Oldboy (2003)

Why has it taken me so damn long to see this movie? Oh my god. I remember years ago when I was working at Barnes and Noble, one of my coworkers told me the entire plot of this movie, since at the time I hadn't heard of it and didn't think it was something I'd ever need to see. Luckily I forgot the bulk of what he told me until after I had watched the film and it came back. At the start of Oldboy, Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is just a chubby drunken miscreant waiting for his best friend Joo-hwan (Ji Dae-han) to pick him up at the police station, so he can get home and give his young daughter a birthday present. Before he makes it back, he is stolen away and locked in a hotel room, with absolutely no idea of who his captor could be or his/her motives.

He keeps in touch with the outside world through television, but that doesn't deter the onset of hysteria and hallucinations. He makes himself physically fit and strong and develops his own brand of self-defense, hoping to one day take revenge. After 15 years, he wakes up in a box on a roof, ready to exact serious damage on everyone. With the help of Joo-hwan and new love Mi-do (Kang Hye-jeong) (his wife was killed years earlier), he searches for clues in both his past and in details gleaned from his incarceration until he can identify his captor. But even when he does that, he must determine the reason behind it all, as well as the true ramifications of everything that's happened to him.

Oh man where to start? Oldboy is pretty darn amazing. Choi Min-sik is riveting as the protagonist, transforming convincingly from dumpy, goofy family man to a ruthless and vengeful man on a mission. He carefully represents the absolute farthest the human heart can be stretched, and the soul-wrenching effects of calculated psychological torture. Lee Woo-jin is fantastic as Dae-su's kidnapper, cold and mysterious but still a bit sympathetic. I liked Kang Hye-jeong as Mi-do, finding her performance nicely understated, and though I at first had some problems with her character, everything about her became fully realized by the end.

This movie starts off in one place and ends up in a completely different and unforeseeable location. The plot is complex and detailed, seemingly straightforward while simultaneously twisted and backward. For the entire film I was unable to predict what would happen (well, except one thing that I sort of predicted as a joke but turned out to be true), and every scene is integral in some way. The story is told with such passion and intensity, that it's completely enthralling. I believed everything what was happening on screen, and became very invested in the characters; there's a raw, almost palpable emotion presented in Oldboy that elicits an instinctive, visceral reaction.

Oldboy is also beautifully filmed, with a series of very deliberately-placed shots and some lovely drawn-out ones, including a ca-razy extended-shot fight scene. Mild color altering is used in some places for a more romantic air, most notably in a telling flashback to schoolboy days. The instrumental score is evocative and moving, adding an extra emotional layer to various scenes. There is a lot of violence, but much of it is offscreen, and it isn't usually extraneous, but rather dramatically effective.

It's rare that I would use this term for anything, but I honestly think this film is a masterpiece. It's perfectly shot, edited, scored, acted, and scripted. It expertly combines elements of noir, action, romance, and mystery genres to create a thrilling and captivating drama with a truly shocking climax and heartbreakingly bittersweet final scene. I am looking forward to the other entries in Park's "vengeance trilogy". Between this and Thirst, I am convinced that he is a man who really, seriously knows how to make a movie.

5/5