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Old Boy (2003)

Park Chan-wook's drive for revenge continues. One year after the sensational amok run of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance comes Old Boy, the second film of his which deals with the theme of "revenge". Tarantino loves it and therefore it received the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

The construct is again megalomaniac and the realisation is in a sense breath-taking. Purest cinema which only by its images tells you more than you wanted to know or rather you wanted to see. Inherently, the introduction of the film is a crazy scenario which makes you want to stay in your seat until you get to know the solution of it. Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is an average guy who gets locked in a windowless apartment. Apart from a bed, a table, a chair, a TV and a bathroom there is nothing else inside it. He is not informed about the reason or the length of his imprisonment. He battles against the sneaking and incipient madness by doing shadow boxing, tatooing his own hand and writing down his sins onto paper. One day Oh Dae-su watches TV and in the news he sees that his wife got murdered and that he is the main suspect as to the outer world he has disappeared. Here he breaks down completely. In these first moments of the film it creates an addictive atmospheric force. These moments make clear that the film following them demands a great deal from the broken hero.

For it is an overture for the violent path Oh Dae-su has to follow on his quest for revenge. The violence in this film is so merciless that, depending on the nature of the viewer, it could sicken him. But now begins the actual game: As Oh Dea-su is let out of his imprisonment, his still unknown tantaliser forces him to a perverted game in which he has to find out the reason for his 15 years in prison. He has only 5 days to solve the puzzle. Oh however wants something else which is revenge for his ruined life. Park created scenes you won't forget. Choi Min-sik's glance is probably enough to make this an unforgettable movie, but Park makes him choke down a living octopus (yes, living animals WERE harmed during the making of this movie). Another scene involves Oh Dae-su ripping out the teeth of one of his opponents (forget what you have seen in Marathon Man).

One scene in the film can already be declared a classic one. In an uncut 3-minutes knee-shot sequence we see how Oh fights a group of 20 thugs. His only weapon is a little hammer. In this unbelievable sequence he finishs them all.

In Cannes, the film was compared to David Lynch, which might be due to the nightmare-like storyline with its many twists. But that doesn't hit the mark in my opinion as Park is a lot more precise and tangible. Old Boy is a film about revenge, fate and salvation.

The soundtrack is one to remember as well. It underlines all of the emotional moments. Newly composed tracks can be heard, but classic music is also present, like Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Currently, there is probably no Asian director whose films are more exciting than Park Chan-wook's. After films like Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Old Boy, I am really looking forward to his next projects. Monster is a short film he has recently shot and it should soon be available on DVD.

Written on September 15th 2004

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