OLDBOY (2003), dir. Chan-wook Park
South Korean "Payback" Gives Decent Payoff
The main thing that sets "Oldboy" apart from other revenge movies is that the villain goes to great lengths to keep the main character alive. He does this on purpose, of course. Death, after all, brings about immediate release from pain and suffering. The bad guy in "Oldboy" doesn’t want Dae-su Oh (Min-sik Choy), the middle-aged businessman he has kidnapped, to get off that easily.
Dae-su Oh disappears one dark and stormy night, just after he steps away from a pay phone. His abductors lock him up inside what looks like a hotel room. There is a bed, as well as a shower and television. However, the room has no windows, and the door looks like it belongs on a cell for prisoners in solitary confinement. It’s made of metal, locked from the outside, and has a slot at the bottom. Dae-su Oh’s abductors regularly slide him his food through the gap.
No one will tell Dae-su Oh why he has been imprisoned, or when he can hope for release. Left in near-total isolation, his only connection to the outside world is the television. This becomes problematic when news flashes start reporting that Dae-su Oh’s wife has been brutally murdered, and that he is the prime suspect. In a creepy tracking shot that circles around his head, we see ants emerging from underneath his skin, and swarming about his face. It seems like an apt visual metaphor—the character’s fear, rage, and creepy loneliness literally devouring him from the inside-out. Dae-su Oh is never the same from this point on. Though his thoughts continue to be expressed in lucid voiceover, we get the feeling that some part of the man has died.
Dae-su Oh continues to be caged like an animal for the next fifteen years. In the interval, his once neatly-cut hair grows long, and his face, having grown sad eyes as well as a lean and hungry look, resembles a lupine under exhibition in a zoo. This contrasting of man with animal is even more fitting after the control room of Dae-su Oh’s "prison" is revealed. From this makeshift nerve center, an office that includes a bank of television monitors, Dae-su Oh’s captors, like dedicated zookeepers, keep a watchful eye over the specimens in their menagerie.
Granted, there is something wild and uncouth about Dae-su Oh from the very beginning. In the first sequence of the movie, he fights with police officers at the station where he has been detained. He attempts to "mark his territory" in the middle of booking, and makes a rude gesture upon being released. After finally escaping his prison (Actually, he wakes up to find himself mysteriously delivered to a building rooftop), he becomes like a wild animal set free from his cage. Initially overwhelmed by his newfound freedom, Dae-su Oh soon becomes hellbent on finding those responsible for his suffering, and making them pay dearly. Since Dae-su Oh has been framed for the murder of his wife, he must act as a vigilante. Before he begins doing that, however, he visits a nearby sushi bar, where he devours a still-moving octopus to satisfy his desire to eat something alive (The act of eating live flesh can be viewed as Dae-su Oh's first step towards returning to his pre-captivity state).
After lapsing out of consciousness, Dae-su Oh awakens to Mi-do (Hye-jeong Kang), a young teenage girl who took him home from the sushi bar. She wants to read the journals he had been keeping while imprisoned, but Dae-su Oh snatches them away, hoarding them like some kind of pack rat. Having been removed from human contact for so long, women now cause him great anxiety. This doesn’t stop him from trying to rape Mi-do in the bathroom. Luckily, she accepts his explanation that these urges are simply beyond his control.
Of course, Dae-su Oh’s animal urges go beyond the primal need to fuck. He has had fifteen years to foment a craven bloodlust towards whoever had him kidnapped. Having made his body stronger during his time in captivity, Dae-su Oh’s rage has become combined with the agility and ferociousness of a jungle cat. As a result, he doesn’t just stab, bludgeon, and torture the parties who participated in his degradation, or who can provide him with clues about the enemy’s identity. Dae-su Oh relishes the prospect of violence. "Oldboy" is a movie full of carnage, much of it messy, some of it difficult to watch. Director Chan-wook Park films using only light sources in the background, which give the picture an ugly sheen that only complements the ugly behavior.
But Park also introduces a novel idea during the second half of the movie. Just when we have Dae-su Oh pegged as the baddest animal in the concrete jungle, there arrives an even deadlier specimen: the very man our anti-hero has been trying to track down. Woo-jin Lee (Ji-tae Yu), it turns out, has been nursing a grudge against Dae-su Oh that makes the latter’s fifteen years in solitary look like grains in the hourglass. A sneering ghoul of a man, hate has devoured Woo-Jin whole. All that remains is a cold smile and scheming intelligence. It's doubtful he ever met a revenge formula he would consider too elaborate.
Inevitably, Dae-su Oh meets Woo-jin Lee face-to-face. One of them turns out to have an ace up his sleeve, a revelation so shocking and twisted, his opponent is left speechless. Initially, I dismissed the twist ending as a case of a screenwriter simply piling stuff on. But upon further reflection, it's not so implausible, given how deep the character's hate for his counterpart runs. He would have had plenty of time to refine the grand strategem gestating in his brain. And since these are animals mixing it up, not men, isn’t it fitting that cunning and ruthlessness, as opposed to the righteousness of one’s cause, are what decide ultimate victory? Just like in the real jungle.
"Though I am no better than a beast, do I not have the right to be happy…?"
A line repeated more than once in the movie, it takes on a surprising poignancy, and hints at man's hope of transcending his own animal instincts.
Both Dae-su Oh and Woo-jin Lee have behaved in beastly ways to people. The former has a list of enemies long enough to fill a composition notebook, while the latter has inflicted unspeakable harm on Dae-su Oh and his loved ones. If a key difference exists between these two men, however, it’s that one of them owns up to the unspeakable acts he has committed, and in admitting his own culpability, finds forgiveness and inner peace. His counterpart does not. To the bitter end, he blames his years of suffering entirely on his nemesis. He exonerates his own bestial instincts of any role they might have played in a past tragedy.
As a result, even after the smoke clears, after he has stood victorious over his enemy, he still can find no peace. No amount of retribution can take away the pain. No amount of suffering on the part of his nemesis can bring back what was lost. Here is a man so dedicated to the destruction of his enemy that, with the enemy vanquished, he loses all purpose. Imprisoned by his own bestial instincts and behavior, he can aspire to no higher emotions. All that is left for him to do is wander off somewhere, and die in solitude, like a dog.
Overall rating: ***1/2 (out of ****)
The main thing that sets "Oldboy" apart from other revenge movies is that the villain goes to great lengths to keep the main character alive. He does this on purpose, of course. Death, after all, brings about immediate release from pain and suffering. The bad guy in "Oldboy" doesn’t want Dae-su Oh (Min-sik Choy), the middle-aged businessman he has kidnapped, to get off that easily.
Dae-su Oh disappears one dark and stormy night, just after he steps away from a pay phone. His abductors lock him up inside what looks like a hotel room. There is a bed, as well as a shower and television. However, the room has no windows, and the door looks like it belongs on a cell for prisoners in solitary confinement. It’s made of metal, locked from the outside, and has a slot at the bottom. Dae-su Oh’s abductors regularly slide him his food through the gap.
No one will tell Dae-su Oh why he has been imprisoned, or when he can hope for release. Left in near-total isolation, his only connection to the outside world is the television. This becomes problematic when news flashes start reporting that Dae-su Oh’s wife has been brutally murdered, and that he is the prime suspect. In a creepy tracking shot that circles around his head, we see ants emerging from underneath his skin, and swarming about his face. It seems like an apt visual metaphor—the character’s fear, rage, and creepy loneliness literally devouring him from the inside-out. Dae-su Oh is never the same from this point on. Though his thoughts continue to be expressed in lucid voiceover, we get the feeling that some part of the man has died.
Dae-su Oh continues to be caged like an animal for the next fifteen years. In the interval, his once neatly-cut hair grows long, and his face, having grown sad eyes as well as a lean and hungry look, resembles a lupine under exhibition in a zoo. This contrasting of man with animal is even more fitting after the control room of Dae-su Oh’s "prison" is revealed. From this makeshift nerve center, an office that includes a bank of television monitors, Dae-su Oh’s captors, like dedicated zookeepers, keep a watchful eye over the specimens in their menagerie.
Granted, there is something wild and uncouth about Dae-su Oh from the very beginning. In the first sequence of the movie, he fights with police officers at the station where he has been detained. He attempts to "mark his territory" in the middle of booking, and makes a rude gesture upon being released. After finally escaping his prison (Actually, he wakes up to find himself mysteriously delivered to a building rooftop), he becomes like a wild animal set free from his cage. Initially overwhelmed by his newfound freedom, Dae-su Oh soon becomes hellbent on finding those responsible for his suffering, and making them pay dearly. Since Dae-su Oh has been framed for the murder of his wife, he must act as a vigilante. Before he begins doing that, however, he visits a nearby sushi bar, where he devours a still-moving octopus to satisfy his desire to eat something alive (The act of eating live flesh can be viewed as Dae-su Oh's first step towards returning to his pre-captivity state).
After lapsing out of consciousness, Dae-su Oh awakens to Mi-do (Hye-jeong Kang), a young teenage girl who took him home from the sushi bar. She wants to read the journals he had been keeping while imprisoned, but Dae-su Oh snatches them away, hoarding them like some kind of pack rat. Having been removed from human contact for so long, women now cause him great anxiety. This doesn’t stop him from trying to rape Mi-do in the bathroom. Luckily, she accepts his explanation that these urges are simply beyond his control.
Of course, Dae-su Oh’s animal urges go beyond the primal need to fuck. He has had fifteen years to foment a craven bloodlust towards whoever had him kidnapped. Having made his body stronger during his time in captivity, Dae-su Oh’s rage has become combined with the agility and ferociousness of a jungle cat. As a result, he doesn’t just stab, bludgeon, and torture the parties who participated in his degradation, or who can provide him with clues about the enemy’s identity. Dae-su Oh relishes the prospect of violence. "Oldboy" is a movie full of carnage, much of it messy, some of it difficult to watch. Director Chan-wook Park films using only light sources in the background, which give the picture an ugly sheen that only complements the ugly behavior.
But Park also introduces a novel idea during the second half of the movie. Just when we have Dae-su Oh pegged as the baddest animal in the concrete jungle, there arrives an even deadlier specimen: the very man our anti-hero has been trying to track down. Woo-jin Lee (Ji-tae Yu), it turns out, has been nursing a grudge against Dae-su Oh that makes the latter’s fifteen years in solitary look like grains in the hourglass. A sneering ghoul of a man, hate has devoured Woo-Jin whole. All that remains is a cold smile and scheming intelligence. It's doubtful he ever met a revenge formula he would consider too elaborate.
Inevitably, Dae-su Oh meets Woo-jin Lee face-to-face. One of them turns out to have an ace up his sleeve, a revelation so shocking and twisted, his opponent is left speechless. Initially, I dismissed the twist ending as a case of a screenwriter simply piling stuff on. But upon further reflection, it's not so implausible, given how deep the character's hate for his counterpart runs. He would have had plenty of time to refine the grand strategem gestating in his brain. And since these are animals mixing it up, not men, isn’t it fitting that cunning and ruthlessness, as opposed to the righteousness of one’s cause, are what decide ultimate victory? Just like in the real jungle.
"Though I am no better than a beast, do I not have the right to be happy…?"
A line repeated more than once in the movie, it takes on a surprising poignancy, and hints at man's hope of transcending his own animal instincts.
Both Dae-su Oh and Woo-jin Lee have behaved in beastly ways to people. The former has a list of enemies long enough to fill a composition notebook, while the latter has inflicted unspeakable harm on Dae-su Oh and his loved ones. If a key difference exists between these two men, however, it’s that one of them owns up to the unspeakable acts he has committed, and in admitting his own culpability, finds forgiveness and inner peace. His counterpart does not. To the bitter end, he blames his years of suffering entirely on his nemesis. He exonerates his own bestial instincts of any role they might have played in a past tragedy.
As a result, even after the smoke clears, after he has stood victorious over his enemy, he still can find no peace. No amount of retribution can take away the pain. No amount of suffering on the part of his nemesis can bring back what was lost. Here is a man so dedicated to the destruction of his enemy that, with the enemy vanquished, he loses all purpose. Imprisoned by his own bestial instincts and behavior, he can aspire to no higher emotions. All that is left for him to do is wander off somewhere, and die in solitude, like a dog.
Overall rating: ***1/2 (out of ****)
Labels: ***1/2, 2003, Chan-wook Park, Korean
posted by Phil | 9:27 PM
4 Comments:
This movie sucked. It's based on a Japanese comic book and has all the pitfalls of the genre. It suffers from being cool. It's an overlong exercise in ridiculous violence that pretends to have emotional depth. It has a complicated plot (that probably worked better in a serialized format than in a 2 hour film) with lots of twists and turns that taken together doesn't make very much sense. I'm hoping for an art house adaptation of Wounded Man or Crying Freeman, as either of those would be better at pulling off the display of exploitave violence and sex under the guise of being a serious tragedy.
The villian's revenge rests on the fact that not only is he secretly controlling the allies of the heroes but that he has also secretly hypnotised the heroes themselves. I can't be the only one who thought that was ridiculous.
>it’s that one of them owns up to the unspeakable acts he has committed, and in admitting his own culpability, finds forgiveness and inner peace
What are you talking about? He got the hypnotist to erase his memory, that's the only way he found inner peace. I'd hardly describe that as owning up to his misdeeds.
Rick, I went to great lengths not to spoil this movie for anyone who might be reading this review, in order to gauge whether they'd be interested in seeing it. Surely you could have found a way to express your argument, without actually GIVING AWAY THE ENDING OF THE FILM.
As to your argument, the hypnotist chooses to erase Oh Dae-su's memory, after reading his journals, which detail the terrible deeds he committed. OH Dae-su admits that he himself is a beast, which is implied by the final line in his journal, "Though I am no better than a beast, do I not have the right to be happy?" This is what moves the hypnotist: Oh Dae-su's admission of how bad a person he is. He owns up to his misdeeds, and so the hypnotist allows him to find peace.
I didn't give away the ending, I only said it relied on hypnotism. I didn't say what the villain's masterful revenge was.
You gave away a specific plot twist, and more explicitly than necessary. Sometimes I do that, too, but I try really hard not to (Especially if the movie relies on the twist, which "Oldboy," I think, does). Also, in the context of your comment above, it seemed as if you were giving away a major secret out of spite for the movie.
But at least you really have a sense of tact, so never mind.
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