The implications begin with the fact that Oh Dae-su is punished for a trivial act that he didn't even intend to cause harm. In this light, the man on the top floor, with his (electronic) omniscience and omnipotence, is a deity who oversees a universe in which punishment comes many sizes too large for the crime. Oldboy thus makes good on the promise inherent in the schematic narrative means of quest romance: Oh Dae-su's imprisonment and rebirth into pain, and his traumatic search for an explanation, present an emblematic view of life as a spiritual trial. (This potential is almost always ignored by action moviemakers.)
But when God is a pathological sadist, as the man in the penthouse is here, there can't be happy answers to spiritual questions. You also have to keep in mind that at the time of his kidnaping, years after high school, Oh Dae-su is an ill-behaved mid-level businessman out getting blitzed on his daughter's birthday. (He never gets to give her the strap-on angel's wings he'd bought her.) Oh Dae-su is thus fallen man (i.e., out of sync with the angels) who in some way deserves his torment. (The fact that the events in the movie derive from the two main characters' interaction at a Catholic high school justifies discussing the movie in Christian terms, though it isn't necessary. The movie also seeks to reflect recent Korean history, which I won't comment on here.) In Oldboy redemption for suffering takes the form of an attempt to bring the suffering back to the author of it, which naturally doesn't work. In Christian terms, in fact, not turning the other cheek indicates further indulgence in sin--how much more so when you're out for revenge against God for the basic conditions of existence. Of course, the evil deity of Oldboy can't be punished; he can kill himself, however, which makes him that much more remote.
The fact that I can come up with a coherent reading of Oldboy as a spiritual narrative doesn't make the director Chanwook Park a great romancer. His style does have a fascinating combination of impersonality and obsession; it's as if he had filmed this enflamed material expressionistically using a surveillance camera. At the same time, however, the movie approaches us as if we were both a primitive religious congregation and a benumbed action-picture audience, in either case a group in need of shocks. Park delivers his allegory --an icy rather than fiery vision of hell--with intensity, but his vision lacks variety, of incident and of tone, a drawback in heroic romance, which ordinarily uses fantasy and pageantry to beguile us into its visionary realm.
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Article comments
1 - TylerNewton
"Sin City thus looks more like a comic book than any other movie adapted from one."
THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT. The movie is a panel for panel rendition of 3 of the Sin City graphic NOVELS. Read the novels before you trash the film, since the film is nothing more than the comic book LITERALLY put onto the big screen. Thus any gripe you have with the film, you have with the graphic NOVEL.
As for Oldboy, I think you are being much too harsh on it. You must be someone who enjoys watching "movies" like Are We There Yet? and Hitch.
You'll first notice Director Chan-wook Park's take on Kafka's material.
Like Kafka did with The Metamorphosis, Park skips interim fluff between
important sequences and nearly always just cuts to the chase. Rarely
are we faced with a scene that doesn't contain an essential
revelation or storyline twist. Each scene is essential in constructing
Park's maze-like screenplay and does so with a pace that's
unrelenting in its speed. Also, Park loves to confuse reality with
dream in Oldboy. Again relating the film to Kafka's novella, Park
never really discerns between fact and fiction. Many times we're
presented with a scene that seems strictly dream-like (a woman on a
train inhabited only by a giant ant), only to have the film carry on in
the very reality we previously realized only as imagination. And he
never lets us settle with characters we believe to be human. For
instance, because Dae-Su's only linguistic interaction for the last
fifteen years was with his television, most of his words in the real
world come straight from the "truths" he heard from the TV. And
many of the characters, despite making human mistakes, take vengeance
in the most inhuman of ways. Dae-Su's weapon of choice is a hammer
for pete's sake!
But much of Oldboy's power comes from its incredible honesty. Park
uses his Kafka-esque plotting to keep us on the edge of our seats, even
in the most inhumane of moments. His violence is brutal, his sex is
real, and most of all, his taste for revenge is simply palpable. He
grips our psyche to mold us to his film's will, drawing us deeper
into its convoluted reality and spitting us out when he's all
through. It's a twisted, cathartic experience that I absorbed for
days afterward. It works on all angles of our cerebral organ, evoking
emotions and images that I will not soon forget.
2 - TylerNewton
The last few paragraphs above are portions of my review of Oldboy on my blog.
3 - Quack Corleone
Excellent reviews.
Not only is it nice to find an article in the video section about something other than American Idol(!), but it's a pleasure to read one that looks into a film. [Although I don't agree with your assessment of 'Oldboy'] the obeservation about Oh Dae-su and the angel gift for his daughter was something I hadn't noticed, but is quite interesting.
It's also fun to look at 'Oldboy' as a tragedy [if you see it more than once]. A tragedy like 'Oedipus the King' maybe...
4 - Alan Dale
Thanks for writing:
1. As for the look of Sin City, I know it's "the whole point"; that's why I mentioned it in the first paragraph. My comments there are purely descriptive. If you want to find out why the movie disappointed me, look for the word "repetitious."
2. If Sin City is a panel-for-panel rendition of the comic books--that is, if the books and the movie are functional equivalents--why would I need to read the books in order to critique the movie? The opposite inference--"If you've seen one you've seen the other"--is more logical.
3. "You must be someone who enjoys watching 'movies' like Are We There Yet? and Hitch": One of the curses of commentary on the web, as of discourse in general nowadays, is the prevalence of ad hominem attacks like this one. In the first place your comment is plainly inaccurate as applied to me, but even if it were accurate, I could like those movies and still put forth valid criticism of Oldboy. My ideas about Oldboy stand or fall on their merits, not by association.
4. I almost mentioned Kafka in my review, though I think that The Trial would be the closest "match" for Oldboy. The connection: Kafka's stories are darkened by the inscrutable ill-will of whatever force we live in the grips of; he pushes his fantastic plots in the direction of horrific alienation and deadpan comedy by the same strokes. What you say about Kafka--"Like Kafka did with The Metamorphosis, Park skips interim fluff between important sequences and nearly always just cuts to the chase"--is hardly what distinguishes Kafka among writers, even if it is true. Oldboy reminded me of Kafka b/c Oh Dae-su is punished without being told why. What you write--"Park uses his Kafka-esque plotting to keep us on the edge of our seats"--doesn't get at what Park adds to the Kafkaesque alienation, that is, the action-picture suspense and descents into shocking violence. To my mind that's how he keeps us on the edge of our seats, b/c we know there must be worse ahead. And Park isn't anywhere near as funny as Kafka.
5. Actually, I think my comments about Oldboy are pretty respectful ("fascinating combination of impersonality and obsession"), especially considering I almost walked out three times. I can't get a lot of the actions and imagery out of my head, either. But a lot of stuff gets caught up there; I just don't think that alone qualifies Park's movie, or any movie, for the Pantheon.
5 - Alan Dale
To Quack Corleone:
Thanks for writing. I think you could make a convincing case for Oldboy as tragedy, speaking technically. The problem for me is that Oldboy lacks some dimension that would give meaning to tragedy, just as it lacks the lift of the greatest quest romances. Park seems way more invested in the instant gratification of action movie conventions than in any grander purpose.