Cool News
OLDBOY beats the hell out of the New Zealand FF with his wild hammer action!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with another review of the brilliant and jaw-dropping OLDBOY from super-genius Chanwook Park. This one, coming from the New Zealand Film Festival, isn't too heavy on the spoilers, so if you haven't had the chance to see this flick yet don't worry about reading this one... but I will warn you that after you read you're going to want to see this movie... like right now. Fair warning!!!
Alright, pop quiz, as Dennis Hopper would say. You are kidnapped one night and locked up in a room. For 15 years you’re left there, completely shut off from the outside world. Then…you get out, to find your wife dead, your daughter gone and you are now an old man. What do you do? What do you do?
Well, it’s obvious. You get as pissed off as a eunuch in the Playboy Mansion and open a can of whup-ass on the offenders. No, not a can. A big bucket. No, a massive fuck-off truck. Maybe a shipment? I’m really not up on how whup-ass is packaged these days. But we’re talking a whole heap of profanity and excessive violence, in any case.
First tiny problem: you don’t actually know who did this to you, let alone where they are or even why they did it.
This is the situation facing Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-shik), the Old Boy. And to tell you any more about the plot would be to ruin it. This is a wild ride – no foreshadowing, no winking at the camera, just a labyrinthine plot unfolding bit by bit, with twist after twist. Not to mention all sorts of other strangeness.
DIY dentistry with a claw hammer! Drunkenness! A man eating a live octopus! Poodle suicide! Incest! Hypnosis! Suppositories! More incest! Self-tattooing! Bad hair! Really, REALLY bad hair!
It’s all there, and presented with the most bravura stylings that would make Takashi Miike stand up and applaud. One scene where Oh Dae-su, armed only with a hammer, takes on a seemingly endless hallway of assailants while the camera dollies alongside is an absolute stunning piece of filmmaking, efficiently communicating both the character’s relentless determination and the odds stacked against him in his quest for vengeance.
Director Park Chan-Wook, already acclaimed for Sympathy For Mr.Vengeance cranks things up another notch with Old Boy, a deserved winner of the grand jury prize at Cannes this year. His film is constantly stylish, even if his framing feels at times a little TOO self-conscious. Western audiences may be a little lost by the total lack of clues along the way and may even feel cheated by revelations arriving as if the scriptwriter just pulled them out of his arse at the eleventh hour.
But this would be a mistake; the audience is meant to feel as lost and confused as Oh Dae-su, as desperate to find out the truth as he is. Except maybe not to the extent of mass-murder and torture. You know, maybe.
Park Chan-Wook finds an able leading man in Choi Min-shik, who is dazzling as Oh Dae-su wavers from pathetic to defiant to loving and everything in between. It is a hell of a role, and Choi Min-shik owns every minute of it.
Old Boy is a movie that demands multiple viewings, a complex, relentless rollercoaster of a flick. Without any possibility of an argument, one of the films of the year.
-
+ Expand All
-
Or picture Tarantino cumming on every page of the screenplay to accomodate sections of Oldboy into his next film.
Hurry up and play catch up.
-
Aug 03, 2004 6:48:16 AM CDT
Bloody hell! I thought the title meant he was beating up the Fan
by grabthars_hammer
-
This film is getting a bit too much Hype, after reading about Oldboy for ages on this site & being a huge fan of Sympathy for Mr Vengeance I finally gave up waiting & ordered it from Asia on DVD (along with HERO: Also hyped up too much). It arrived on Friday and me and my buddy were hyped up to the max expecting more of the same. I liked Oldboy alot, but I loved SFMV more. Reasons: Oldboy although beautifully shot & full of inventive moments (many including the claw hammer) there was way too much melodrama. I know this is to be expected from Asian Cinema but there wasn't too much in SFMV, on reflection thats because the main character was mute, which is why it worked so well, the characters feelings were suggested rather than spelled out to the audience. In Oldboy it just kind of makes the movie drag a bit, Still a great movie but knock it down a notch or two on the old hype meter. The twist is okay but It didn't really shock me, which with a film like this is kind of a let down. 8/10. On a side note I read on Empireonline today that there is indeed an American Remake on the way.
-
Aug 03, 2004 7:22:02 AM CDT
it's a shame that in that "hammer sequence" some of the kicks re
by mr_ant
and some of the dunDunDUN it was you all along! stuff at the end was a bit clumsy. Almost brilliant...
-
Aug 03, 2004 7:24:53 AM CDT
but oh man - that scene where one of the characters flips throug
by mr_ant
-
This isn't some weird asian film that has octupus eating and hammer dentistry.
Its as straight forward as any Hollywood movie. It has some a lot of great goosebum moments.
Plus the killer twist at the end.
First of all the way it is revealed is almost as good as the actual twist.
This blows any of M Night Shaymalan's twists.
What a soundtrack! The music when he's fighting like 50 guys, when he catches that guy trying to commit suicide with his dog and finally when the shocking twist if revealed.
Finally I hear there's gonna be an American remake. So I'm wondering what there gonna use instead of dumplings.
The Korean was fed only dumplings when he was imprisoned so what's the American guy gonna eat, pizza? Burgers? -
Careful not to hype up this movie *too* much. As with any movie, extremely high expectations mean there's a good chance you'll be let down. I didn't know what to expect and I got what I consider one of the more fresh and original movies I've seen in years. I loved it. But the thought of a Hollywood studio remaking this movie and keeping the most powerful elements is a joke. While an American indie remake might have the balls to do it right, a studio like Universal is going to have to water it down and take the best aspects out. If you've seen the movie you know what I'm talking about.
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 273 total posts 271 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 92 total posts 92 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 160 total posts 69 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 151 total posts 63 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 67 total posts 59 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 60 total posts 57 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 484 total posts 49 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 69 total posts 42 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 120 total posts 32 posts
- SPACE 2099!! -- 183 total posts 24 posts