Here is something I managed to check out for it’s anniversary—20 years on, it’s Park Chan-Wook’s codifying film, that not only serves as a well-made example of the revenge thriller but simultaneously a well-made deconstruction of that. From its infamous fight sequences to its emotional gut-punches, there’s still not that much on the level of Oldboy.
Based on a Japanese manga, Oldboy follows abrasive businessman Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-Sik) as one fateful night he finds himself kidnapped and locked away in a mysterious prison. Fifteen years pass as he tries to stave off stir craziness while also training himself physically—and when he finds himself released as suddenly and mysteriously as he was locked away, it’s all down to him to find answers, no matter how disturbing they themselves turn out. Before long, he finds himself alongside young sushi chef Mi-Do (Kang Hye-jung)—and just how much freedom Dae-Su has in his destiny even after being let out is uncertain.
There’s several ways Oldboy works—first of all is the undercurrent of surreal dark humor permeating things, even dark as they get, balancing things between that and outright morbidity. The second is the way the film never cheats—we’re hit with revelations as things go on, but they’re foreshadowed in ways you might only notice on rewatch, or make earlier offhand references all tie together. And finally we have of course the direction—uncompromised and slick, with sequences that still feel like they could be made now. The famous one is of course a single shot showing the length of a hallway, as our protagonist fights through a crowd of goons—and he doesn’t just steamroll them either, always adding some sort of dynamic to everything going on.
And above all are the ways that you end up questioning everything—Dae-Su was hardly a model citizen to begin with, and even after release he seems unstable and paranoid enough that you can’t call him an entirely good guy. Mi-Do remains his moral lifeline, but even there it feels uncertain—and that’s before our ostensible villain played by You Ji-Tae comes in. As revelations of things past trickle in, you’re left wondering who’s truly right and who’s not—and even as we get to our devastating climax, you’re still left with flashes of sympathy when you’re not sure that you entirely should.
It’s that kind of rollercoaster of emotions that make Oldboy hold up oh so well, and sets it above much more straightforward thrillers. Saying more would perhaps spoil things too much, and it really is a film that’s best seen blind. Spike Lee remade it a decade on in 2013, with Josh Brolin—and it was another unnecessary redo, importing plot twists but without the care to set them up properly this time. It goes to show how important each one of the aforementioned elements is to each other. Either way—stomach-churning as it may be at times, I definitely recommend the original, which stands firmly by itself just fine…
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