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Oldboy Movie Review - Buy Movies - Rent Movies
After his tragic death came the emergence of three new stars Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung and a certain Jackie Chan. In spite of this it and after an initial boom, it seemed that South East Asian cinema was becoming less fruitful in terms of the quality of movies they were producing. This was not helped when their stars were starring in movies that were trying to appeal to the US audience.
Many years later a new partnership was born which became SE Asia’s equivalent of Scorsese and De Niro and started the resurgence of Asian cinema. They were John Woo and Chow Yun Fat. The film… A Better Tomorrow. This really was the movie that started it all. It took Asia and subsequently the western audiences by storm. This introduced us to a whole new genre known as heroic bloodshed. The world sat up and took note. Then in 2000 a film redefined not only the martial arts genre but also set even higher standards in Asian moviemaking. This film was, of course, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon that showcased the fantastic acting talents of Chow Yun Fat, Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh. As well as this CTHD showed the world that these pictures can be beautiful, intelligent, well directed and wonderfully acted. Since then moviegoers, critics and film bosses alike have been searching through the Asian cinema archives looking for hidden gems that may be lurking in the underworld. Gems such as The Ring have enhanced Asia’s reputation as filmmakers along with directors such as Hideo Nakata which leads nicely to Chan-wook Park’s diamond movie Oldboy, which is possibly the best revenge flick of modern times joining the ranks of the movies previously mentioned.
Dae-su Oh (Min-sik Choi) who after being held in a police station for drunk and disorderly is kidnapped and held captive for 15 years without any clear and obvious reason. After suffering from loneliness, insanity and hallucinations with a TV to keep him company, Dae-su decides its time for him to plot his escape. However after no prior warning Dae-su is released only to find he is wanted for his family’s murder but more importantly, he has only five days to find out the reasons for his kidnap and release. A simple storyline has been given the touch of intelligence and emotion along with the right amount darkness and brutality by director Park. This is a film like no other. Sure it may be trying to be too smart and could come across a little pretentious but Park is not afraid to try something a little different.
Min-sik performance as the victim imprisoned without reason is inspired and breathtaking. He manages to show a scope of different emotions ranging from extreme hatred to carnal lust. As the movie goes on the character of Dae-su develops where we really start to feel sympathy for him as he tries to unravel the clues of his abduction. Ji-tae Yu (Woo-jin Lee) also puts in a remarkable performance where you almost understand and have sympathy for his character because he is slightly unbalanced but due to his murky past and poor excuses (which is revealed during the film) you refuse to feel for him. Hye-jeong Kang (Mido) is enthralling and wonderful as the young lady who helps Dae-su to solve the mystery.
One factor that is different in this picture is that there are very little martial arts present. This is a great move because it stops reinforcing the stereotypes that seem to occur in Asian action flicks that everyone knows Kung-fu, Karate or Tae Kwan Do. On the other hand the fight scenes, even though tinged with minute realism such as showing tiredness after a fight, which is rarely seen nowadays, are slightly disappointing. Unlike Quentin Tarantino who uses music to assist us in understanding the individuals and story content, Park uses his energy to solely concentrate on the story and emotions of the lead characters thus Oldboy unfortunately does not possess a truly memorable OST.
Oldboy continues the trend of excellent stylish movies from SE Asia. It contains all the ‘must have’ elements required for a superb movie being great direction, a simple plotline that is well delivered, fantastic performances and character development. Although not a commercially friendly as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this film will not only enhance South Korea’s reputation as a movie making nation but to SE Asia as a whole.
Finally it seems that Oldboy will be remade by Hollywood for the western audiences. Honestly, though, are we surprised?! Leon Nicholson
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