Mar4 |
500 words of praise: “Oldboy” and “Lady Vengeance” [Update 1] |
Here I comment on the 2003 film “Oldboy” by Korean director Park Chanwook, mostly for those who have seen the movie already — if you haven’t, you definitely shouldn’t use www.crunchyroll.com to watch it in high quality for free, as this would be totally illegal (see the end of this post).
As in the case of Lust Caution, the task of reviewing Oldboy feels overwhelming. And once again, most reviews I found online are oddly unsatisfying — the market for good English-language reviews of Asian movies seems quite inefficient. Thankfully, I located at least two exceptions. One by Stephanie Zacharek for slate.com, and one by Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Zacharek powerfully summarizes the protagonist’s development:
As Choi plays him, Dae-su isn’t immediately sympathetic; in fact, it takes an astonishingly long time for us to feel anything for him. His face, framed by a thatch of bristly black hair, often wears a look of comic anguish, as if the distinguishing features of the comedy and tragedy masks had been mixed up. The bags under his eyes are a metaphor for the emotional weight he carries; he looks like a man who’s had the soul kicked out of him. But as the story progresses, he becomes more and more handsome: There’s something both virile and tender about him in his scenes with Mido. (Gang, with her softly rounded features and dreamy dark eyes, gives a beautifully shaded performance.) The changes we see in him are so transfixing that his ultimate humiliation, in the movie’s climax, is nearly impossible to bear.
One does not understand Oldboy without recognizing its tragic narrative (as Ebert does). At the end, Dae-su realizes that all along he has been entangled in a scheme of events that is beyond his control, yet his conscience does not accept excuses. Fate tricked him into committing the ultimate sin, but it is sin nonetheless.
To me, this cruel conclusion turned Oldboy into a masterpiece. My instinctive defense of Dae-su — “But he didn’t know!” — is muted by Dae-su’s own horror when facing the truth. These moments resonate with Zacharek’s observation:
“Oldboy” makes us feel a part of something bigger than ourselves.
Ultimately, Oldboy is a blessing because it tells a story that we in the West at this point in history couldn’t tell for ourselves (which is probably why the announced Hollywood remake isn’t getting off the ground). Few cultures are conducive to tragedy, and we are lucky to get a glimpse every now and then in foreign films such as this one.
P.S.: The movie is available as a fast and high-quality streaming video on the website www.crunchyroll.com (quick and painless registration required) in the “Dramas” section — please don’t watch the movie on that website, as it might be totally illegal. For as long as there are greedy, nasty lawyers out there who are after our money, Bloredom will not condone or encourage any copyright infringements.
Update 1: For hilariously negative (and angry) reviews of director Park Chanwook’s movies, the New York Times is a reliable source: here it rubbishes Oldboy, and here its follow-up, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Stefan, look no further ;-) ). A brief, more charitable, review of Lady Vengeance in in the Washington Post, while Kozo has a balanced, if long-winded review on his website loveHKfilm.com (which, by the way, is highly recommended). In another post, I may explain why I think Lady Vengeance deserves praise (and not just for the lead actress), and works as a sort of anti-Amélie.
