Oldboy

Perhaps the most widely known of Chan-wook Park's Vengeance trilogy, Oldboy tells the story of the imprisonment and subsequent vengeance-quest of Dae-su Oh (Min-sik Choi). Dae-su is something of a middle-class nobody until he awakens one day to find himself trapped in a single room; little does he know he'll be held there for fifteen years. We watch as he first experiences fear and desperation until finally he resolves to train himself and escape, turning almost full circle within the confines of his cell.

On regaining his freedom he embarks upon an investigation for the truth...or is it for revenge? Indeed, that question is kept at the forefront of the viewer's mind as with every step Dae-su draws closer, he must reconcile his own unquenchable lust for violence with his need for answers. Even the relationship he strikes up with Mido (Hye-jeong Kang) serves only to temper briefly his single-minded passion for the truth. As he draws closer to facing his punisher, the sartorially slick Woo-jin Lee (Ji-tae Yu), the blood begins to flow more freely, and with it, our own concerns that Dae-su Oh might not want the truth once he gets it.

The overtones of classical Greek tragedy are unmistakeable. Oldboy comfortably sits in a great tradition of drama in which a desire for vengeance might drive the protagonist out of his mind; so too, the final punishment that Dae-su Oh must inflict upon himself seems on first viewing disapproportionately harsh for the crime for which he discovers he earned imprisonment. Yet, a more considered viewing suggests that there are no winners or losers in Oldboy, as each and every character suffers in one way or another. Dae-su Oh is the perfect tragic hero, both for his hubris and for the sympathetic humanity he still evidences throughout the film; but the sufferings of Mido and Lee are no less compelling, even if the latter comes off as a poor shadow of a foil to Dae-su.
Cinematically the film is engrossing, too. Chan-wook Park's ability to weave innovative camera angles and techniques with a thrilling and moving score and characters that are eye-catchingly watchable is a heady mix. There's an all-encompassing colour wash and style to the film that drew me in from the start and left me fixated. Indeed, it's essential that the viewer is made to watch, and forced to behave as Dae-su Oh once did in watching things he shouldn't, so that we are witness to various crimes and misbehaviours throughout the course of the film. The infamous live octopus scene, for one, demands that we keep our eyes open, even though it's thoroughly repellent; when Lee offers his final coup de grace when facing down Dae-su, we have been a party to Dae-su Oh's crimes. It's that forced involvement, brought about by so subtle yet complete an immersion in the action, that's utterly chilling.
A masterpiece of involvement and questioning; I was left shocked, distressed and stunned by an apparent 'fairness' in the final tip of the scales, even though I did not want to feel that way. Fantastic.

~~~
2003

Min-sik Choi, Ji-tae Yu, Hye-jeong Kang

dir. Chan-wook Park