Review of Oldboy (2003) by Jonathanz. — 02 Oct 2005
After hearing everyone talk about Oldboy in my East Asian Cinema class, I decided take the plunge and see it at the Nuart. I didn?t know what to expect, which is probably a blessing; expectations can go a long way towards ruining a film.
Dae-su, the protagonist, starts out as a useless drunk. Then, seemingly for no reason, he is held in a room for fifteen long years, left with only a television to entertain him. His meals come from a slot under his door, and every once and while he?s knocked out with sleeping gas.
When he wakes up, his hair has been cut and he?s been given a shave. Through his TV, he learns that he is being charged with the murder of his wife. Someone clearly has revenge on his mind, but who? And for what purpose? Freud would approve.
Since the plot hinges on a central revelation, I won't say anything else about it. Instead, I'll talk about some standout scenes. In a cinematic moment that has become infamous already, Dae-su (who looks just beastly with hair teased within an inch of it's life) walks into a sushi bar after being released and asks to eat something "alive.
" He chomps into a live octopus, but before he can finish, he faints, one tentacle still squirming. On a visceral level, I was repulsed. But then I remembered that this guy just missed out on more than a decade of living and just wanted to feel vital again.
In some strange way, my heart went out to him. Eventually, Dae-su figures out where he was incarcerated. So great is his fury that he storms in without any forethought, armed only with a small hammer that he picks up along the way.
In a long shot of a hallway, he does battle with his former jailers, displaying an emotion I can only categorize as ?primal rage." Even a knife in his back can?t do much more than slow him down. What made the scene captivating was the fact that violence was used to highlight an emotion, rather than for mere shock value.
If you have a strong stomach and a taste for black humor, you'd do well to see this movie.
This review of Oldboy (2003) was written by Jonathanz. on 02 Oct 2005.
Oldboy has generally received very positive reviews.
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