Oldboy

Title: Oldboy
Director: Park Chanwook
Cast: Choi Min-sik, Yu Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jeong
Year: 2004
MPAA: Rated R for strong violence including scenes of torture, sexuality and pervasive language
Date of Review: January 30, 2005


This recent and very underseen/underrated Korean gem won the Grand Prix at Cannes, yet it has managed to cruise under the radar of most North American theatres and video stores, as well as, it seems, the Academy, as it is not nominated for "Best Foreign Language Film" this year - an award it deserves to not only be nominated for, but win.

The film's complex plot begins with a man named Oh Daesu being held at a police station on the eve of his daughter's third birthday, as he is drunk and being a little bit wild. He is bailed out, and quickly kidnapped by an unknown party. He awakes in a small apartment, with all windows and doors completely barricaded, and he is kept there for 15 years without any reason. During the next half hour, we enter the mind of a man aging mentally and physically as he is isolated with only a television to keep him company. He watches history fly by on the TV set - Kim Jong Il becoming the leader of Korea, George Bush becoming president of the USA, the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001. Then, as suddenly as he is captured, he wakes up inside a briefcase which he quickly bursts out of to find himself on the roof of an unknown building in the middle of the city. The rest of the film finds Daesu hunting down clues as to the reason for his imprisonment, while trying to determine who is helping him and who is involved in the ever-growing conspiracy.

"Oldboy" takes many twists and turns in both plot and character development that may leave some feeling a bit confused, but luckily all loose ends are tied up by the end - though you may regret it. It is definitely not a film for the feint of heart. It contains some incredibly choreographed fight scenes that are both realistic and completely jaw-dropping in their brutality. It also contains some of the most disturbing scenes and plot revelations I have, personally, ever seen.

The part that really shines in the film and will keep you strapped to your seat even through all the violence and masochism is the performance of Choi Minsik, the actor playing the lead role of Oh Daesu. From hilarious comedy in his first scenes as an out-of-control drunk to the utter devastation he goes through in the final revelations of plot, he keeps a human face on situations that are beyond anything that you or I could ever comprehend.

With fantastic cinematography and a stylish sense of direction, Park Chanwook has created a film that is beautiful yet repulsive, physically exciting yet emotionally devastating. The characters feel real and that is what makes the film so tragic.

Easily the best of 2004, and probably the best of the new millennium, "Oldboy", while not for everyone, is a sensory feast that features the most haunting and disturbing story since David Fincher's "Se7en".

10/10