Excellent ending, but the journey suffers

Rating: 5/10 (23 March 2005)

Oldboy follows a fairly standard story structure: The audience is presented with a "mystery" which the protagonist must solve. However, while pursuing the mystery, information and characters are gathered which are significant for the ending, when a huge surprise is revealed. Other films that follow this pattern are "No Way Out" (1987) and "The Usual Suspects" (1995).
The setup for Oldboy is: Dae-su is kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years by an unknown antagonist. On release, he is given some clothes, money, and a mobile phone. He learns that he has five days to discover who his antagonist is, and why he was imprisoned.
Much of the movie is devoted to gathering clues to solve the mystery, and this is the film's weak point. The director, Park Chan-wook, must provide the audience with all of the clues which are important to the ending, without telegraphing the ending. He must also make the search for clues interesting on its own - as if the audience is watching an ordinary mystery film. It is in the latter that Oldboy fails.
The story of Dae-su solving the mystery is not involving. Likewise, the romance that begins between him and a young woman is not developed very well. There is not much sense of character development, and events seem somewhat random. Director Park tries to spice things up with violence and odd behavior by characters, but it is just "window dressing".
In some mystery genre films, such as "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) or "Lone Star" (1996), the "journey" of solving the mystery is the interesting part of the film. The solution to the mystery is not particularly important, but the journey is entertaining and rewarding.
Not so in Oldboy. I felt bewildered as to what direction the film's events were following, and I was not engaged in the storyline.
A good test that Park should have used in developing the story is: If the ending was removed or changed radically, would the remainder of the story stand on its own merits? Would it engage the audience?
The ending of Oldboy has tremendous impact. It is very well executed, and very intense. It is too bad that the journey to that ending is so weak.
When "No Way Out" or "The Usual Suspects" ends, the viewer re-evaluates everything he has seen, and sees it all in a very different light. Oldboy's ending does not trigger such a revelation.