Film Review: Oldboy

As always, I start with a trailer:

      First off, you will find a lot of glowing reviews and a lot of terrible reviews for this film, and only about 1/17th of either of them are educated reviews.  Even after reading this one, your best bet is to just rent it and watch it for yourself.  However, I recommend you watch it in Korean with English subtitles, as the english dubbing is terrible and slightly incomplete.  As a side note this film is in the IMDB top 250 if that will sway you.

      Chanwook Park is the premiere Korean director, having one many awards internationally.  His unique styles and precise visualizations show in every scene.  This is coupled with great lighting direction, an important aspect of Asian cinema, that bursts with moodiness.  What he has achieved here is a perfectly balanced clash between drama, action, and humor delivered with an indescribable cool that can almost never be done in a Hollywood production (this due mainly to their fear of unique conceptualization).

     

      Now let’s talk about action, since a lot of people are concerned with this aspect of any movie (often it is 90% of their decision).  It’s great.  That being said, this is definitely not an straight-laced action film.  In fact, the action serves more as complimentary (and it’s a damn good complement) to the story.  The most important function of the fights scenes is to reveal the character.  There are several notable sequences here, each with it’s own originality that lends to the ‘coolness’ of the film overall.  Especially one sequence (and certainly the most famous) in a narrow corridor with a hammer that lasts about four minutes with no camera-cuts.

      The plot?  Well, I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll just tell you how it begins.  Oh Dae-su is an ordinary man who, in a drunken stupor on his daughters birthday, is kidnapped for apparently no reason.  He is then kept in a hotel-room like prison for 15 years with no explanation (all the while growing increasingly insane).  On the eve of the fifteenth year, he is released and given a suit, a cell-phone, and a wad of cash.  Confused and angry, he begins the hunt for the culprit.  Trust me, there is a lot more to this movie than a plot overview can give you, and the themes will haunt you until its final moments.  It’s a great metaphor wrapped up in a revenge drama, and you’ll definitely remember it later.

     

      Choi Min-sik plays the lead character, and I’ll have to say that his performance put him in my top ten actors list.  He succeeds at everything he portrays, whether it be anger, maddness, joy, confusion, indifference.  He adds a distinctly human element to every scene he is in, even when the scene itself is stylized or outlandish.  That’s not to say the other actors performed poorly.  Kang Hye-jeong was a great female lead as Mi-do, and Yu Ji-tae’s performance was also top-notch as the enigmatic and memorable antagonist Woo-jin Lee.  However Choi Min-sik stole the show.

      I have few problems with this movie.  The budget was tiny compared to just about every Hollywood production (I think it was about 3 million), but they did more with that than an American production can do with 100-million.  I would almost say that this should give them leeway with some of their mistakes, but the screw-up pool is so small that they don’t even need this grace.  There were a few wonky camera tricks (more than made-up for by the great cinemetography) and the I thought it was going to end about four times (ala Lord of the Rings: Return of the King) but these are miniscule remarks. 

      If anyone says that this movie is overly violent and bloody, dismiss it.  There are only about three scenes that have blood in them, and they are definitely not greusome.  The violence is barely enough to warrent a R rating (but don’t let that suggest it is amateurish, because it’s not).  Their is two instances of nudity, but it’s not any worse than most American movies.  There are disturbing ideas, and this is definitely not one you want your kids to see, but Ichi the Killer is about a million times as gross and twisted, so anyone with at least some maturity should be able to handle it.

      Overall, this movie is smart and fresh.  It succeeds in originality and cool, and it also should open up Korean cinema to a lot of people.  I’d recommend it to anyone looking for something new, pulp fans, and anyone who already appreciates Asian films.

JuggernautUnit5… Out.