Great Foreign Movies - Oldboy. Review on OldBoy Movie

Oldboy (2003) is South Korean film and a middle installment of vengeance trilogy directed by Park Chan Wook, sandwiched between ''Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance'' and ''Sympathy for Lady Vengeance''.

Spoilers are ahead. The assumption is that everyone reading this review has seen Oldboy or Zinda. If you don't want to spoil the secrets then please skip all the way down to conclusion section.

Story

Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-Sik) is an ordinary Korean middle-aged man with a wife and little daughter, who gets abducted and locked up in a shabby private prison without any known reason. In prison, whenever he becomes violent or suicidal or whenever his holders needs access to the room, a little tune plays, the room fills with gas, and when he regains his senses, he has received a haircut, his clothes have been changed, and the room has been cleaned.

He discovers in prison that his wife has been killed, his daughter has vanished, and he is a prime suspect for the murder. He realizes that if he tries to escape, he would be a wanted man. He tries to remember each person he offended in his life to get the idea of who might have imprisoned him; He works out in order to prepare himself for revenge. He is forced to eat fried dumplings everyday. Suddenly after 15 years, Dae-su finds himself unexpectedly released in real world. He determines to discover who imprisoned him for 15 years and why he was imprisoned.

He gets his first clue when a homeless man hands him a cell phone and a wallet full of cash. Dae-su meets young chef Mi-do (Gang Hye-jung) in a Japanese restaurant and soon both of them starts living together. One night, Dae-su discovers Mi-do chatting with a mysterious stranger ''Evergreen'' who seems to know all about him. Based on the taste of the fried Chinese dumplings that he ate for 15 years in prison, he locates his former prison. He learns from prison manager that someone paid to keep him captive for 15 years and enemy’s motive was - ''Oh Dae-su talks too much.''

Later an old friend who owns a cyber café helps Dae-su discover that Mi-do’s emailer, ''Evergreen'' lives right across building of Mi-do's. Dae-su runs across building and finally confronts face-to-face with his anonymous tormenter. The man confess that he is person who kept him in prison for 15 years and gives Dae-su five days to discover why he imprisoned him. He is told that if he succeeds, the man will kill himself; if he does not, he will kill Mi-do.

As Dae-su concentrates on his adversary’s reasoning for his captivity, Dae-su and Mi-do draws closer ending up enjoying intimate relationships between each other. After knowing Evergreen word associated with his old adolescent school club, he visits his school, and finds out that his adversary’s name is Lee Woo-jin (Yu Ji-tae) and Woo-jin’s sister died because of Dae-su. Dae-su had spied on Lee Woo-jin and his sister Lee Soo-ah (Yoo Jin-seo) in school and discovered that they were having an incestuous relationship. Dae-su mentioned it to one of his friends before he left for city and later rumor grew out of proportion until Soo-ah drowned herself fearing public humiliation.

As Dae-su trying to confront Woo-jin about their past, Woo-jin culminates his revenge game by giving him photo album with the first picture of his family portrait and the remaining photos are of his daughter growing older, until in horror Dae-su discovers that his daughter is none other than Mi-do. Dae-su is horrified knowing Mi-do as his daughter, begs Woo-jin not to tell Mi-do, and cuts off his own tongue as confession so that he will never talk too much again. Knowing his vengeance has fulfilled, Woo-jin spares Mi-do from knowing, killing himself for eternal peace, leaving Dae-su alive to confront his deed forever.

Analysis

Oldboy is partly nightmarish vengeance drama, partly frenzy film-noir, and partly tale of extreme karma. On surface it’s a ultra-violent pulp fiction but as you delve deeper, it’s a philosophical study of sin and morality. It is cruel cat and mouse game between two protagonists based on who's getting revenge on who theme. This is rare movie that requires at least two viewings – first time to follow the story from Dae-su’s point of view and second time to understand Woo-jin’s bigger plan and how a person could hold a grudge to such a extent.

In Asian religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, Karma means one's state in this life is a result of actions in past incarnations and one's destiny in future incarnation is a result of actions in this life. Oldboy takes Karma's theory one-step further and examines it in same life. It’s about a man who innocently commits crime, gets torturous punishment for his crime, vows for revenge who tormented him, and walks on the path of revenge unknowing their laid hidden counter revenge path, enlightenment, and redemption of his crime.

Oldboy is an extremely gruesome and brutal film. Some of the scenes are extremely graphic - Dae-su eating live octopus, cartoonish corridor fighting sequence, ants coming out of Dae-su's arm, Dae-su pulling out teeth with a claw hammer, and pair of scissors cutting Dae-su's tongue are enough to give you shiver.

Comparison with Sanjay Gupta's Zinda

Zinda is remake of Oldboy. Zinda is Bollywood's most technically accomplished and stylistically shot film to date - kinetic energetic direction, blue-tone cinematography, captivating screenplay, crisp editing, and mesmerizing background score. Technically Zinda matches Oldboy at every step, if not overtaking its stylistic approach. If past story and reason for John's revenge in Zinda is very well presented, defective conclusion in the climax makes movie worth to throw into gutter.

So, what's difference in the climax and why it makes sense in Oldboy? Basic difference of them is Zinda is revenge thriller and Oldboy is counter-revenge thriller. Zinda more emphasis on why Sanjay was imprisoned and Oldboy more emphasis on why Dae-su was released from prison.

The biggest difference in both movies is valid conclusions for why protagonist kept alive for 15 years, released after 15 years, and how protagonist's enemy executes his ultimate revenge plan. In Zinda, John tormented Sanjay in Jail for 14 years, released him to see his daughter grown up, and died without seeing Sanjay suffer for his deed. In Oldboy, Woo-jin kept Dae-su in jail for 15 years because he wanted his daughter to grow up. He released him after 15 years because he wanted Dae-su to have affair with his grown up daughter (even worse than his incestuous relationship with his sister) to make him feel guilty for what he did as teenager. That’s where Oldboy scores by providing more satisfying experience.

Conclusion

Ever since I have seen this movie, Oldboy became one of my all-time favorite revenge thrillers. It is one of most satisfied vengeance dramas I ever seen to date. This violent thriller isn't for everyone but one sit thorough will be well rewarded. It will raise lots of philosophical questions in your mind. It's a gift from Korean film industry to world cinema. It’s an extraordinary film.