Hey folks, Harry here... This is a film that just sounds BRILLIANT! First it's from Chan-wook Park, out of South Korea, who is frankly the most exciting filmmaker working in the world today... well, for my money. He's like a late seventies Scorsese or an early to mid-seventies Friedkin... just at the top of a game that he seems to be inventing as he goes along. The two films of his that I've seen are JOINT SECURITY ZONE and SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE... Unfortunately, I've never seen either on the big screen because American Distributors just haven't discovered this guy yet. HOWEVER - when they do, when his films hit our screens and our dvd shelves commonly over here... you'll all see what the hubbub is about. There is nobody better for his genre right now. And from what we're hearing and seeing below... it looks like, he's topping his work again. Fucking Brilliant.
Harry,
I know you kinda dug SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE so you should get a kick out of this as well if you're not already aware of it. It's a music video / trailer hybrid thingee for Chan-wook Park's new film, OLDBOY. IIRC you've done a story about some time ago when it was first announced ...
All the shots in there are from the film and it looks just as visually stunning as SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE. No wonder the foreign rights to the film are selling for record amounts of money throughot Asia. Now all we need is for MiramAXE to pick up the US rights and release the cut-by-30-minutes US version with a pounding Hip Hop Soundtrack and Kung Fu Fightin' ...
If you use this, call me BUMBOY.
If this review doesn't make you just die with anticipation... Better than SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE? The mind boggles. Here ya go...
Harry,
It didn't take long for word on Old Boy to spread. It certainly surprised me when the film was being toted as the most anticpiated movie in the second half of the year. For one, it seemed that whenever I brought up Old Boy in a conversation, no one else had any clue whatsoever as to what I was talking about, but the closer we came to November, and the more exposure the film got, the more people began to talk.
A few hours after opening, I was already beginning to hear from a friend that the film was fantastic. Given, I had already made it a priority to see Old Boy the next day as I had been the one to bring you news on its making a while back. I knew it was going to be a good film, didn't know if it was going to be a great film, and I'm still kind of confused on that part.
Old Boy, based on the Japanese manga, is a story about a man who is locked up in a room for 15 years. He does not know the reason, nor the length of his detainment. When he finally gets out, finding himself on the roof of an apartment, his journey for revenge begins. The story is not particularly complex, yet it does have its share of twists and turns, and thankfully, the surprises do not feel forced or as gimmicks.
Minsik Choi, who plays the protagonist gives his finest work here. The transformation of the main character, Daesoo, can actually be seen, and its also believable. There's a Kitano-like air to the post-prison [ for lack of a better word ] Daesoo, he calls himself "Monster" as he is a different person. Violence comes as a second nature to him, almost like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance's Dongjin. But while Dongjin was a cold-blooded animal, Daesoo is not. The whole film of Old Boy reeks style, but at a higher temperature than director Chanwook Park's previous attempts.
Which is what should be discussed moreso than the acting. It seems that although Joint Security Area JSA [ still my favorite ] was Park's breakthrough film, it still wasn't his particular forte. Old Boy shares similarities with Sympathy, as well as themes that again make one think of Kitano Takeshi. See, Park's films, [ as Seth Gecko would put it ] really stick it in and break it off. He thrusts his characters in these horrible situations, and things just don't get better. It's the same with Daesoo. He doesn't realize that the 15 year stay was better than what was waiting for him outside. And we the audience can only watch on in horror and witness what is left for the characters.
Old Boy is not an easy film to digest. There are scenes on screen that are not overdone but will touch the nerves of many a movie goer. It's certainly not the best Korean film of the year, [ Memory of Murder ] but Park has found his groove, and you just have to give the man props for having the stones to be able to make a picture like this. Even Hollywood doesn't make films like Old Boy anymore.
Kamata Jun
Then here's a couple of links to another two great reviews...
These are links regarding Park Chan Wook's latest film Old Boy. It's supposed to be an incredibly film and the guy talking about it in the first review knows what he's talking about.
Darcy Paquet is established in the South Korean film scene and would be an excellent Korean film correspondent for this website if he were up for it. I think he lives there and the website he runs (koreanfilm.org) is great. Anyway, reviews for this film so far are great. Just thought you'd like to know incase you haven't already heard.
ben
