Review: The Film, Oldboy (2003)...

Do you remember those old S.A.T. analogy questions? I know I’m showing my age here, but bear with me. 

GUILT : SHAME :: 

Now do you remember them? Perhaps? Your goal for this tedious type of question was to analyze the relationship between a set of capitalized words, then select the answer choice that exhibited the very same connection. It was an arduous examination of your vocabulary skills. Now does it ring a bell? Thank the gods The College Board discontinued using them a long time ago. 

So, GUILT : SHAME ::...?

I mention this analogy because it’s important here. It’s a difference of extremes, of experiencing feelings vs. being exposed, of private vs. public knowledge, of inaction vs. action. Guilt and shame are themes in Oldboy (2003), just as they are in the Hollywood remake ten years later. They are more noticeable here–and much more impactful–in this film by Korean auteur Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden), mostly because the plot details are far simpler, yet masterfully developed. Indeed, the difference is the motivation of the two main characters, and this difference makes all the, well, difference.

In the Hollywood remake, film executives shave off almost forty minutes from Spike Lee’s (Do The Right Thing) original cut. Not only do I think that Lee’s version would have been a better film than its theatrical release, but that it would have been virtually equal to the original version in terms of audience impact if those forty minutes remained. These executives seem to think that the film’s storyline is shocking enough, but no, Park Chan-wook takes it deeper, renders it far more disturbing, with richer character development and darker turns. 

The impact this film (and the remake) has relies solely on a disturbing plot point. But, as I said in my previous review, once you know this twist, nothing else can surprise you. Which means that viewers who watched the original first would, of course, wholly dismiss the remake. Armed with this knowledge, when watching the original after seeing the remake, I was able to make clearer conclusions and ask deeper questions. 

Like GUILT : SHAME ::...

The antagonist, Yoo Ji-tae (Lee Woo-jin, Ditto), was caught doing something quite dastardly and sinful back in high school. I won’t mention it here, but let’s just say the audience was quite shocked, if not horrified, when it unspooled. Protagonist Dae-su Oh (Choi Min-sik, I Saw the Devil) not only caught the antagonist with his pants down (see what I did here?) but also proceeded to spread the rumor about it. An eventual, if yet not unexpected, tragedy followed. 

This was the reason why Dae-su was imprisoned for fifteen years in a cell that resembled a hotel room. Before this, he was a sloppy yet joyful drunk arrested for public drunkenness, whose biggest crime was not making it to his daughter’s birthday (he did buy her a present, though). The prison stay changed Dae-su considerably. In a word, he becomes a steadfast a$$&o]e. Once released, he illustrated his chilling single-mindedness by allowing a suicidal man to fall from a building without any emotional investment–he could have stopped it–or reaction. 

He soon finds and befriends Mi-do (Kan Hye-jeong, Welcome to Dongmakgol), a sushi chef who is old enough to be his daughter (heh-heh). She takes him in and helps him on his quest to find out the who and the why. First things first–find the restaurant that makes the potstickers that he ate while imprisoned. This would narrow down the location of the prison/hotel. 

Whereas guilt and shame were one-sided in the Hollywood remake, they act as a double-edged dagger here. Not only does Lee suffer the consequences of these concepts, but Dae-su does as well, in a shocking scene of literal–and figurative–self-mutilation. Hollywood film executives lack the testicular fortitude to provide a detail such as this, which is one of many reasons why this version is better. 

And remember, I saw the original after seeing the remake. My recommendation? See the original, if you don’t mind subtitles or dubbing. It will shock and disturb you, and you wouldn’t have to see a poorer expression of it a second time.