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
Brand: OLDBOY
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Korean (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, 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: Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone.
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Summary of Oldboy
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
After being kidnapped and held a prisoner for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is mysteriously set free with money and new clothes, and searches for his captor.
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Media Type: DVD
Artist: OLDBOY
Title: OLDBOY
Street Release Date: 06/27/2006
Genre: ACTION / ADVENTURE
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