Oh Boy! Oh Boy! Old Boys was very interesting!

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2015)

This South Korean mystery thriller neo-noir film is like a hammer. It always manage to hit the nail on the head. Directed by Park Chan-wook, and loosely based on the Japanese manga of the same name written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. Oldboy is the second installment of The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by 2002's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and followed by 2005's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The film follows the story of a Korean businessman, Oh Dae-su (Min-sik Choi), who is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing the identity of his captor or his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of lies, conspiracy and violence. With the help of a female Japanese chef named Mi-do (Hye-jeong Kang) and one of his old computer friends, No Joo-hwan (Dae-han Ji), Dae-su must find a way to piece together the scattered clues of who took his life away from him, while cutting down anyone who gets in his path. Without spoiling the movie too much, this film has a lot of twist and turns, that will keep the viewer, interested in the story. The movie is an extreme art-house film, often using tropes taken from previous psychological movies such as 1929's Un Chien Andalou (1929) & 1966's Persona. The film also has several parallels to classic stories such as William Shakespeare's to Titus Andronicus & French author Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. The most famous one is the Greek myth of Oedipus Rex. Other works, like Ella Wheeler Wilcox's famous poem, "Solitude", played a big part in this film. "The Man of Sorrow" by Belgium painter James Ensor gave the movie, some depth with it looks. Classical music gave the movie, its ears. "The Last Waltz" by Frédéric François Chopin, and the first movement of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons: Winter" are certainly used the best. The rest of the entire soundtrack is a work of genius. Not only does every title clearly applies to the events seen in the film when the track is played, but every track is takes their name after a famous film noir film. The acting is excellent for the most part. Min-sik Choi really put a lot of work, into this film. Not only did, he nailed it, with the emotional side, he trained for six weeks and lost twenty pounds to get in shape for the role of Dae-su, and did most of his own stunt work. If that wasn't extreme, enough, he ate four real life live octopodes as Dae-su in the sushi bar scene. While, it did provoked some controversy abroad. Eating live octopus in Korea is commonplace although it is usually sliced first. I saw nothing wrong with it, as long as he ate all of them. That scene was used, to represent, Dae-su hatred toward his enemies and I think Min-sik Choi capture that. Supporting character, Ji-tae Yu as Woo-jin Lee was great at being sinister, while being realistic. Director Quentin Tarantino was at the screening and was shocked to find himself crying for a character who had been completely despicable for the prior duration of the movie. That's how much, Ji-tae Yu got people to invest in the character. The only weak acting in the film, had to be Hye-jeong Kang as Mi-do. I really didn't like her damsel in distress, manic pixie dream girl role. Still, this was a very powerful film. The movie was shot, superb. Great use of mirrors, as a symbolism of fragmentation of one self. I like how everybody is looking at another person, through a mirror. I like how shots of Woo-jin Lee, show how much omnipotent by wealth, he is. I like how Dae-su is shown as the common man. Getting back at the society, by hammer. It remind me of socialism ideas pitting against that of capitalism. Still, the most well-known shot had to be, the lengthy scene in which Oh Dae-su takes on over a dozen men armed with just a hammer. Given that the scene is nearly 5 minutes long, and is all filmed on one camera, in one take. The fight sequence took three days, worth of attempts to nail it. The violence in this film wasn't as violent, as some critics made it out to be. The torture wasn't too in- depth, as the camera cuts away, when things become way too gory. I found the violent to, pretty tame for a Rated R film. The story matter is indeed shocking. The whole twist toward the end is a gut-wrenching and sick. The movie ends with a gloomy ambiguous ending. While, some people might see this as a fault; I see it as thought provoking. While Dae-su is let out of captivity, he can only free himself, by finding out why he was imprisoned. Dae-su takes on many aspects of an Ubermensch on finding the truth, but ultimately his character has no control of his own fate and plays into his enemies' hands. By the end of the movie he is a very, very broken man. It's a great example of why human decisions are meaningless and choice is an illusion. One of the most important themes of Old Boy is the truth. Sometimes, the truth doesn't set you free. The only thing, that I can see as a fault of the film is how some scenes were very confusing. One of the biggest mistake, you can make, is watching it, with the English dubbing. It's horrible. It doesn't match with the lips on the screen at all. Unfortunately, you will lose a lot of Korean language drastically changed over those fifteen years, with it. You should watch it with English subtitle, instead. This movie help influence a Bollywood remakes in 2005 & an American remake in 2013. Overall: This dark Oedipian tragedy is somewhat enlightening. Drop the hammer, and give this a watch! You will not be disappointed.