Oldboy is a well-known Korean movie that was released on 2003. I watched this movie just recently knowing that it would have a shocking plot twist. Since it was really popular, many movies, dramas, or variety shows parodied it or even mentioned some things about it that I got to know about the story before even watching it. When I was looking for Korean thriller movies last January, I also came across this movie but didn't watch it because I thought that it was old. Nevertheless, the story interested me, and I just got a copy recently and I watched it.
The story is about Oh Dae Su (played by Choi Min Sik), your typical salaryman who got kidnapped and put into isolation, without him knowing the reason why. One would suspect that he was kidnapped by a strange organization who likes to torture people, and I have to admit, that was also one of my guesses at first.
He lived in that prison with television, fake window, single bed, and dumplings for food. He didn't know who did that to him, or what he did to deserve it. He also didn't know for how long he would be there and that made him so frustrated. With no one to talk to, isolated from the outside world, and with no direct sunlight, he suffered and almost lost his mind.
He was not alone in the prison, and he was aware of that. The prison hall was also monitored. Oh Dae Su thought of many ways of escaping, and he finally had the chance to make a hole in his bedroom wall, in an attempt to create a hole that he could crawl out of. The problem was he didn't know which floor he was on, but still, he kept on digging.
After all of his efforts for years of digging on the wall, he was also released. But before that, he was hypnotized by some woman. Hypnotizing was involved, and that made the movie more interesting for me, since I wouldn't know if anything after the hypnotization was true.
After 15 years, Oh Dae Su finally got out of the prison, and was also strangely given a mobile phone and money by a stranger. This means that the person who imprisoned him was still monitoring his moves outside of the prison.
Oh Dae Su then meets a woman, Mi Do (played by Kang Hye Jung), at a sushi restaurant. Oh Dae Su apparently knew her because she was a popular young chef (perhaps from watching the TV). Mi Do also thought that Dae Su was familiar, and so these two grew interested in each other.
Mi Do took care of Oh Dae Su, and she even offered her body to him (when she's already up for it). In the mean time, Mi Do helped Oh Dae Su uncover the secrets of his imprisonment.
Oh Dae Su ate dumplings all of his 15 years in that prison, and so he spent time looking for the Chinese restaurant which delivered the dumplings that he always ate. Another thing, Dae Su found out that his wife had died when he was in the prison, and he was even framed for his wife's death. Upon getting out of the prison, he found out that his then young daughter was adopted abroad.
After finding the place that he was confined in, and finding out who did that to him, he of course confronted that person (played by Yoo Ji Tae). He does not remember what he did to that person for him to deserve that, and that's why he embarked on a journey to find out why. That person was also still tormenting him, appearing every now and then, because he knew that Dae Su would want to know the truth about his imprisonment.
Just like how good movies are, this story is f*cked up. I had a really subtle guess about what the ultimate plot twist was, and I guessed right. Maybe that's why I didn't go all amazed by it. However, I think that it's well written, and I've read that the twist in the movie didn't exist in the original manga, so still, hands down to the screen writer. Another comment that I would like to make is that even though this was released 10 years ago, the cinematography is really good and engaging. Some movies have great plots but their cinematographies are crappy but this movie has both of it going on. What I'm trying to say is that Oldboy is probably a timeless film, since as I see it, it's a really artistic film in terms of video quality and story quality. It will definitely get you thinking from beginning until the end (much like Inception).
That's it for Oldboy. As you can notice, I didn't reveal any of the vital parts of the movie so that those who reads this and haven't watched the film yet would be excited about watching it. If you've already watched it, any comments that you would like to share?
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