What would you do if you were kidnapped off the street, held prisoner in a room alone for 15 years and then suddenly released without explanation?
That is the question that Oldboy, a Korean psychological thriller directed by Chan-wook Park, asks of an average man named Dae-su Oh. After a rowdy, drunken night, Dae-su is abducted and held in a dingy, dimly lit room with nothing but a television to keep him company. With nothing to do but watch TV, sleep and exercise, Dae-su remains in the room for 15 years before he is mysteriously released. Now he has only a few days to discover who did this to him and why before he loses this one chance at getting revenge.
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear before we go any further: this is not a Hollywood film. It would be inaccurate for me to say that Asian cinema is inherently edgier or more violent than its western counterpart; Asian directors are just as capable of creating fluff films as a Hollywood director. However, in this particular case it holds true.
Oldboy is far more violent and thematically controversial than the vast majority of Hollywood studio films. This is not the kind of movie that Hollywood would feel comfortable producing. So keep that in mind. This is not a feel-good sit-back-and-enjoy kind of movie. Just so you know.
Oldboy is based on a Japanese manga by Minegishi Nobuaki and Tsuchiya Garon. Having not read the comic myself, I cannot comment on the accuracy of the adaptation, but I can say this: Oldboy is one of the most daring, psychologically warped movies I’ve seen in a long time, and I mean that in a good way. It’s a thriller and a mystery and an action movie all rolled up into one, with a generous helping of psychological suspense. Each new clue that Dae-su uncovers only leads to more questions and deeper mysteries, until the truth is revealed in a climax that is both deeply disturbing and profoundly memorable.
Min-sik Choi does a superb job portraying the tragic Dae-su. On one hand, Dae-su is almost driven insane by his lust for revenge. On the other hand, he’s been waiting for 15 years to figure out why these injustices have been heaped upon him. So even though he wants nothing more than to take revenge against those who wronged him in as violent and bloody a way as possible, he nevertheless approaches the entire process of unraveling the mystery with an air of calm patience. It’s a tricky balance to achieve between the two, but Choi succeeds admirably.
Paired with Choi is actress Hye-jeong Kang in the role of Mi-do, a young woman who helps Dae-su in his quest for answers. Kang brings a sweet innocence to her role that proves to be a good complement to Dae-su’s grizzled, angry personality. And opposite both of them is Woo-jin Lee, played by Ji-tae Yu, a charismatic, wide-grinning nemesis who has been toying with Dae-su for 15 years for his own mysterious reasons. All around the acting is fairly good, swinging from introspectively subdued to emotionally over-the-top as necessary.
It’s a rare delight to find a movie where the actors are so dedicated to their characters that they are willing to go through many hardships to “get it right.” For his role as Dae-su, Min-sik Choi lost 20 pounds over six weeks, and he also did his own stuntwork. And there’s quite a lot of that. One scene that many people talk about is a fight between Dae-su, armed with nothing more than a hammer, and a group of thugs in a tight hallway. The entire fight, from beginning to end, is portrayed in one long take.
The long take is a lost art in film, mostly because of the intensive amount of time required for rehearsal and choreography. The long take fight in Oldboy, which lasts only a minute or so, took three days to film. And it’s worth it; the fight is impressive and feels surprisingly real. When you’re used to fight scenes being filled with fast cuts and multiple angles, seeing an entire battle played out from one angle and in one camera move makes you sit up and take notice.
The violence in Oldboy is plentiful and fairly graphic. While I make no claim to be the world’s most strong-stomached filmgoer, there were several occasions I had to turn away from the screen or view through tiny cracks between my fingers. I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say this: if just the mere thought of going to the dentist gives you the creeping horrors, you might want to watch something else. Some teeth get pulled in this one, and not by gentle implements.
Do I object to the violence? No, of course not. As a film student and amateur filmmaker myself, I greatly admire the ability to depict something so real that it makes people cringe, even though they know full well that everything they’re seeing is fake. And I always respect directors who have the boldness to push the envelope and show things that other directors would be reluctant to show themselves.
Which is why I’m not terribly surprised that Oldboy is getting the Hollywood re-make treatment. Justin Lin, director of Better Luck Tomorrow, has been given the responsibility of not only directing a Hollywood version of Oldboy, but he gets to re-write it as well. My prediction: less graphic violence, fewer controversial themes, more Hollywood friendly fluff thrown in to make it marketable to the Average Joe Moviegoer who thinks foreign films are dumb because you “have to read.” Basically, in 2006, we will be treated to an American re-make of a Korean film based on a Japanese comic book. Try wrapping your head around that one.
To wrap up, Oldboy is a disturbing, psychologically intricate exploration of revenge and the darker corners of human depravity. You can see Oldboy starting today at the Angelika.
