One thing I have
noticed from the few Korean films I have seen so far is that Korean cinema
really doesn’t hold back. One of that country’s most critically acclaimed and
commercially successful movie is Oldboy (2003),
which has amazing performances, beautifully choreographed fight scenes and a
story filled with many twists and turns. It also has plenty of scenes that will
make you squirm whether because of graphic violence, very disturbing
revelation, or because you prefer your calamari fried instead of alive.
This was one of
the last movies I rented from a video store in the pre-Netflix days in early
2009. By then its reputation had grown in the west especially since on top of
the many awards it had won it had also earned high praise from Quentin
Tarantino who knows a thing or two about violent and entertaining movies. On
paper Oldboy’s plot sounds like
something right up his alley: a man is seemingly wronged by an adversary and
that man then seeks bloody retribution. However while Tarantino’s blood-soaked
revenge films are usually pretty black and white in their depiction of revenge,
Park Chan-wook’s film is much more complicated with its morals.
For one thing the
man seeking vengeance is not that sympathetic to begin with. In 1988 Korean
businessman Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) misses the birthday of his young daughter
because he has been arrested for drunkenness. This less than perfect father
then misses many more birthdays after being kidnapped and locked up in a room
with no explanation. Whoever kidnapped Oh Dae-su is not interested in getting
money or even killing him since every day they serve him food through a trap
door. The room has no windows, but it does have a TV and one night the news
inform him his wife has been murdered and he is the prime suspect.
As he watches the
world go by on a TV screen and with no human being to talk to for years,
insanity becomes a distinct possibility for Oh Dae-su. Yet revenge is a strong
motivator and he decides to put his body into shape while plotting his escape. It
turns out his escape plans are a waste of time since one day he wakes up on a rooftop
wearing a new suit, 15 years after being imprisoned. Whoever decided to lock up
Oh Dae-su is just getting started, which is implicitly stated during a
mysterious phone call in which the captor dares him to discover the reason for
his years of mental torture.
As Oh Dae-su,
actor Choi Min-sik delivers one of the most impressive performances I have ever
seen. He had to lose and gain weight depending on when the story was set, he performs
fight scenes that are very physically demanding and he has many disturbing
scenes in which he portrays a man who is pushed to the very edge of madness. One
of the first things Oh Dae-su does after his release is of course get a meal at
a restaurant. His choice is to swallow an octopus in one gulp. Apparently, that
took four takes. I have yet to see Daniel Day Lewis do that in an American
movie.
Speaking of
American movies, Spike Lee was bold enough to try to do a remake of Oldboy in 2013. It was a worthy attempt,
but anyone who isn’t Korean or who doesn’t mind reading subtitles will most
likely agree that it does not top the original. As the story of Chan-wook’s
film unfolds the reasons for Oh Dae-su’s imprisonment are eventually revealed
and unlike with Quentin Tarantino’s work revenge will not be sweet. In fact, by
the time all the twists are revealed some might say Oh Dae-su would have been
better off staying in that room.
Oldboy is definitely worth seeing, whether it is for the performances, a
corridor fight scene that was shot in a continuous take or the morally complex
story. However you will have a hard time smiling by the time the credits start
rolling, possibly making this one of those rare movies that you should see, but
will only want to see once.
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