Oldboy
Oldboy | |
 Theatrical poster | |
Directed by | |
Produced by | |
Written by | |
Starring | Choi Min-sik Yu Ji-tae Kang Hye-jeong |
Music by | |
Cinematography | Chung Chung-hoon |
Distributed by | Show East |
Release date(s) | November 21, 2003 |
Running time | 120 minutes |
Country | |
Language | |
Budget | $3,000,000 |
Box office | $14,980,005 |
The film follows the story of one Oh Dae-su, who is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls for an attractive sushi chef.
The film won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and high praise from the President of the Jury, director Quentin Tarantino. Critically, the film has been well received in the United States, with an 80% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic Roger Ebert has claimed Oldboy to be a "powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare".In 2008, voters on CNN named it one of the ten best Asian films ever made.
An American remake is planned, which will be directed by Spike Lee.
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Plot
Businessman Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is bailed out from a police station by his friend Joo-hwan (Ji Dae-han) after a drunken fight on the night of his daughter's birthday. Dae-su calls her on a public phone, but as Joo-hwan takes the call, Dae-su is kidnapped. Placed in solitary confinement with no explanation, Dae-su is fed dumplings through a narrow slot. Receiving information through a television, he discovers his wife has been murdered, his daughter sent to foster parents and that he himself is the prime suspect. Hallucinating, his attempts at suicide are prevented by regular gassing into unconsciousness. He begins to train and shadowbox; hardening his knuckles by punching the wall. 15 years later, as he finishes digging an escape opening, he suddenly awakens with a suit on a rooftop.Dae-su's captor gives him a cellphone through a stranger and Dae-su visits a restaurant, where he meets young sushi chef Mi-do (Kang Hye-jeong), who brings him to her home. Dae-su realizes he is being tracked through calls and Mi-do's instant messaging service. Managing to locate his prison through the restaurant that supplied the dumplings, he tortures the warden (Oh Dal-su) for information who simply points to a box of tape recordings of the captor. Playing the tapes only reveal, according to his captor, that Dae-su talked too much. Using a hammer he fights his way out through numerous goons, but is stabbed by a knife in the back. A stranger places him in a taxi, only to identify Dae-su.
The man, Woo-jin (Yoo Ji-tae), reveals himself as Dae-su's kidnapper and tells Dae-su to discover his motives. Mi-do will die if he fails, but if he succeeds, Woo-jin will kill himself. Later, as Dae-su and Mi-do grow emotionally they have intimate sex. Dae-su discovers he and Woo-jin briefly attended the same high school and remembers spying on Woo-jin's incestuous relationship with his sister, Soo-ah (Yun Jin-seo) but unaware of the familial ties, inadvertently spread the rumor before transferring to another school in Seoul. Soo-ah's turmoil grew, causing false signs of pregnancy and eventual suicide. During the investigation, Woo-jin enrages Dae-su by killing Joo-hwan for insulting Soo-ah while the warden later joins Dae-su's side after having his hand amputated by Woo-jin. The warden looks after Mi-do as Dae-su goes to confront Woo-jin at his penthouse.
At the penthouse Woo-jin gives Dae-su a photo album. As Dae-su flips through of pictures of his family, he witnesses his daughter grow older in the pictures, until discovering that Mi-do is actually his daughter. Woo-jin reveals that the events surrounding Dae-su were orchestrated, as well as by using a hypnotist, to cause Dae-su and Mi-do to commit incest. The warden then betrays Dae-su with a similar photo album ready for Mi-do. A horrified Dae-su begs Woo-jin to conceal the secret from Mi-do, groveling for forgiveness before slicing out his own tongue as a symbol of his silence. Woo-jin calls the warden and agrees to spare Mi-do. As he rides alone in the elevator, he is struck by the vivid memory of his sister's death and shoots himself. Some time later, Dae-su sits in a winter landscape with the same hypnotist and asks her for help in forgetting the secret. Touched by his pleas from a handwritten letter, she begins the process, lulling him into unconsciousness where she asks him to separate his monstrous side. Dae-su then wakes up alone before meeting with Mi-do. They embrace, and Mi-do tells Dae-su that she loves him. A tearful Dae-su smiles.
Cast
Choi Min-sik
- Choi Min-sik as Oh Dae-su: The film's protagonist, who has been imprisoned for somewhere around 15 years. Choi Min-sik lost and gained weight for his role depending on the filming schedule, trained for six weeks and did most of his stunt work.
- Yoo Ji-tae as Lee Woo-jin: The man behind Oh Dae-su's imprisonment. Park Chan-wook's ideal choice for Woo-jin had been actor Han Suk-kyu, who previously played a rival to Choi Min-sik in Shiri and No. 3. Choi then suggested Yu Ji-tae for the role, despite Park's reservation about his youthful age.
- Kang Hye-jeong as Mi-do: Dae-su's love interest.
- Ji Dae-han as No Joo-hwan: Dae-su's friend and the owner of an internet café.
- Kim Byeong-ok as Mr. Han: Bodyguard of Woo-jin.
- Oh Tae-kyung as Young Dae-su.
- Ahn Yeon-suk as Young Woo-jin.
- Kim Han-joon as Grace Gee's lover
- Oo Il-han as Young Joo-hwan.
- Yun Jin-seo as Lee Soo-ah: Woo-jin's sister.
- Oh Dal-su as Park Cheol-woong: The private prison's manager.
Production
The corridor fight scene took seventeen takes in three days to perfect and was one continuous take; there was no editing of any sort except for the knife that was stabbed in Oh Dae-su's back, which was computer-generated imagery. Though the scene has often been compared visually to side scrolling beat 'em up video games, director Park Chan-wook has stated that the similarity was unintentional.Other computer-generated imagery in the film includes the ant coming out of Oh Dae-su's arm (according to the making-of on the DVD the whole arm was computer-generated imagery) and the ants crawling over Oh Dae-su afterwards. The octopus being eaten alive was not computer-generated; four were used during the making of this scene. Actor Choi Min-sik, a Buddhist, said a prayer for each one. It should also be noted that the eating of live octopuses (called sannakji in Korean) as a delicacy exists in East Asia, although it is usually cut, not eaten whole. When asked if he felt sorry for the actor Choi Min-sik, director Park Chan-wook stated he felt more sorry for the octopus.
The final scene's snowy landscape was filmed in New Zealand. The ending is deliberately ambiguous, and the audience is left with several questions: specifically, how much time has passed, if Dae-Su's meeting with the hypnotist really took place, whether he successfully lost the knowledge of Mi-do's identity, and whether he will continue his relationship with Mi-do. In an interview (included with the European release of the film) director Park Chan-Wook says that the ambiguous ending was deliberate and intended to generate discussion; it is completely up to each individual viewer to interpret what is unshown.
The motif phrase "laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone", from Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, is referenced several times throughout the film.
Critical reception
Oldboy received generally positive reviews from Western critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 80% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 125 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 74 out of 100, based on 31 reviews.Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars (out of four). Ebert remarked: "We are so accustomed to 'thrillers' that exist only as machines for creating diversion that it's a shock to find a movie in which the action, however violent, makes a statement and has a purpose." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three stars (out of four), saying that it "isn't for everyone, but it offers a breath of fresh air to anyone gasping on the fumes of too many traditional Hollywood thrillers."
Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com praised the film, calling it "anguished, beautiful, and desperately alive" and "a dazzling work of pop-culture artistry." Peter Bradshaw gave it 5 stars (out of 5), commenting that this is the first movie in which he could actually identify with a small live octopus. Bradshaw summarizes his review by referring to Oldboy as "cinema that holds an edge of cold steel to your throat." David Dylan Thomas points out that rather than simply trying to "gross us out," Oldboy is "much more interested in playing with the conventions of the revenge fantasy and taking us on a very entertaining ride to places that, conceptually, we might not want to go." Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer gave Oldboy a score of "B-," calling it "a bloody and brutal revenge film immersed in madness and directed with operatic intensity," but felt that the questions raised by the film are "lost in the battering assault of lovingly crafted brutality."
MovieGazette lists 10 features on its "It's Got" list for Oldboy and summarizes its review of Oldboy by saying, "Forget ‘The Punisher’ and ‘Man on Fire’ – this mesmerising revenger’s tragicomedy shows just how far-reaching the tentacles of mad vengeance can be." MovieGazette also comments that it "needs to be seen to be believed." The BBC movie review calls it a "sadistic masterpiece that confirms Korea's current status as producer of some of the world's most exciting cinema." Manohla Dargis of the New York Times gave a lukewarm review, saying that "there is not much to think about here, outside of the choreographed mayhem." J.R. Jones of the Chicago Reader was also not impressed, saying that "there's a lot less here than meets the eye." This film is ranked #18 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
Awards and nominations
- 57th Cannes Film Festival
- Won: Grand Prix of the Jury – Park Chan-wook
- Nominated: Palme d'Or – Park Chan-wook
- Grand Bell Awards – South Korea 2004
- Won: Best Director – Park Chan-wook
- Won: Best Actor – Choi Min-sik
- Won: Best Editing – Kim Sang-beom
- Won: Best Illumination – Park Hyun-won
- Won: Best Music – Jo Yeong-wook
- Asia Pacific Film Festival 2004
- Won: Best Director – Park Chan-wook
- Won: Best Actor – Choi Min-sik
- 37th Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya – Sitges 2004
- Won: Maria Award (Best Film)
- Won: José Luis Guarner Award (Critics' Best Film)
- Bergen International Film Festival 2004
- Won: Audience Award
- British Independent Film Awards 2004
- Won: Best Foreign Independent Film
- European Film Awards 2004
- Nominated: Screen International Award
Soundtrack
Nearly all the music cues composed by Choi Seung-hyun, Lee Ji-Soo and Shim Hyun-Jung are titled after films, many of them film noirs.- Look Who's Talking (Opening song)
- Somewhere in the Night
- The Count of Monte Cristo – A novel by Alexandre Dumas, adapted many times to film
- Jailhouse Rock
- In a Lonely Place
- It's Alive
- The Searchers
- Look Back in Anger
- Vivaldi – Four Seasons Concerto Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, "L'inverno" (Winter)
- Room at the Top
- Cries and Whispers (Woo-Jin's theme)
- Out of Sight
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Out of the Past
- Breathless
- The Old Boy (Dae-Su's theme)
- Dressed to Kill
- Frantic
- Cul-de-Sac
- Kiss Me Deadly
- Point Blank
- Farewell, My Lovely
- The Big Sleep
- The Last Waltz (Mi-do's theme)
DVD release
Tartan Asian Extreme has released several editions of the film, including a single-disc edition, featuring the film and a small amount of special features.A three-disc collector's edition has also been released, featuring:
- Three Audio Commentary Tracks with the Director, Cinematographer and Cast
- Five Behind-the-Scenes Documentaries
- Deleted Scenes
- The first issue of the manga that the film is based upon.
- Interviews with the Cast and Crew
- A Featurette titled: "Le Grand Prix at Cannes"
- And a three-and-a-half hour making-of documentary entitled "The Autobiography of Oldboy"
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