The story is gripping, the characters believable and well rounded, the emotion human and the feeling I was left with at the end of the film is one of awe.
The film is renowned for its striking cinematography, innovative camera work, and iconic one-take fight scene in a narrow corridor. The use of color, symbolism, and meticulous attention to detail elevates “Oldboy” to the status of a cinematic masterpiece.
A critical and commercial success, the film shocked stateside audiences with its savage beauty and delirious, psychological dimension; in his four-star review, Roger Ebert called “Oldboy” a “powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare.”
The violence is very realistic and grisly however and consists of two only partially shown torture scenes with teeth extraction, the famous hammer fight and a hand to hand combat scene. Most of the violence is not detailed at all. It's even very hard to see what really happens in some scenes.
There's a core element of emotional realism that accentuates Park's brutal narrative beats, leaving us to ponder something more than a bloody body. Content collapsed. A lurid, complex, introspective beast, enacting astonishing cruelty on its protagonist like a slow-acting poison.
The heart of 'Oldboy' is about vengeance. But when the film released in 2003, director Park Chan-wook said the film does not praise vengeance itself but instead shows what can happen if we do not find useful ways to express anger and revenge. The Korean film Oldboy by Park Chan-wook originally came out 20 years ago.
It should be noted that while the torture, self-harm and murder scenes are disturbing and often graphic, the hand-to-hand combat or action sequences are almost always kept to a non-fatal and PG-13 level. The infamous hammer fight scene and the other scenes of fighting are not bloody or gruesome at all.
This movie has a brilliant script that constantly surprises you right up until the very last scene. Twists are commonplace these days, but the one found here is the most shocking I've ever seen. OLDBOY has it all, really. A great story unveiled in a leisurely way, piece by piece, no hurry.
For one thing, it's far from super. Not the quality, per se (although, for Lee, that's off, too), but the energy. Content collapsed. Viewers new to Oldboy will appreciate Lee's affecting and entertaining tale of a man unjustly imprisoned.
There is no question that the original Oldboy from 2003 is the better film. Obviously, they have their similarities and differences, but Park's Oldboy has much more character to it.
If the original version of "Oldboy" has a perfect 10 out 10, this one has a mixed 6 out 10. At first, I just came back from the theater and I found this movie a very poor remake if I compare it with the excellence, the complexity and power of the Asian film. That film was purely brilliance.
Oldboy remains Park's most iconic work, officially remade once and unofficially ripped off many more times. Accessible in its hard-core thrills, it's a good pick for your first Park Chan-wook movie.
Original: Which Is Best? Park Chan-wook's Oldboy, the original movie, is definitely better than the 2013 Oldboy remake, which is one of the more underwhelming films made by Spike Lee. The problem with remaking a movie that's hinged around a single giant twist is that the element of surprise no longer applies.
1. often capitalized O&B British : an alumnus especially of a boys' school. 2. : a man who is a member of a long-standing and usually influential clique especially in a professional, business, or social sphere.
Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that Oldboy has so influenced superhero action, since Park himself adapted the film from the Japanese manga of the same name, written by Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi.
Part of Oldboy's resonance is due to the movie's final, most devastating twist: the late revelation that Mi-do is Dae-su's daughter, and that Woo-jin arranged their meeting and affair as revenge for Dae-su inadvertently exposing Woo-jin's incestuous attachment to his own sister when they were in school together long ...
Behind-the-scenes footage shows Oldboy didn't use any CGI or special effects for the octopus-eating scene. Choi Min-sik, who is a Buddhist and vegetarian according to director Park Chan-wook, ended up eating four live octopuses in order to get the take right.
Oldboy was an instant hit in South Korea upon its release in November 2003, and it was added at the very last minute to the competition lineup of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where Quentin Tarantino happened to be serving as chair of the jury.
Many were quick to point out the similarities to the iconic corridor fight in Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2003), which has influenced the choreography of number of cinematic fight scenes over the last two decades, from John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019) to Guardians of The Galaxy, Vol. 3 (2023).
Then, like Oedipus, upon his anagnorisis (tragic realisation) he maims himself. Oldboy would also appear to fit well into the genre of 'revenge tragedy'.
Years later, Woo-jin had a drunk Dae-su kidnapped off the streets on the day of his daughter's birthday, and imprisoned in a hotel room for 15 years. Meanwhile, he had Dae-su's wife killed and took his infant daughter Yeon-hee, raising her as Mi-do.
Dae-su leaves Mi-do with Mr. Park and sets out to face Woo-jin. At his penthouse apartment, Woo-jin shows Dae-su a family album with photos of Dae-su, his wife, and his infant daughter together fifteen years earlier, progressing to pictures of his daughter as she grew up, which reveal that Mi-do is Dae-su's daughter.
Joe goes to Adrian and after a short fight with his bodyguard (whom he kills), he tells Adrian that he solved his riddle: Adrian blames Joe for the tragedy that befell his family, and therefore imprisoned him.
