oldboy

"Even though I'm no more than a monster - don't I, too, have the right to live?"

- Oh Dae-Su

Movie: OldBoy


Director: Chan-wook Park



Writer: Garon Tsuchiya(story), Minegishi Nobuaki and Tsuchiya Garon(comic).


Genre: Drama / Thriller


Tagline: 15 years of imprisonment, five days of vengeance.



Todays review will be set upon Chan-wook Parks controversial masterpiece OldBoy.



The story explores the life of Oh Dae-Su(Min-sik Choi), a man who is imprisoned for 15 years without any kind of explanation and set free with a new cell phone, new clothes and money.


Finding himself on the top of a building inside a trunk case, Dae-Su embraces the sunlight with a renewed taste of vengance. He is then given 5 days to find the culprit of such atrocities.


Wanting to know who made him waste 15 years of his life and, more importantly, why, he enrolls in a personal quest going though several dangerous situations all very well performed by all characters and impresively pictured by the camera work.


In his quest to find the truth he finds a woman, Mido(Hye-jeong Kang), who he falls in love with and mantains an "active" relationship(yes, they have sex! and it actually affects the plot!)


All movie is well portraited. It's a dark movie and the color scheme does it justice. We can sense from the movie that Dae-Su is in continuous interior conflict. All scenes, wether interior toughts, or some of the fights, or even the romance in the movie, are portraited so well that we sense all of Dae-Su's feelings, from deep depression to astonishing deep confusion.


The music follows up very well. From classical to industrial, depending on the scene, it envolves the viewer onto the depressive environement.

This is, in my opinion(and let's not forget i'm a simple viewer), a moving film. It struggles with our emotions as we go on and find the truth of his imprisonment(which ends up being quite sad and unpredictable). The characters as very well developed, and in the end all the pieces join together to the ultimate truth.


Another thing that struck me in this movie was the use of proverbs. I always loved the use of proverbs in movies. It gives a certain "touch" to the story and especially when it's done with intention and not just "to put it there". Asian films often amaze me by that. They always figure out a way to use them wisely.

I strongly advise anyone to watch it. It will be worth the rental money even though you'll have to endure some unpleasent and disgusting stuff like Oh Dae-Su eating a live octopus. Whoever does not rent it should cut their tongue(tip tip... spoiler :P you'll understand when you see it).



Well... finishing...


Good:


- Great acting from all main characters;
- Great color schemes that really fitts the story;
- Wonderful camera work(especially the one-take scene where Oh Dae-Su beats up loads of guys);
- The unpredictable ending that really made me gasp from entusiasm and shock!


Bad:


- The plot seems rather linear. Everything is done for him, leading him to the final scene where he learns everything(as do we).


Overall - GO SEE IT! It's really worth the money you spend and you'll probably love it!


I'll finish off with one sentence from the movie...

"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."

- Oh Dae-Su

See you next time!