Grand Prize Winner

Rating: 8/10 (31 March 2005)

I first had the privilege of viewing Oldboy at the Toronto Film Festival back in 2004. I knew nothing of the film and even less about the actors or the director prior to the screening, but I somehow ended up with tickets for the late night viewing. The local newspaper quoted the tagline, 15 years forced in a cell, only 5 days given to seek revenge, so I was expecting a violent indulgence (and let's get one thing clearÂ…Asian violence and Hollywood violence are two separate entities). What I wasn't expecting was a movie that would stick with me days later and end up as one of the best films of 2004.
Oldboy opens by introducing us to Oh Dae-Su as he gets wisped off the streets and is imprisoned in a holding cell for what will amount to 15 years. The cell has a bed, bathroom and television, but there are no windows. A steel door with only a small opening at the bottom so that food can be delivered is all that connects him to the outside world. Gas is emitted into the room periodically to subdue Dae-Su allowing a crew to provide medical attention where necessary or attend to any housekeeping agendas. Dae-Su's next decade and a half will consist of watching television and staying fit in hopes of an eventual release and identifying both his capture and the reason for his incarceration.
That day finally arrives when Dae-Su awakes in the middle of nowhere. The world around him is foreign and the movie takes just the right amount of time showing us how Dae-Su appreciates new smells, communications with others, cigarettes and even new swear words.
A cell phone found ringing in his jacket pushes the story to the next chapter. The voice on the other end of the line is that of his former captor that reveals that a game is about to be played and that Dae-Su's job is to figure out the who's and why's that reasons Dae-Su's captivity. Dae-Su seems numb to the voice but passes out soon afterwards only to awaken at the house of Mido, his waitress at the restaurant at the time of his collapse. Their relationship will take center stage as the two new acquaintances try to unravel the mystery man behind the wizards' curtain that seems to be pulling all the strings.
Revealing any further information about Oldboy might take away from the pleasure of letting the story unfold, so I'll stop here. But what I will tell you is that through Dae-Su's journey towards various reveals we are treated to memory etching scenes including the self mutilation of one's tongue and an absolutely invigorating scene involving Dae-Su's battle with an Asian gang down a narrow corridor armed only with a hammer and utter determination.
Oldboy has just enough of all the right elements to make a good film better. The mood, pacing, lighting and even the music punctuate through the screen to create an atmosphere of dread, sorrow and desperation. But what separates Oldboy from the pack is that it paints a picture of a character that thinks he can walk through the violent world of the Asian underground with reckless abandon on the notion that nothing can be done to him physically or emotionally that could compare to the hell of his 15-year imprisonment. But in the final act, director Chan-wook Park (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) turns the table on our protagonist and forces him into the realization that as a pawn in the sick and twisted game, he is not the cold and fearless seeker or truth, but rather a vulnerable and forever imprisoned character that pleads his own life in order to maintain a level of secrecy over the final revelation. The payoff is one that you just won't see coming no matter how seasoned a veteran you may be to films of this genre, and it incaptures everything that Hollywood films would steer clear of if originally presented the script in raw form. And the result was the Grand Prize of the Jury award at Cannes in 2004.
Bravo.