Film Review: 'Oldboy' Is A Troubling Portrait Of Path Toward Salvation
The Korean film "Oldboy" directed by Park Chan-wook was first released 20 years ago. It has now been restored and remade and is returning to cinema. "Oldboy" may be even more influential today than it was in 2003, said KUNC film critic Howie Mashowitz, who teaches film at the University of Colorado in Denver.
In 2003, some people disliked Oldboy for its violence, while others felt that the film's violent visuals and script were not gratuitous, but rather a crude and disturbing but important look at the world we live in. The story centers on revenge, but director Park Chan-wook said at the time that while his film doesn't glorify revenge, it does show that if we don't find meaningful ways to express anger and revenge, those feelings can explode in deeply destructive ways.
Park noted that in 2003 there was an explosion of outrage around the world. The world has gotten crazier since then, and I think Oldboy is an important film now. At the beginning of the film, Oh Da-soo, played by ruthless actor Choi Min-shik, ends up at a police station where he acts and talks about himself. His friend rescues him, but Oh suddenly disappears and eventually appears in a sort of prison, sticking his head out of a small opening under the cell door and yelling at whoever brings him food. You will soon learn that Oh will be about 15 years old. No hearing, no trial, no judgment - no explanation. It's okay. From time to time, Valium gas enters the cell and when it exits, the cell is cleaned and changed.
Oh, he has a TV and watches mostly crime news. But television also marked events such as the death of Princess Diana and Britain's handover of Hong Kong to China. Oh, he has a desk with paper and pen so he can write his prison memoirs. Then suddenly he is thrown from the side of a tall building into a red box. He goes out and sets out to find out what happened to him and take revenge against those responsible.
Principal Park says Oldboy is finally okay. In this way it resembles many Western prison works, often describing the inmates' rise from suffering and hatred to some version of transcendental understanding. But the road here is tough and you must have a desire for events and visual effects that shock the audience. If you've seen the fascinating documentary My Octopus Teacher , you might find this scene hard to digest.
Oldboy's world often fades to blue-green. The action takes place mostly indoors; The film evokes a longing for nature and the sun. Oldboy feels claustrophobic and nervous, and Oh Dae-san's life and mood are trapped in a world of constant violence and evil from which there is no escape. According to him, life in this big prison is no better than the small cell he was in for 15 years.
But once at Oldboy , Park Chan-wook's vision becomes clearer. Oh Dae-san's experience is completely unfair, random and illogical - it's like Kafka's The Trial , where nothing makes sense. O's liberation also makes no sense, and he is - so to speak - released into a kind of warped society with no tools to make sense of things and no way to find anything like justice or peace.
According to director Park Chan-wook, the real theme of Oldboy is redemption. If this is true, then like any true redemption, it's hard to find, and Oh Da-soo's character will surely find a depth of recognition that few directors have the guts or talent to create on screen.
