and personality. Then we have Hye-jeong Kang as Mi-do, the young sushi chef caught in the middle of this duelling vengeance tale. She was both endearing, innocent and the pure soul that keeps Dae-su Oh from spiralling into final madness. It truly becomes tragic that the final consequences of the vengeance wrought by both male principals impacts the female in the middle and in the end she remains oblivious to the truth and Hye-jeong Kang conveys this sincere, innocent naivete to sweet perfection.
There's much more to say about Oldboy, but its really just more accolades to be heaped upon a near-perfect film. A film exploring the darker side of man's inhumanity towards one another to satiate their self-righteous quest for so-called "justice" and retribution. Like Cronenberg's A History of Violence, Park's Oldboy also shows the unending cycle of vengeance heaped upon vengeance in addition to the violence it inherently breeds. Like Cronenberg's 2005 film, Oldboy doesn't fully answer this existential question but leaves it up to the viewer to make their own decision. Chan-wook Park's Oldboy is a film that comes but once in an era and helps redefine an era of its place in film history. Oldboy also continues the vengeance trilogy Park has confirmed will be finished with Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (shortened to just Lady Vengeance here in North America). Oldboy makrs the true arrival of one of the new masters of film and he joins the fine company of such people as Spielberg, Coppola, Scorcese, Cronenberg, Bergman, Kubrick, Kurosawa and Lean. A near-perfect film all-around. 10/10
Summary of Oldboy
Oh Dae-su is an ordinary Seoul businessman with a wife and little daughter who, after a drunken night on the town, is abducted and locked up in a strange, private prison. No one will tell him why hes there and who his jailer is and his fury builds to a single-minded focus of revenge. 15 years later, he is unexpectedly freed, given a new suit, a cell-phone and 5 days to discover the mysterious enemy who had him imprisoned. Seeking vengeance on all those involved, he soon finds that his enemys tortures are just beginning.In the realm of revenge thrillers, you'd be hard pressed to find more ultra-violent vengeance and psycho thrills than in the creepy story of Oldboy. This Korean import made a pop splash at the Cannes Film Festival and during its limited theatrical run thanks to the imprimatur of Quentin Tarantino, who raved about it and its visionary director, Chan-wook Park, to anyone who would listen. It's easy to see why QT fell in love with the grindhouse attitude, fast-paced action, violent imagery, and icy-black humor, but it's a disservice to think of Oldboy as another Tarantino homage or knockoff. The darkly existential undercurrent in the themes that Oldboy traces over its life-long narrative arc is much more complex and deeply disturbing than anything of its kind. The movie's tagline is, "15 years of imprisonment... 5 days of vengeance." The imprisonee is Oh Dae-Su, an ordinary Joe who is snatched off a Seoul street corner and locked away in a dank, windowless fleabag hotel room for the aforementioned 15 years. Just as abruptly he is released, and thus the five days begin. Why did this happen to Oh Dae-Su? Ah, but that would be telling, and in fact we don't know ourselves until the final wrenching scenes.
Oldboy breaks into a classic three-act saga, the first of which details the hallucinatory period of imprisonment in which Oh Dae-Su wades from mild insanity to outright psychosis in the hands of unseen yet attentive captors. Act 2 is the revenge, when an entirely different tone takes over and Oh Dae-Su moves with single-minded purpose and clarity. It's this section that has gained the most notoriety, primarily for the claw-hammer dentistry scene, the one-man-army tracking shot, and the wriggling octopus that Oh Dae-Su consumes in a sushi bar (he's been dead so long he simply needs life back inside him in any way possible). In act 3, answers finally start to emerge and the sinister atmosphere grows even more profound--not without a healthy dose of extra bloodletting, of course. Oldboy is an undeniably poetic masterpiece of tension, fury, and dynamic craft. Ultimately, its epic cycle of tragedy is of the sort that mankind has been inflicting upon itself for all time. Some of the images may be gruesome, but all converge into a kind of beauty. It's in the telling of this lurid tale that these details become one and the memories of pain ultimately heal. --Ted Fry
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