[HanCinema's Film Review] "Oldboy"

The importance of "Oldboy" to the perception of South Korean film worldwide is hard to overstate. "Oldboy" is probably the single best known South Korean movie in the world, and makes regular appearances on lists of the best films of all time. The story of Dae-su (played by Choi Min-sik) is one of an obnoxious drunk who's imprisoned without explanation for the entirity of the nineties, and adjusts surprisingly well to the changes of the outside world as he violently attempts to solve the mystery of that imprisonment.

Advertisement

The bizarre novelty of the noir adjacent premise of "Oldboy" is the main reason the film has this reputation. Ironically, "Oldboy" was originally based on an otherwise mostly forgotten Japanese comic. While Park Chan-wook's signature style of grotesque, beautiful brutality certainly enhances the film, Choi Min-sik is the real star of the show as a slovenly, mostly unremarkable middle aged man who never quite ascends to hero status mostly because the whole conflict is so petty.

Not to mention weird. Silly as it is to think so, I'm loathe to spoil even a twenty year old film, so let's just say that the twist ending works mostly because by that point so many logical explanations have been tried and dismissed that Dae-su and the viewer alike are forced to accept pretty much whatever we're offered. There's an epic sort of Greek tragedy in that final denouement, the absurdity rather paradoxically enabled by the farce.

Up until that point? Well, the violence is still pretty silly. That's a big part of the joke. The famed hammer scene, a legendary example of the long shot, is mostly just really funny because it's the rare example of faceless goons actually having to think about whether Dae-su is really worth the trouble. Cheol-woong (played by Oh Dal-soo) is an unpleasant, creepy guy, but then, so's pretty much everyone else in the movie, so it's oddly unsurprising that Dae-su doesn't take their feud personally.

The appearance of Woo-jin (played by Yoo Ji-tae) as the man with all the answers doesn't really bring as much progress to the story as you'd think, since whatever his scheme is, he mixes the seriousness of his actions with his played upon disinterest regarding the actual plot. Dae-su knows that Woo-jin is jerking him around. But as offensive as that fact is, Dae-su doesn't really have any other better options than to keep going along with that.

This is pretty much how I felt about "Oldboy" as a whole. I don't think I can write in good conscience that this is a bad movie. The camerawork is excellent, as are the performances. There's just not much of a point to it. The three screenwriters struggle to actually say much of anything through two hours of runtime, and with twenty years hindsight, I find it a bit remarkable just how little "Oldboy" represents aughts-era South Korea. Or even the aughts and South Korea individually. This movie's a strange novelty that doesn't really say much of anything.

Written by William Schwartz

___________

"Oldboy" is directed by Park Chan-wook, and features Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jung, Kim Byung-ok, Oh Dal-soo, Lee Seung-shin. Release date in Korea: 2003/11/21.