Oldboy: Review By Dan

Think about one of the sickest, most twisted movies you've ever seen. Now, put them out of your mind, and enter Oldboy's world. It is rare that I find a film that so disgusts me, yet intrigues me at the same time the way that this film does. South Korean director Park Chan-wook's 2nd installment (and the most well known and recognized) in his "The Vengeance Trilogy", is crafted in such a way that you feel compelled to finish it, no matter how grotesque the details become (and they do, this is some lurid, taboo material), as you learn the most shocking secrets only in the film's final 15 minutes, where everything comes together and clicks for you, in a way that will leave you highly disturbed.

Businessman Oh Dae-su (Cho Min-sik) is a blabbermouth. We're immediately shown this as he's being detained in a police station for a drunken brawl, and his somewhat amusing antics through brief clips of him waiting for his friend Joo-Hwan (Ji Dae-han. I'm having a blast here trying to spell all their names correctly...) to bail him out. As Dae-su makes a phone call to his daughter on her birthday, he then hands the phone to Joo-Hwan, and as Joo-Hwan turns around to hand the phone back, he discovers that Dae-su has disappeared. We then follow Dae-su's imprisonment in a hotel room that lasts for 15 years. Yes, 15 years. As he goes through the various stages of mental breakdowns and regrets, we are given glimpses of those who imprisoned him, and the conditioning they are doing to him. After the 15 years are up, he is suddenly released into what at first appears to be a grassy field, but as the camera pans to a different angle, it's actually the rooftop of a high rise (I love when movies mess with you like that). From there, Dae-su begins his quest of discovering why he was kidnapped and whom is responsible, in what simply becomes grosser but more enthralling as the film progresses.

I believe the thing about Oldboy that attracts many, despite its subject matter being about as taboo as you can get (incest is a prominent theme), is that we're told nothing about Dae-su's kidnapping or the motives behind it, and while the actual kidnapped segment only covers about 20 minutes of the film, there is more psychology hard at work during those 20 minutes then most entire films I've seen. Dae-su is at first content to just do nothing, and then attempting suicide (which is prevented by gas being leaked into his room to make him unconscious each time he tries, conditioning him to being unable to kill himself). He begins to find comfort in his television, absorbing all that he sees on it since it is his only connection to the outside world. By the time he is released, he has already gone through an impressive character arc by any movie's standards, and we're left to put the puzzle pieces together the same as he is over who is a friend, and who is an enemy.

In a way, this felt like a Korean version of Christopher Nolan's "Memento", in that we're introduced to all the characters fairly quickly, but whatever immediate perceptions we have of them are most likely incorrect. Park's method of slowly revealing the magnitude of each player's actions and reactions to different events is brilliant. By the time you've reached the film's climax inside antagonist Woo-jin's penthouse (Yu Ji-tae), you've learned that Dae-su is no innocent bystander, even though the film is rooted firmly around his 'vengeance'. Certainly any film student's delight in trying to unravel all the techniques used to keep one guessing, and I see why it is so critically acclaimed.

What was also fascinating to me is it seems like the Korean culture is similar to the U.K.'s, in that there is an ever sense of 'quiet desperation' with its people. If you pay attention to the commercials and shows Dae-su watches during his imprisonment, you see how goofy and cheerful the people seem, but this is all a lie. Many of the characters talk at lengths about killing themselves (including the antagonist, which felt very odd to me, considering he was the mastermind behind this long, drawn out revenge scheme of his against our... hero?), and it seems like behind those polite smiles everyone puts on, is a deep seated self loathing and longing for companionship. Maybe Park was trying to emulate the feeling some of us sense when we live in large cities surrounded by people, and yet feel so disconnected. Whether that was one of the feelings he was going for or not, it was a definite thought I had while viewing the film, which I suppose adds to its thoughtful structure.

It should also be noted that Oldboy ignores a lot of typical archetypes. Our villain is certainly.... villainous in his actions towards Dae-su, but in a way he is seeking revenge in much the same way as Dae-su is for what was done to him. I felt a morsel of pity and sadness for Woo-jin, as everything that occurs in the film began with a single, irreversibly damaging action by him, that wouldn't have mushroomed into what it did had it not been for Dae-su and his big mouth. So though Dae-su and Woo-jin fill their roles respectively, neither can clearly be classified as hero or villain. Torture is another theme that will be running through your mind, both figuratively, and literally, as they are both tortured souls inflicting wounds on one another.

And while Nolan's Memento didn't feature too much in the way of action (it was more talky, which I'm not slamming, especially since the dialogue is intelligent and thought provoking there, as well), Oldboy certainly has its share. There is a sequence in the film where Dae-su has just finished 'interrogating' one of his captors, and as he's trying to leave the building, the hallway is filled to the brim with those who would stop him. We watch him fight off all of his attackers using a claw hammer (ouch), but the camera pans along the wall as if it were a side scrolling video game you're watching. I thought that was a neat trick. When violence 'is' forwardly used in Oldboy, it is wince-inducingly graphic, to say the least. But what would an Asian film be without some martial arts and ass kicking? Exactly :P

Running just under 2 hours, and unfolding at an even pace that will keep you guessing and entertained (and revolted) til the end, Oldboy is the type of film that presents themes and images that are so left field that it is impossible to forget them once viewed. Seriously, I sort of wish I had a hypnotist to expel some of the knowledge I learned throughout the movie, but like a car accident, we can't stop looking, no matter how horrific it may be.