Mi-do confesses her love for him and the two embrace. Dae-su smiles, which is slowly replaced by a look of pain. Oldboy is a revenge tale at its raw and spiteful best and there has been none like it.
Termed a classic in the neo-noir genre, the movie is still one of the best South Korean title to hit the market. It has attained cult status on the account of a three-minute-long hallway action sequence which is shot in one take.
Choi Min-sik as Dae-su shows resilience and hell breaks loose when he revisits the place where he was held captive. This famed sequence aside, the psychological aftereffects of pain, suffering, loneliness and loss are captured brilliantly through the various characters we encounter in Oldboy.
There is a constant pull about Dae-su. This is evident in the hallway action sequence, when despite being injured and stabbed, he continues to fight the goons with a hammer. His ambiguity only worsens with time. But director Park Chan-wook concerns least with morality as he presents us with a twisted character at the very onset and unravels his even more complicated past. The story of Oldboy jumps right in with the plot twist of captivity and the revenge plan.
The effective montages show how time has stayed still for Dae-su even while years have passed by. These contradictions are plenty in the film and leave the viewers in a constant state of unease.
The climax where Woo-jin gets his revenge on Dae-su is also a satisfying end. Dae-su cuts off his tongue and is one of the best face-off sequences where despite having pent up rage, Dae-su is the one who is one his knees and eventually the loser. Oldboy has a distinct style and visual tone that works wonders in its favour and helps in presentation of the complex themes of revenge and repentance with brilliance.
There are shaky camera movements and the use of angle is also very subtle, reinforcing the victor and the defeated at each turn.
The lighting is a mix of gritty and dark with shadow play, to use of bright colour and flat tones. At no point, we become familiar with the style and this keeps us hooked till the end and invested in the storytelling. Use of music in montages and action sequences blends into the environment and helps in developing mystery.
It is very difficult to achieve what Oldboy has to offer. Fans have often debated if it merited a remake in the first place because it is a standout film in itself. There are certain changes in the Hollywood version but the story remains the same in effect. I now realize that was probably a gut reaction more out of discomfort than anything. In fact, I now think that was a deliberate choice made for one specific reason. I feel as though there are numerous of these subtle connections to scripture.
This is such an intricate film! So cool how people can keep seeing new things in it. Just one thing, about cutting his tongue out. Remember when Dae-Su recovered that audio tape? Seems to me that Dau-Su thought this punishment up for himself to show Woo-Jin he had remorse. Oh Dae-su then symbolically castrates himself for Woo-jin. Hey, I really liked the way you interpreted this movie! Is Mido just another figment of his mind in your interpretation or is she a real person having a real relationship with him?
And if she is a real person, is she really his daughter, or is he just creating that illusion because the memories of his sister? Remember that Mido never does open that box, she never finds out, maybe because it was never true. It seems impossible that he took revenge on the monster inside himself by falling in love with his own daughter.
In the end it seemed like the monster had left him and he got to go on living with Mido, no longer believing that they were father and daughter, more at peace with himself.
Are you saying that this opening scene means that the monster found him again, told him the story again, and thats why he kills himself? What did he achieve by that? Like Liked by 1 person. Park has a doctorate in Psychology. His films always tend to delve very deep into the human psyche, he likes to deconstruct what makes us what we are and serve it to the audience bare, bloody and raw. We are animals like all others on this planet, but we are gifted with a far greater intelligence than any other beings on earth.
When you combine our primal instincts with our incredibly complex brains, sometimes things get broken, sometimes horrible things happen. I believe that Park is simply showing us how horrible humans can be, how destructive, cruel and twisted we can become. Oh Dae Su committed no serious crime, yet what he did sparked a rage so terrible in Lee Woo Jin that it caused his brain and primal desire for revenge to combine and commit this atrociously cruel act of punishment.
It is this event which causes his mind to become broken, and the beast, the man become one. There is no divide or distinction between one or the other anymore inside of him. No offense. Meaning the plot that happened has to be taken as is — Oh Dae Su was abducted, Lee abducted him because he wants to enact revenge because he thought that the rumor that dae su started was the reason his sister wanted to kill herself, intricate plan of revenge eventually pits dae su with his daughter with whom he had sexual relations with, couldnt take the truth and started thrashing around, cut his throat because he thought that was the reason why all of this was happening.
So I believe you take the movie as is, the old man at the start was not Lee but just some random stranger. As you may have seen, the scene with the hypnotist is a heavily debated one. Here is my take on it. Remember when he the monster had to take 70 steps and then he will die a peaceful death? If you count the footprints from the chair to the scene where dae su fell down, it was exactly The Dae Su that woke up was the monster. This one though with Mi-do though was important and he has to live with that, he has no choice but to be the monster and getting that Old Dae Su back is impossible.
Love your take on this, Matt! So glad to have watched this movie! Any movie that inspires like-minded people to spend time analyzing elements and fleshing out theories is definitely worth it.
I thought it was superb. Amazing acting and cinematography and I like having something to think about afterwards too!
Anyway, these interpretations are fabulous. I was wondering what do you think the significance of the violet is throughout the movie? Maybe because in the ending he had found peace once he had relieved himself of his own monster? Haha, I have no idea. Does anyone have any ideas? In the short story, the girl says she likes the color purple and dies at the end of the story. When we went over that short story in Korean middle school, I was taught that the color purple was supposed to represent tragedy.
Some pretty interesting thoughts here. I just finished watching the movie for the first time, and then read this post and all the comments. Lots to think about. I definitely do think the story is deeper than what it first appears to be on screen. And it for sure is pretty complicated. Some of it still really confuses me. I just watched it for the first time last week also. I never bothered to count them. I do have a couple questions about Mi-do.
I forget if Dae-su called her by name on the payphone. Surely she must have had a different name or else he would immediately have thought of his child when he met her. Or was that just a fabrication created by Woo-jin? I forget exactly what was said about that. I just watched the movie for the first time. It was amazing, but left my mind reeling, and full of questions.
One more thing, though. If Mido is really his daughter, who is her mother? Can someone please explain this?
Just watched the movie. A little messed up at the moment…… my mind is having a hard time trying to comprehend this movie that it dislikes so much but at the same time finds fascinating…. Anyway, like everyone else I enjoyed reading the theories presented. I guess this interpretation would also explain the age difference between the two characters. I do have a point to make — that the rooftop scene shows no parallels between the white dog and the white-haired man besides their hair color.
In the rooftop, the dog does nothing to protect its master, while in the other scene the man is scene as a formidable wall between Oh-Dae and Lee-Woo. Nothing like lack of sleep to help inspiration right? I went back and watched the movie again, for probably the 3rd or 4th time. He was born a woman, and had transgender surgery to become a woman.
He does not have a scar on his chest for the pacemaker, it was to take his breasts away. I also think it could be why the director spends so much time on the scene where he is getting dressed into his suit. The yearbooks have been edited so that you could not see her, thus erasing the memory of his previous gender.
The reputation of Woo-Jin sister, which is in fact Woo-Jin born a woman as a slut haunts his memory, thus became a different person by changing his gender. Does that theory make sense to anyone else? I think Oh Dae-Su molested his daughter and his wife found out. Oh Dae-Su kills his wife and is put in jail.
When Oh Dae-Su is released from jail he pays a hypnotist to make him forget everything that has happened and then pays the hypnotist to also make his daughter, who is 18 now, to fall in love with him so they can be together.
Most of this movie is like a fever dream of him trying to ignore that he molested his daughter, murdered his wife, went to jail, and has now hypnotized his daughter to fall in love with him. Lee Woo-Jin dressed nice at the end because he thought Oh-Dae-Su was going to accept reality and the consequences and Lee-Woo-Jin was going to emerge from his prison and Oh-Dae-Su was going to go away. The fever dream is caused by Oh Dae-Su trying to create a new past that makes sense.
So instead of him remembering that he went to jail he remembers a man kidnapping him and putting him in a room for 15 years. He has to create the kidnapper, so the story makes sense, so he creates Lee Woo-Jin who he remembers seeing him make out with someone when he was younger, it may or may not have been his sister.
Oh Dae-Su keeps creating rationalizing a story that allows him to explain his current situation i. Not sure why anyone would need to contact the Korean Embassy to call someone out of country. The fuck just happened. I can definitely beg to intimate that each and every one of these explanations offers insight into a potentially brilliant resolvement. You can apply reverse irony and say Oh Dae Su planted himself in the prison for 15 years, with the aid of a hypnotist and professional scheme crew, as a means of self punishment for not ever apologizing to Lee Woo Jin for letting the whole school know about the time he sucked on his sisters titties.
But then youd just say it all comes down to cause and effect and trying to find someone to blame for all your sins. The grain of sand and rock quote really sends it home, phenomenal movie and interpretations :D. Ask yourself, who do you love? And then, suddenly released, he is invited to track down his jailor with a denouement that is simply stunning.
HBO Max now has Oldboy streaming with a subscription. Andrey is a coach, sports writer and editor. He is mainly involved in weightlifting. He also edits and writes articles for the IronSet blog where he shares his experiences.
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