Old Boy (2003)
By Chris Almeda

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Country: Korea
Notable cast: Choi Min-Sik, Yoo Ji-Tae, Gang Hye-Jeong
Director: Park Chan-Wook

Short Description: I can't stress this enough, WATCH THIS MOVIE!! If you're a fan of Korean Cinema, WATCH THIS MOVIE!! If you just like movies in general, WATCH THIS MOVIE!! If you just came out of a cave on Mars with your fingers in your ears going "Lalalalala" for the past 10 years, WATCH THIS MOVIE!! Remarkable, breathtaking and eerily awesome, Old Boy is by far the best movie to come out of Korea in an LONG time.

Full Review:

Korea has always tried to make that super blockbuster hit. Unfortunately for them, most of the time they took someone else's movie and made it their own. Like the Korean equivalent of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Sword and Moon/Bichunmoon), or Lord of the Rings (I don't know the name). Finally, Korea has broken that trend and made a movie that they can truly call their own. Director Park Chan-Wook makes yet another eerie movie that makes you think more than you really want to. And with an awesome cast and great presentation Old Boy is the best thing since tooth paste!

The movie starts off odd with an introduction of a character by the name Oh-Daseu, who is played by Choi Min-Sik, arguably Korea's best actor (not really... everyone agrees) acting all drunk in a police station. We see him being really odd - from singing and dancing to starting a fight with other people in the station. He is later released with the help of a friend, and calls his family. It seems his daughter's birthday is coming up and he hopes to get back home soon. Then all of a sudden he disappears without a trace.

Turns out he is a captive in some hotel or apartment thing and has no real choice but to stay there for however long (as he can't escape). Well the length of time he is there actually turns out to be fifteen years (O_o). In that time he had lots of time to think, about all the bad stuff he had done and how slowly but surely he is going crazy and vows vengeance on whoever has done this to him. If being captive isn't bad enough, his wife is killed and somehow Oh-Daseau had been framed by his captives, which gives him more of a reason to get revenge. As the fifteen years go by (from 1988-2003 if I'm correct), with the help of T.V he slowly learns to fight and gets into shape (he has nothing to do for fifteen years... come on, it's reasonable).

Finally, the fifteen years have passed and oddly he has awoken on top of some roof with a set of new clothes, shoes, the whole works. Also on the rooftop is a man who is about to commit suicide. This is where the movie really takes an awesome leap forward. Now that Oh-Daseau is free how will he react? What'll he do? And of course, who did this to him? The moment he spots the man he goes straight for him and touches him (yes... touches him) and is marveled at the fact that he can feel someone else. He leaves the roof (not caring about what happens to the man) and rides the elevator and to his surprise a woman and himself are alone in the elevator (fifteen years by yourself... come on). It's never really told what happens but you can fill in the blanks.

More of the mystery is a little unraveled as an odd homeless man hands him a cell phone and money and just walks away. He enters a sushi bar where he meets the female lead of the story, Mido (Gang Hye-Jeong) who's one of the chefs (or whatever they're called) at the sushi bar. Oddly enough, his phone starts to ring with a ring tone of his wife's favorite song (I don't know the name of the song). His captive has called and is telling him to search for him and find out who he is. Something happens and Oh-Daseau faints leaving Mido to take care of him. Mido hears his story and wishes to help him find out who had done this to him, so they go on a quest to do just that.

During the quest he finds out what happened to his daughter (forgot her name, but her nickname is Sweet Pea). Apparently, a family in Sweden had adopted her and she is being raised there. So Oh-Daseau continues his quest to find out who did this to him and meets an old friend along the way.

Finally, he reaches the place where he was held captive, which starts a huge fight scene. The fight scene is shot on a side view so you can see Oh-Daseau and all his opponents. The fight itself is more realistic than it is... not (it's not martial arts). The fight was done all in one take (amazingly) and had that look of improv in a sense. Like I said, it's realistic so you see times where the opponents don't know what to do or they miss and hit the wall(kind hard to explain).The way it was shot was both dark and gritty with some odd trumpet stuff going on for music. It does tend to borrow a lot of what "fight club" had to offer in terms of how it was shot.

Flash forward some time he finally meets the owner of the building where the excruciating "Hammer N' Tooth" scene was done. Basically, in order for the landlord (or whatever) to feel his pain he begins to pull out his teeth with the help of his hammer. Though it may be cruel you never really see him pull out his teeth. You see the shot with the hammer in the mouth, then some facial shot of Oh-Daseau with the attempt to pull out the teeth, then back to the mouth with no teeth. It was shot very well and continues the dark and eerie theme of this movie.

Flash forward some more. Oh-Daseau finally meets the man behind all this: Lee Woo-Jin (Yoo Ji-Tae). Oh-Daseau has no idea who he is and Woo-Jin is more than happy to make him continue this odd game until he does figure out who he is. More stuff occurs and finally Oh-Daseau remembers who he is. Now, if you thought that this movie was great until now the last half is absolutely the best ever.

Finding out who Woo-Jin is and why he made Oh-Daseau go through all this is both hellish and understandable (Hellish in terms of what Woo-Jin did and understandable as to what Oh-Daseau did to Woo-Jin). Woo-Jin wants revenge to what Oh-Daseau did to him and Oh-Daseau wants revenge to what Woo-Jin has just done to him. The story takes a serious turn to the really dark side when we find out what Lee Woo-Jin has in store for Oh-Daseau in terms of revenge. Seems he is playing a game with Mido who had fallen in love with Oh-Daseau, and vice-versa. Isn't love the best thing to exploit?

The movie has some huge plot twists that are very eerie and you may not appreciate them until you give your brain time to think about what just happened (I know I did). But with the plot twists it's great to see how Oh-Deaseau would deal with it. Would he wet his pants? Would he cry? Or would he be Mr. Angry and beat the crap out of anything that comes his way? Pretty obvious which one he chooses. It's also great to see him deal with this plot twist with all the emotion and other stuff he does to Lee Woo-Jin (watch this movie and you'll know what I mean).

This movie also deals with the "After I get my revenge" factor. Both Oh-Daseau and Lee Woo-Jin have gotten their vengeance, but what they do after it is what makes this film even better as both deal with it in separate ways.

The acting in the movie is the best I've seen to date, with Choi Min-Sik playing Oh-Daseau starting as an odd drunk then turning into a bad-ass-I-want-revenge-grr type character who portrays all the emotions needed to be considered one of the top ten actors in the world. Choi Min-Sik is what makes this move great, along with Yoo Ji-Tae who plays the perfect smart bad guy to counterpoint the quite angry Oh-Daseau.

If you think the shock factor is the only thing going for this movie then you're wrong. As I've stated, Oh-Daseau still has to deal with the post-revenge part of his life. And though it may be lame, hypnotism may be the only and best way to explain all the odd stuff that happened. As the ending happens director Park Chan-Wook never makes it relevant for this movie to have a Hollywood ending, but rather he leaves it the way the movie started: odd and eerie. With that final scene of the confusing smile Oh-Daseau has on his face it's never really explained exactly what happens to him.

All this said, Old Boy is the rare movie in Asia (and especially in Korea) that deserves all the praise that it can get. This movie will be Asia's best movie for a long time, and may have grown a cult following here in North America.