The Famous Movie Old Boy was pretty effective in Visual ways to me. The walls of the every single room have the pattern with some geometric shapes. Also, the package that delivered to Daesou or to his daughter have the pattern with purple colors. In visual way, in the movie, these patterns and colors were pop up on the screen or made the character be focused by people. I think Director Chan-wook Park used extreme close shots and longshots with panorama views. The scene, when Daesoo came back to jail (?) or the boom that he kept for 15 years, he fights with many guys in the passage. In this scene, the long shot without cutting and panorama view was effectiveness. Few extreme close shots pointed out the important facts of the movie such as camera, gun man doo, angel wing, and recording machine. The movie was connected scene to scene very well. From room to Daesou’s face to green filed and came back to him. The story started again and connected the previous happenings. Also, the music or melody helped the character react of it. The music not used only as background music, It used as a connection between happenings and fortuned the story that will occur. The story of the Old Boy showed how the Human can be change depends on their situation very well. The emotion and behavior without knowing the truth can be beautiful but sometimes truth can hurts each other. In this movie, the love between brother and sister, father and daughter, showed very well. That’s why Daesou’s reaction of Mido changed during the time passes. Also the contrast between recording the life and live alone without recording was fun element of this movie. Eventually, Daesou started record himself with writing; however, recording the past by him and at the same time recording every behavior by some others was pretty ridiculous. The contrast between start of movie and end of movie with colors was good too. The movie started with deem and dark scenes but finished with snow covers the earth so all white scenes. I think the movie used the effective camera skills and color contrast between the character and background.
I have watched this movie twice now, and despite the twisted plot, I was amazed both times how beautifully this movie is made. The quirky qualities in various scenes successfully portray the mentality of the characters in a very surreal manner. For example, the strong sense of loneliness and despair rushes out of Daesu's physical body in forms of ants crawling after he sees on the news broadcast of his wife's murder. The image of ants reappear to portray Mido's feelings as well, hinting that she and Daesu already share a connection in their twisted relationship. The swapping of the past and the present is very noticeable in the film, and also very well made. Daesu visits his old high school to trace his steps of his younger self. The film is overplayed with yellowish filter, giving that old, worn out feel to Daesu's forgotten memory.
Oh Daesu develops to be a very interesting character while trapped in the room for 15 years. Daesu is entrapped in this room where there is no freedom (not even to kill himself), communication, and self-control. Daesu loses his humanity as he is cut off from the rest of the world physically, only relying on the television as his only source of information and intelligence. Hence, he is conditioned to talk and act like a machine himself when he was released. The environment of Daesu pushes him to the extreme, in which his lack of human touch and freedom turns him into this monster, thriving for answers and revenge. In a sense, the room is like a purgatory where he reevaluates his sinful life before his hellish journey to find the truth.
Even though I have watched this film before, I was dreading watching it again because of its psychologically disturbing nature. However, having watched it so long ago, today’s viewing was a new experience for me. I realized how unique and interesting this film was in terms of cinematography and directorial style. I was impressed with how the director transitioned from each scene through random extreme close-ups or suddenly strange and different camera angles. I think these techniques really added to the mysterious and suspenseful atmosphere of the film as well as emphasize its extreme and twisted nature, both in theme and plot. Moreover, they highlighted the troubled mental states of many of the characters, especially when CGI effects were used, such as Mido and the huge ant in the subway representing loneliness.
One scene I must note is the final scene of the film. The camera closes in on Daesu’s face after Mido confesses her love for him. As confusing as it was the first time I watched it, it is still just as confusing now, if not more. Although I want to believe that the hypnosis was successful and Daesu was able to fully forget the fact that Mido was his daughter, the conflicting emotions that was shown on his face makes it hard to tell if he is the old Daesu or his other half, the monster. After all the horror and tragedy, the director leaves the audience with ambiguity. The image of Daesu’s anguished face is the most scarring scene of the film because it leaves the viewer with no conclusion, no resolution, and ultimately, no hope. In this way, it is also the most effective scene of the entire film because it represents and portrays the deep complexity of the character as well as the film itself.
Director Park Chan-wook portrayed the protagonist, Oh-Dae-su as a monster or beast throughout this film. The scene where he has Dae-su making a tunnel in his room was animal like and his appearance was beyond what a normal man should look like. Another scene was where Dae-su was eating the live octopus, rather than having it cut, he chews it off barbarically. Even in the long take fighting scene, Dae-su fights even after he has a knife stabbed onto his back, giving him an inhumane aura. He also smiled as more men appeared in the elevator scene which adds on to the effect that he is a monster. Daes-su sees himself as a monster as well, as we can see in his fake email account of monster@nate.com. When the warden was about to break Dae-su’s teeth in revenge, Dae-su hisses and laughs which scared the warden and his henchmen.
The director uses a yellow filter for the flashback scene, where Dae-su rediscovers the incest relationship between Woo-Jin and Soo-ah. The scene alternates between the current age Dae-su and young Dae-su. I thought that how the director did this was impressive. He also shot several scenes without Dae-su running up the stairs to create an affect that the audience themselves are discovering the reason to why Woo-Jin locked Dae-su up for 15 years. Another flash back scene was where Woo-jin remembers his sister’s suicide, the scene switches between his younger self, and current age. This scene help reveal more of who Woo-jin is by showing how he could not live without his sister and only lived on for the sake of avenging her death.
I think 'Old Boy' is the most famous korean movie in the world. 'Old Boy' got a grand prix in the Cannes Film Festival. So, this film has been showed to the people of the world. Some people liked it, some people hated it. This movie is very controversial movie due to contents of the movie. The theme of 'Old Boy' is a revenge. 'Oh Dae Su' is locked in a private jail for 15 years without knowing why he had been locked up. He prepared for the revenge in a jail and be come out of the jail by someone. He tried to get who locked him up and wanted to do the revenge. However, when he reached to the 'Lee Woo Jin' who locked him up, 'Oh Dae Su' got to know he slept with his daughter 'Mido'. 'Woo Jin' locked 'Dae su' up for many years and made him love 'Mido'. Everything he did was for a revenge. 'Woo Jin''s revenge caused 'Dae Su''s revenge. And finally, 'Dae Su' tried to revenge to 'Woo Jin', but he could not. It was because 'Woo Jin''s revenge was very severe and more harsh than 'Dae Su''s expectation. When 'Dae Su' got to know 'Mido' is his daughter, 'Dae Su''s revenge became nothing. Only thing he could consider at that time was the fact he loves his daughter. A word 'Dae Su' just spit out made a tragic. And, 'Dae Su' even could not revenge to 'Woo Jin' although he lost his 15 years, his wife, and his daughter. He just when down on his knees in front of 'Woo Jin'. The reason he could not revenge is because it was really hard to accept the fact he loves his daughter and he wanted to protect 'Mido". Why was 'Woo Jin''s revenge so severe? We never know because it is not our business just like 'Woo Jin' said.
Park’s creativity in the film Oldboy is demonstrated by the originality of the concept which he modifies with more adventurous scenes. The theme of this film is revenge and the uniqueness of the film emanate from the fact that the film is stylish, violent, and full of energy. The uniqueness of features and elements in Park’s film production is demonstrated by the numerous notorious scenes based on Korean cultures that have attracted great public attention. For example, some of the unique scenes in the movie include the eating of a live octopus, pulling out of teeth using a hammer and the depiction of an extended corridor where the main character fights a small army of gang. Personally, I kept curious of the ending means, does Dae-Su finally forget about whom Mido is? He memorizes her as a lover? Or lost daughter? Also, he finally falls in love with Mido even he memorizes every single things of Mido as Woo Jin asked him whether they can fall in love with each other even they realize who exactly one another is? Due to the fact that Woo Jin aids and abets Sooah’s suicide, the vengeance is created by not only the hatred of the 3rd person, but also by a guilty conscience which lost the way of explosion of that. In the movie, it seems like Woo Jin successes the vengeance toward to Dae-Su even though he did not notice Mido about the fact of that Dae-su is her missing dad. Furthermore, the purple color and specific geometric patterns of the handkerchief and the presents wrapping papers which WooJin gives to Dae-Su and Mido significance how WooJin’s revenge created in precisely order. Because the purple color considers being the psychopath in psychological theory, the color of that tells that Woo Jin’s purpose of the revenge goes toward to a retarded. This movie gives the question mark of what vengeance real meaning is and how it drives the human react when he or she faces the climax of the revenge.
Oldboy is a 2003 thriller film directed by Park, Chan-wook. It follows Oh Daesu, a man imprisoned for 15 years, and his quest for vengeance against the man who imprisoned him. The film is very enthralling to watch and Park takes Oldboy in a direction that really seems like its own world. I am usually drawn to action scenes in a movie, especially choreographed fighting, and Oldboy has one that caught my attention. I found it really impressive that the hallway fight was filmed in a long take with what looked like little to no editing. Not only that, the position of the camera is setup to see a sideways long shot view of the hallway as it pans left to right following Daesu through the combat. The lighting is a low or dark green tint that fits well with the dirty and unrestrained attacks as Daesu and the henchmen fight with hammers and wooden planks. The whole long shot side view aesthetic reminds me of 2D side-scrolling beat’em-up video games too.
The ending sequence of the film is a bit of a mind boggler though. The hypnotist proceeds with removing from Daesu the knowledge of his relationship to Mido. We are then shown Daesu and his reflection as one is supposed walk away with the knowledge. However, it is implied which one is which, but it is still ambiguous which figure held the knowledge. I think that the physical being that walks away is the real Daesu. The hypnotist calls the physical being a monster, but Daesu considers himself a monster especially through his violent and barbaric nature in the film. It is this monster, the real Daesu with the truth who leaves. The reflection left behind is an empty shell who will continue to live the lie. That’s why it is represented in the window reflection. With this in mind, the final question of whether the hypnosis truly work is less relevant because I think that the real Daesu escaped and it does not matter if the shell left behind knows the truth or not.
The movie, Old Boy follows the story of a man who was locked in a motel for 15 years without knowing why and goes through a “ vengance game”. The whole mystery came from the what the main character Daesu said when he was young, the director makes a connection between the “mouth” with “truth” in this movie.
When Daesu tried to find a chinese restuarant that serve him potstickers for 15 years, he went on and kept eating pockstickers until he finds the restaurant. In this case,he remembered the taste of potsticker in his mouth and it helped him to find the clue to the next step. Also when Daesu took off the motel owener ’s teeth, the tortue became an act of seek the truth. Both tastebud on his tongue and teeth are part of mouth and it lead help him to find truth. Daesu’s sin was making Youjins sister to sucide by telling the truth about relationship between yoojin and his sister. So Yoojin revenges back to him that making Daesu to have sex with his own daughter. When daesu tried to hide truth that he is Mido’s father, Daesu promisses Youjin that he’ll do anything. To prove his promise he lick Youjin’s shoes and cuts off his tongue himself. In these cases, he used his mouth as to hiding the truth.
Park Chan-Wook's Oldboy was very different than other films viewed in this class. The use of geometric patterns and designs becomes essential to the look of this film. Whether it be on the wallpaper of the rooms or on the wrapping of the gift boxes, they all add to the feeling of imprisonment and captivity. This element is introduced in other ways as well, which are not always so obvious. For example, in the scene where Dae-su is having flashbacks at his high school and is chasing Woo-jin, they run up and down the stairs and are shot from various angles, which gives a very maze-like impression. This may be some sort of allusion to artist M. C. Escher's work “Relativity”, which creates another space that appears to have no end. This, as well as other visual techniques, give a distorted sense of reality throughout the film. Surveillance becomes important to this movie as well, both in the narrative and in the actual camera work, where takes might be shot from above through a vent, as one instance. Other successful conventions are more apparent, such as the calendar transitions and drawn eye lines from Dae-su, much like a comic book. Images are spliced together in a way that moves the viewer between ideas in a cool way, such as the subway train driving into the shot to shift to the next scene. The film's visual effects, overall, are dark, yet intelligent and self-aware, giving it a unique feel that I enjoyed.
Ideas about revenge tend to be viewed differently through the filter of Korean film and in many Asian films, in general. This stems from traditional cultural values present in the history of East Asian countries, where it was often more accepted and honorable. This is interesting, coming from a western perspective, as films like Oldboy create multidimensional characters, like Dae-su, that do not read as entirely “good” or “bad”, making for a much more complex experience, raising questions about whether or not any of it was genuinely justified. Dae-su's voice narrates throughout, putting us inside his head, though it is still be hard to know exactly what he is thinking. At times, it is even difficult to tell whether he is laughing or crying with his hysterical smile. Truth, contrary to common representation, seems to be a negative in this film, though Dae-su is seeking to find it the entire time. It is symbolized here by the mouth, punishing those who withhold or spread truths by pulling teeth, cutting off tongues, etc. These unusual views on commonly used ideas, as well as the grotesque and violent scenes, can make this film somewhat tough to swallow (...haha), but makes for one that stands out in my mind as one of the most intriguing I have seen in a while.
Chanwook Park is one of the most famous and respected movie directors in Korea. His film Old Boys was highly acclaimed for both its cinematic quality and its popularity, so I was very excited to watch this film. After watching this film, many thoughts went through my mind. I was very impressed by actor's acting skills, use of metaphors, and Park's camera techniques. I want to focus on talking about Park's use of cinematography first including long takes and handheld techniques.
I would say that the best scene of the movie was Daesoo Oh's claw hammer reaction scene where it takes almost three minutes of long shots. In this scene, Daesoo revisits the place where he is imprisoned for 15 years and fights with gangsters who locked him. In a narrow corridor, Daesoo face with so many opponents blocking him, but he is never been forced into a corner and resist the pressure. When the audience are watching this scene, they feel as if they are looking at the inside of aquarium through the view of glass window, and this amazing scene is still considered as one of the best scene in Korean film history.
Handheld technique used in this film is also very impressive. He uses this skill very successfully; in the scene of which Daesoo follows Woojin staring upstaris in his series of flashbacks, Daesoo coming out of the street after fighting in the narrow corridor, and the ending scene of Daesoo and Mido in snow field.
Moreover, there are many metaphors used in this film such as camera, daily diary, phones, live squid, and etc. I was especially impressed by the use of color "purple". Purple itself has meaning of death and grief, and it also has meaning of atonement and salvation which relates closely to the theme of the film. When Daesoo was kidnapped, he had purple umbrella. Woojin's handkerchief was also purple-colored and he used this handkerchief to wipe off his blood. More importantly, the box which contained the album that had secret relationship about Mido and Daesoo was decorated with purple wrapping paper. The purple album, which Woojin prepared for more than 15 years, contains the meaning of atonement that symbolizes Woojin's revenge on Daesoo. Looking at all these metaphors, Chanwook Park used this "purple" color effectively to convey the character's sense of atonement.
Chanwook Park's Old Boy well disentangled the human emotions through the use of camera techniques and other factors. It was a great movie which I really enjoyed watching, and I want to end with this post by one particular line Daesoo said: "Even though I'm no more than a monster- Don't I, too, have the right to live?"
Old Boy was the best and the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. How the movie portrayed its moral was effective in a way such that by revealing the truth at the very end in the most unexpected way: Your gossip or even something that you said without thinking, could have actually caused a serious damage in someone's life, and could eventually affect your life as well. While this was the moral on the surface, considering the era (2003) when the movie was made, I think the director of this movie, Park Chan Wook, wanted to criticize how people with power affecting the lives of those who did not have that much of a power. High school student,Daesu Oh, who had the power to make other people believe him, was able to influence Woojin Lee and Suah's lives, leading to Suah's death. However Daesu "forgot" about that incident, because "it was not of his business". That sentence made me realize that the hidden moral of this movie was to criticize the reality where those with power saying "stuffs they don't care" actually is a matter to someone. From the perspective of its effectiveness of portraying the moral of the film, it was great. However, the part that shocked me and made me think that I would not want to see this movie again was the director's imagination of "romantic relationship between father and daughter". I am not trying to criticize any culture, but from the socially moral perspective from my culture (which is Korean), this is something that I have never thought of and would not want to think of. Of course, due to this relationship, the moral was extremely effectively transferred to the audience, but the fact that the father would have to live in a dilemma, which that he can't abandon Mido (Daesu's daughter) because she is his daughter, but can't continue this relationship in the normal romantic way because for the same reason was unimaginable for me and shocking how the director was even able to think of this plot from the beginning. Just as a part of my thought, I thought that maybe, the start of the cliche of some conflicts in Korean dramas (lover being a long-last sister) could have started from Old Boy.
The movie Oldboy, a movie widely known as one of the most successful Korean films, was rather overwhelming for me to watch as the film is highly praised and has received many favorable reviews. While watching the movie, I could not help myself from watching the film from a biased perspective that the movie is well-made. Although I was captivated by superb acting abilities of the characters and remarkable film techniques, e.g. the long take of the fighting scene in the hallway, I felt uneasy watching the film. Incestuous love and seemingly excessive forms of revenge made me feel disgusted at times. Gory scenes were unpleasant and seemed unnecessary. However, I believe that the movie depicted insatiable desires of humans through the revenge of Yi Woojin. I felt that the movie was somewhat realistic illustration of inner human desires. It was an endless human desires expressed in a movie by extraordinary revenge plot.
In human societies, there are taboos. The director seems to get at those taboos namely evil revenge and incestuous relationship. Oh Daesu spends fifteen years in confinement living only off fried dumplings and faces miserable reality given to him by Woojin. Woojin’s revenge seems a bit too excessive. It is hard to believe any sound person would carry out such a scheme. However, this gets at the inner desire of the common people--many of us have a fantasy, or a yearning for, getting even. Woojin and Daesu both wanted to get even, simply they wanted an eye for an eye. Moreover, the movie adds on an inconvenient topic of incest. This also gets at human fantasy. Incestuous relationship is restricted and societal act of taboo. It is also often used to show humans’ insatiable desires. In conclusion, Woojin is a sinner and a criminal. He is a decadent who has committed merciless revenge and incestuous love. He is a victim to his own desires. At the same time, he is the expressive form of the inner desires of humans restricted and limited by orders and laws. It is an overstatement to assume that humans long for revenge or incest, but the movie aims to bring out the suppressed fantasies within the audience. Thus, the movie was meaningful to me in the sense that it attempted at showing infinite human desires.
Speaking of darkness, one of the more interesting aspects of the film pertains to its depiction of violence. Although Oldboy is widely considered to be an ultra-violent film, in actuality, it's fairly tame gore-wise. It's the way in which the sequences are set up and shot—and the inherent tension packed into them—that creates the impression of violent content when, for the most part, no such gratuitousness actually exists in the film. Consider it the Texas Chainsaw Massacre effect; people come out of the theatre thinking the film is gorier than it actually is. The talent to pull off such sensory sleight of hand is, in some respects, one mark of an effective artist. And as the film unfolds, its underlying message about violence becomes clear. As one character states, "Seeking revenge has become a part of me." The film explores the question, "What else is there to live for once vengeance has been satisfied?" In the case of Oh Dae-su and Lee Woo-Jin, the answers differ sharply. That isn't to say that there isn't out-and-out violence in the film at all. The gritty corridor fight scene in which Oh Dae-su takes on all comers in a one-take brawl is a marvel to watch. But nobody's doing any exaggerated wire fu. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any staged choreography at all. The performances in the film are spot-on, particularly those from the two leads. Choi Min-Sik transforms himself before our eyes as Oh Daesu, beginning the film as a drunken fool then metamorphosing himself into the tough-as-nails, vengeance-seeking ass kicker of the second half of the film. As Lee Woo-Jin, actor Yoo Ji-Tae serves as the perfect foil to the protagonist. Although elegant and refined, Yoo imbues the character with the palpable sense of menace necessary in portraying the all-seeing warden in Dae-su's new urban prison.
The movie Old Boy is mainly about a guy who had been kidnapped and trapped in small room for 15 years waiting for revenge. The movie describes stimulating material such as incest which is the starting point of whole revenge. The motives used are very creative and sensational but some are too cruel to see. Although some story might have gone too unrealistic, shocking visual, whole story, and mostly actor's wonderful acting helped audience to concentrate on the movie. The movie contains lots of symbolic scenes. Representatively one of the most famous scenes, the ant scene describes the loneliness of the character and the scene Oh Dae-su cuts his tongue describes his moral guiltiness. Color of the movie helps audience to understand the mood and emotion of character. For example, red color describes family by birth and sexual desire, and purple describes gloom, secrets, and surveillance. The movie provided lots of spectacles and inspiration to me. Although it was too cruel and sexual, images of the movie linger in my mind and left me lots of things to rethink about.
Old Boy, a movie based on a Japanese manga オールドボーイ by Garon Tsuchiya, seems to tell the audience a story that we all have a monster in us by using Oh Dae-Su as a core example. The movie portrays bodily disfiguration through using his mouth and an entire body, which became quite prevalent as Dae-Su’s words that came out from his “mouth” destroy his entire life. As he stitches and counts the duration period of his stay in the private prison, he uses his hand as a witness to suffering. His body becomes a site of hallucination and loneliness as he imagines ants crawling all over him. He also uses his tongue/taste buds in search of Woo-jin and his whereabouts by consuming fried dumplings that he had been eating for the past 15 years, which also shows that he is not completely out of the prison yet. One of his torture methods is plucking out teeth with a clawhammer, and he eventually has to cut off his own tongue, showing the importance of one’s mouth. Lastly, his face becomes a mask; we cannot really tell whether he is smiling or crying as he puts on a grotesque smile just like the painting on his wall of the prison cell. He puts this “mask” on when (1) he faces with the gangsters in front of the elevator, (2) decides to kill Woo-jin first after hearing about his daughter, (3) and meets Mido again at the end of the scene.
The oddness and abstractness in the movie are also quite relevant to Dae-Su’s life. We first see the abstract shapes on the umbrella when he suddenly disappears after making a phone call to his daughter. The printings on the wallpaper of his private prison cell also have abstract and continuous shapes, making Dae-Su feel more entrapped within the room. The printings on the wall continue to be like this even after he comes out to a larger prison (the outside world). Also, the names of the restaurant are quite random in this movie; the name of the Chinese restaurant is called Purple Blue Dragon while the Japanese restaurant where Mido worked at is called Mediterranean Sea. These factors create superficial values in the actual outside world of Dae-su and convince the audience to observe Dae-su’s life more closely. When he gets hypnotized again for the last time, the monster supposedly walks away from Dae-su, but it feels like Dae-su is the one who is trapped in the window with a vibrant, pink lighting. They should be separated through hypnotization, but the monster may never be apart from Dae-su after going through series of events that build him up as an ultimate monster of Woo-jin.
I forgot to add that the drastic change of Daesu's tone and voice during his conversation with Mido after knowing that she is his daughter portrays how he still has father/human side left in him. He calls her "sweet pea", treating her like a 3 years old daughter of his own to comfort her and not to make her worry, just like he did 15 years ago. Normally, he always talked in robotic way as if he was giving dictionary terms to everything, and his sentence structure was so stiff that average Koreans would find it very weird(he also never uses polite form(존댓말) until he begs Woo-jin to not tell Mido about the truth). However, Daesu disregards the fact that they became lovers but treat her like his daughter for the first time. Ironically, Mido continuously calls him 아저씨, which is more similar to uncle.
This would be my fourth time watching Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy this summer. Although I don’t enjoy watching a few scenes throughout the movie, I really like the movie as a whole. Two particular scenes that are interesting and striking to me are the most are the fighting scene and the last hypnosis performed toward the end of the movie.
During the fighting scene, I’ve noticed the take is extremely long and there’s a horizontal panning along the hallway. The constant panning back and forth along the hallway has added to the intense situation where it’s one person fighting against the many; the odd is not in the individual fighting against the mob. By the end of the scene, one can see that Daesu is extremely tired with blood coming from his wounds. This can help show how Daesu has become a monster during his imprisonment for 15 years. Also, Daesu had even commented how he cannot return to his previous self as “Oh Daesu” once his quest for revenge is completed.
Going along with the idea of Daesu is now a monster, the last hypnosis done to Daesu was interesting, especially during the scene where the “monster” and normal Daesu will split. During this scene, we saw a reflection of Daesu in the window with a tint of purple and the living Daesu. One is the monster that took revenge, while the other is the normal Daesu that doesn’t know anything. While the hypnosis was being done, the “monster” was supposed to walk away and eventually die at age 70. Interestingly, the figure that walked away wasn’t the purple reflection of Daesu; it was the living figure of Daesu. From this scene, it can be interpreted that the hypnosis had failed or that there will always be a monster inside of every human. Although we may try to get rid of this monster, it would never disappear.
Old Boy is a messed up movie. It is also one of my favorite movies that I have seen several times. This time I decided to look at it with a more cinematic approach (or at least I tried).
The most outstanding place to analyze I feel is the hallway fight scene. Clocking in at about 2minutes and 30 seconds it is a very long take for just about any film. On top of that it is a fight scene where everything needed to be executed perfectly. Oh Daesu fights about 20 people in a single hallway, fighting even though he is stabbed half way through.
The long take here is used to show a lot. The first I would point out is this is the ultimate test of his imaginary training that he did while he was locked up in the room for 15 years. He was locked for so long and did so much training that this cut is used to show that. Next it shows us how much power Oh Daesu has gained during this training. Doing it in one shot while the camera tracks along the length of the hall really shows the stamina and strength of this fight. Had it been broken up into pieces then it wouldn't have showed nearly as much strength.
Although this was my 3rd viewing of Park Chan-wook’s hit Oldboy, the film still manages to draw me in with its shocking plot and striking cinematography. The film opens with our future “protagonist”, Oh Daesu , in a series of rapid fire cuts, progressively acting more and more despicable as he drunkenly terrorizes everyone in his vicinity at the police station. Interestingly enough, this is the first characterization of the ‘good guy’ beginning this theme of blurring the lines between hero and monster. While the audience views Daesu as innocent within his prison room, he is bombarded by malicious accusations against him on the television. A close-up shot shows Daesu being literally consumed by ants and transformed into a monstrous figure with the accusations against his character in the background perpetuating that Daesu might be losing himself to the ‘monster’. Questioning the viewers’ perception of ‘monster’ and ‘hero’, Park almost implicates the audience in Daesu’s revenge. During the scene where Daesu is brutally extracting teeth from the owner of the prison, non-diagetic sound is included to amplify the situation. Beautiful classical music is perfectly intertwined in the background of the scene almost nulling the extreme goriness of the scene and making it satisfying to the viewer. This use of non-diagetic sound, which the purpose of which is for the viewer only, continually makes extremely violent scenes less displeasing to the audience senses and gives the audience the same pleasure that Daesu experiences while enacting his revenge. In the same way that the hypnotism of Mido and Daesu changed their perception of one another, Park Chan-Wook successfully uses pleasing non-diagetic sound to counter violent aesthetics and change the audiences own perception of what it means to be a ‘monster’.
The movie, Old Boy, is about a man, who is portrayed as a victim at first but eventually reveals the fact as an aggressor in his past. Whole movie is about revenge: revenge of Daesu, who has been locked up in a private prison for 15 years without knowing the reason, against the mysterious man with id “evergreen” seems to be the main plot of the movie. However, as the story gets unfolded, the movie is all about the revenge of “evergreen”, or Woo Jin, who loses her sister because of Daesu revealing the siblings’ inappropriate romance. The reason Woo Jin locks up Daesu for 15 years is to put Daesu in the same situation to fall in love with his daughter who grows up as a complete lady as 15 years pass by. It is controversial that could be very sensitive subject, however, the director Park used his filming ability to make scenes and plots visually stunning, and also powerful and dramatic. It is interesting that there are many aspects of “exchange”, or idea of a famous proverb “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”. For example, Daesu pulls out Chul Woong’s teeth with a claw hammer, then Chul Woong tries to do the same thing to Daesu. Also Chul Woong’s hand is chopped after he grabs Mido’s breast. Moreover, everything Woo Jin does to Daesu is to make him falling in love with his own daughter that mentally breaks him down. Once Woo Jin says that Daesu speaks too much. And then, Daesu cuts his tongue by himself. Of course, this action describes his guilt of oral mistake. Although the movie provides too much cruelty, sexuality or controversial themes, the movie successfully gives its message with Director Park’s stunning filming technique and shocking scenario.
This was my first time seeing the film "Oldboy" although many of my friends have recommended it to me before. I was warned about the violence in the film, but to me far more disturbing was the extremes to which the characters minds were twisted. I believe the actor for Daesu was very well chosen because he played crazy unbelievably well. His outward appearance was a clear indicator of the chaos inside his own head, which contrasts very starkly with Woojin, who is every bit as crazy yet lives in an expensive penthouse, is extremely well dressed and well groomed. Despite all of Daesu's efforts, in the end Woojin has ultimate control over him, and Woojin finished his revenge the way he wanted and dies by his own means. Daesu is left with few options and chooses to suppress the knowledge Woojin left him with.
There are hints pretty early in the film as to the identity of the Mido. I knew as soon as he sent Mido to find out about his daughter that it most likely was her, and then thought back to their first meeting where she said "orenmanida" when they had supposedly never met, which to me confirmed it. The fact that Woojin kept pushing them together was another big indicator.
I did find it interesting how Woojin relives his sisters' death right before he kills himself. It suggests to me that the old Woojin died at the same time as his sister, he kept going only for revenge, and once that is complete, he looks back to that time and finally takes his own life in the midst of his memories.
The use of visuals in Old Boy was appealing. Throughout the movie, I did not notice the music or sounds, but noticed the use of different visual elements and graphics. The film used mostly close shots or extreme close shots to focus on certain things. One scene that really stood out to me was the scene where Dae-Su was covered in ants. There was a close-up shot of the first ant, which really caught my attention. The close-up shots added to the relatively fast pace of the movie and highlighted the twists in the plot. However, to balance out the close shots, panning the camera was used to make certain scenes stand out more. When Dae-Su fought in the hallway with a hammer, the panning of the camera allowed viewers to see more of what was happening and added to the element of action. This was visually effective in showing how Dae-Su learned to fight in locked up room over 15 years.
Although I have heard about this film “Old Boy” several times before, I actually did not know anything about this film. Hence, I was very surprised by the plot. This film is not only about revenge but also about love and guilty. In the film, Woojin said that “you should not ask why you are prisoned but why you are freed.” It points out that those years are just a necessary period of time, which is definitely not the main part in Woojin’s revenge plan. It seems to me that the reason why those years are necessary is not only because Mido is finally 18 year-old this year, but also because that Woojin wants to reshape Daesu’s personality in order to make this plan more interesting and to bring stronger impact on Daesu’s life.
Woojin believes that the best revenge is to let Daesu go through the same thing which he had been through, and Daesu relies on the hope of revenge to endure the fifteen years. However, there is actually no winner in the end. The revenge of Daesu fails tragically right after he knows the truth. When he loves and wants to protect someone, his revenge will never succeed, for it becomes his weakness. Also, I think Woojin always knows that the rumor was not the only thing that caused his sister’s death, so he feels guilty that he was scared at that time and did not save his sister from falling. When Daesu is begging him not to tell Mido the truth, it seems Woojin is laughing and also crying. Since what keeps him going through all the way down here is the urge for revenge, he now has nothing to do but to deal with his guilt. I believe that this is also the reason of his suicide. The ending of this film was actually very surprising to me, for I thought that Daesu was going to kill himself after he found out the truth. It does not make much sense to me that he ends up choosing to forget and to continue being with Mido. I find this kind of ending very hard to accept.
It was my first time viewing the highly praised Park Chanwook film Oldboy, and I was not disappointed. Although the story itself is disturbing, the acting as well as the atmosphere of each scene was enticing. I found it interesting that there seemed to be a pattern of using quite bold, dark solid colors in different shapes throughout the film, whether it be the wallpaper, handkerchiefs, or the present boxes. I believe that these bold designs were used to represent how the protagonist Oh Daesu was not control of his own life but rather was being controlled every step of the way from being locked in the room till the end of the film.
Park Chanwook also used several extreme or close up shots to intensify emotion in the film. An example was of Daesu's hands which represented his anger. There were also many of the eyes as the eyes can hold much emotion if the acting is done well.
The ending of the film was actually quite puzzling for me as I was quite unsure of how Daesu wished to live and the expression that he gave in the end seemed to be unreadable. Other than the ending, I felt as though the rest of the film was quite given as themes of revenge, desire, and complicated connections were all present. The scene that I thought was quite cinematically significant was when Daesu was remembering why the antagonist Lee Woojin had despised him so much. There was times where the present day him was there and then the past him I found that to be quite interesting.
Old Boy ends with an unforgettable twist. I left the room feeling disgusted at the fact that the antagonist was in love with his sister and how he forced Oh Dae-Su to sleep with his own daughter for revenge. Nevertheless, with a cinematic approach, I must praise the details in Director Chan-wook Park's film.
The film is about Oh Dae-Su finding out who captured him and confined him in a room for 15 years. Dae-Su is given shelter, food, and service but it is suffocating. The mise en scene -yellow lighting, blood-stained carpet, and a stained bathroom makes obvious that it is a safety hazard physically and mentally. I want to focus on one of the reoccurring images, food. Dae-Su is always given food which shows that the antagonist doesn't want Dae-Su dead. Later, Dae-Su searches for his antagonist by trying every dumpling place that ends with the similar words that he saw. This part was comical because he had to eat dumplings until he threw up... Food is a source of life and it was a clue to Dae-Su's puzzle. Dae-Su also eats a live octopus... Instead of eating something dead, Dae-Su requests for something alive. After getting off the phone with the antagonist, Woo-Jin, instead of cutting up the octopus, he eats it whole. To me, 1) watching this reminded me that eating live octopus is common in Korea 2) Dae-Su was like a monster...
Notes: -The camera's view is often at a birds eye view or from a long take which made it seem like someone was watching over Dae-Su (which is accurate) -The voice overs in the film accentuated the thrill of the movie
Old Boy by Park Chan Wook was visually shocking movie. It was hard to see the scenes that involve, ants, hammer,and cutting off Dae Su Oh's tongue. However, in spite of those cruel scenes, I could not stop watching the film because of the fact that main character, Dae Su Oh was trapped for 15 years by unknown man. The director did not show the reason till the near end of the movie, and that was the main reason why this film was loved by so many and considered as the successful film. Personally, I thought that the plot of the film was very interesting, but I could not understand how someone could be so crazy to take revenge on the other by trapping them for 15 years. Because of that, Dae Su Oh became a monster in the prison, and Yoo Ji Tae was able to live for the revenge. Yoo Ji Tae was trying to tell Dae Su that his little mistake can be detrimental and extremely huge to someone, specifically his sister.
One of the great part of the movie, was the extreme close up of the characters. Close up of Dae su watching the television or eating "Gunmando" showed the timeline of his imprisonment life. As time passes by the close up showed his hair growing, and his wrinkles getting deeper. All these scenes depicted perfectly of his physical, mental stage, and I was also able to feel his emotion and his change by looking at the close up of his face. Another part that was interesting to see was the interior of the spaces that appeared in the film. The prison that Dae su lived was very weird with the poster with weird quotes, drawing, and even the pattern wall all gave me the emotion of weirdness, loneliness and alienation. I thought that the space itself could make one person go crazy, and indeed, it did (in case of Dae su) Also... Mido's house and the house where Yoo Ji Tae was hiding all were very old looking, and had a feeling of emptiness, and loneliness. Both the characters, Mido and Yoo Ji Tae looked like that all were suffering from loss of their lovers and suffering from deep loneliness. The one thing, that questioned me was the hypnosis.. it made the plot confusing,and I did not get the ending of the movie.
The film “Old Boy” is a very psychologically disturbing film centering on the theme of revenge and unlawful love. The twisted story is presented through an unusual combination of different camera movements and angles, strengthening its absurdness and the overall feeling of suspense. The opening scene is a low angle shot showing Daesu on the rooftop with another man. It almost felt like Daesu was trying to do harm to the man. The sunlight behind Daesu is so strong that from a low angle the audience cannot see his face. This opening composition along with the edgy background music helps to set the overall tone of the movie—mysterious and suspenseful. The sudden cut brings the audience to a comparably normal life scene of Daesu (a middle-aged man being drunk and brought to the police station). This cut presents a sharp contrast with the opening scene. It responds to the later scene of Daesu splitting into two persons, the old self and the monster.
Apart from low angle shots, the director also employs high angle shots and bird’s eye view. It first occurs at the phone booth when Joohwan discovered Daesu was missing. This high angle shots and ultimately bird’s eye view creates suspense and guesswork from the audience. Another place when such shots occur is when Daesu fainted due to the gas at the hotel-like prison where he was confined. The audience was looking down from the ceiling and saw he lying on the floor. This shot creates a sense of confinement.
Another notable shot is the long tracking shot of the violent fighting between Daesu and the guards of the “prison”. Although it was a violent fighting scene, the camera movement and the background music makes it appear strangely beautiful and almost artistic. Canted angle shots are also used in the movie, most notably with Mido in the scene. When Daesu first met Mido at the restaurant, her back was shown in a tilted angle. In addition, when she was reading Daesu’s notebook in her apartment the next morning, her face was also presented in a canted angle shot. I think these imbalanced shots of Mido give a mysterious air to her character and role while also reflects the twisted relationship between her and Daesu.
Although the storyline is strikingly absurd and disturbing, the presentation and cinematography is very strong and impressing, making it an unforgettable film.
One of the most fascinating features of ‘Old Boy’ was how the tongue and mouth was symbolically used throughout the film. Before Oh Daesu was captured he spoke like a normal human being, and after his release he received numerous comments on the way he spoke (short sentences, harsh tone) which symbolizes his transformation from a person to a beast. When Daesu is released from 15 years of captivity his tongue (taste buds) allowed him to find which restaurant had supplied the dumplings he had eaten for many years that led to the building where he was held against his will. When trying to gain information to figure out the identity of his captor, Daesu pulls out the teeth of the boss. When Woojin claims that it wasn’t his penis that had gotten his sister pregnant but rather Daesu’s tongue which had caused the supposed pregnancy symptoms, the power of the tongue (words/language) is clearly depicted. As Daesu cuts off his tongue this reveals to be the sincerest form of apology as he renounces the knowledge of his past mistakes and the incestuous relationship with Mido, as the tongue relates to knowledge, language and speech.
One of the crucial aspects of the film was the fact that Woojin did not have a real human heart, but rather a pacemaker equipped with a remote control. The heart is a representation of human emotion, and the absence of Woojin’s actual heart depicts his lack of empathy and emotions. Along with this sister’s suicide he himself ceased to exist. His pacemaker did not save his life; it merely served as an extension to his plan of vengeance against Oh Daesu. Throughout the film there were numerous close up shots of Daesu’s beast-like face and hair, and I feel as if the director did this on purpose to enforce the idea and constantly remind the audience that Daesu is no longer a human but rather a beast that is locked on vengeance.
Briefly, the theme of Oedipus myth is used as a motive. This is quiet new approach to the subject of theme in Korean cinema because incest is taboo, and forbidden under Confucianism influence. This is too cliché. I want to talk about montages that used in film. Deep focus and Mise-en-scene used in fighting scene in jail corridor, Woojin’s pent house was impressive. Montages used when Daesu visits high school or Woojin’s elevator scene covers different views of characters and also bring in audiences to get involved in different perspective. Through out my experiences of watching movies, the editing skills, use of these skills were good, but eventually sequences that were set were not corresponding together. I guess that’s why I don’t’ mind watching Old Boys again and again.
I want to have what Daesu was wearing; S.T. DuPont Suit. The movie was out in 2003, I was barely a high school students. I watched Old Boy many times, first time in DVD room, several other times from Korean movie channels, or typical holiday movie showing channels. However, I found out that I don’t remember whole story. I remember some parts by parts, and then consider this movie a cliché. It is surprising that this old movie never looked that old. It has been almost ten years since this movie came out and it was fresh. I remember my friends saying watching recorded drama that came out a year ago, complaining about how the style out fashioned. That’s what I like about movie, because it hardly fades its color, tone, and style. I don’t think it depends on how many tickets they sold in box office. I think it is because movie tends to contain art and profitability at the same time.
Old Boy by Park Chan Wook is one of the movies which you will watch it again and again and be amazed. Park Chan Wook uses many symbols and techniques in the film. First in the beginning, when Daesu disappears from the phone booth, the camera shows the road sign which has an arrow and X mark with the color red. This was surprising because in Korea, I believe that the road marks are usually in white. Color red seem to keep appearing throught out the movie. Also, at the end of the film when Daesu wakes up in the snow and his daughter, Mido comes in a red outfit and hugs him, and tells him, "I love you". I believe that the color red means a question mark or beginning of a tragedy. After the road sign, the next scene was Daesu's prison room and Mido's red outfit shows that they are in love, but after realizing Mido's identity, Daesu can't keep there relationship going, but he can't stop either. Also, in the beginning of the film, when Daesu is in the police station, I liked how Park Chan wook used the camera to become as a police officer talking to Daesu. I thought that was a great way to tell the story and show the characteristics of Daesu. Oldboy isn’t simply a gory movie focused around revenge. It is also a deep psychological study of how easy it is for people to lose sight of their own humanity if they are pushed far enough. Throughout the film, without spoiling anything, there is a strong motif of the battle between the inner monster lurking in all people and their desire to suppress it. There are really no heroes or villains in this movie. Seeing the entire movie, the only real emotion one could possibly have for any of the characters is sympathy. They were all so wrapped up in their own destruction that it became impossible for them to escape.
Old Boy by Park Chan Wook is one of the movies which you will watch it again and again and be amazed. Park Chan Wook uses many symbols and techniques in the film. First in the beginning, when Daesu disappears from the phone booth, the camera shows the road sign which has an arrow and X mark with the color red. This was surprising because in Korea, I believe that the road marks are usually in white. Color red seem to keep appearing throught out the movie. Also, at the end of the film when Daesu wakes up in the snow and his daughter, Mido comes in a red outfit and hugs him, and tells him, "I love you". I believe that the color red means a question mark or beginning of a tragedy. After the road sign, the next scene was Daesu's prison room and Mido's red outfit shows that they are in love, but after realizing Mido's identity, Daesu can't keep there relationship going, but he can't stop either. Also, in the beginning of the film, when Daesu is in the police station, I liked how Park Chan wook used the camera to become as a police officer talking to Daesu. I thought that was a great way to tell the story and show the characteristics of Daesu.
Oldboy isn’t simply a gory movie focused around revenge. It is also a deep psychological study of how easy it is for people to lose sight of their own humanity if they are pushed far enough. Throughout the film, without spoiling anything, there is a strong motif of the battle between the inner monster lurking in all people and their desire to suppress it.
There are really no heroes or villains in this movie. Seeing the entire movie, the only real emotion one could possibly have for any of the characters is sympathy. They were all so wrapped up in their own destruction that it became impossible for them to escape.
The film Oldboy significantly portrays isolation of the protagonist who loses his sense of humanity. Incarceration for fifteen years with repetition of the same patterns of lives and foods is more than enough to turn a man into a monster. Especially the theme of marginalization through isolation is distinct in that marginalization not only generates a sense of revenge, but also the inter-wined relationship between Daesu and Woojin who share a lot of commonness and make neither happy nor unhappy endings. Under an atmosphere of strict surveillance, his life is not only crucified, but also transformed into a soulless animal whose hope for freedom and communication is not allowed. Such aspect is greatly enhanced through the use of geometric patterns of room and its creepy designs of wallpapers. Furthermore use of purple is noteworthy in that the color itself represents death and grief, which correlates with several significant scenes in the film. Daesu was wearing a purple umbrella when he was kidnapped and Woojin’s handkerchief is also purple, which was used to wipe out the blood. Such settings are well suited to emphasize the element of vengeance of the protagonists. Daesu’s imprisonment arose due to the fact that he accidentally spread a rumor of an incestuous relationship of Woojin and Sooah. Also, he ends up having an incestuous relationship with his own daughter, Mido. Daesu and Woojin share quite a deal of common experience between them, and their vengeance against each other facilitates a sense of loneliness and isolation. The scene of Daesu’s bodily disfiguration (especially his tongue) and of eating a live octopus intensifies the sense of extremeness, which can be reflected as his monstrous aspect. Such is crucially expressed through long takes as reflected in the fighting scene of Daesu in the hallway at the prison. The long take is also distinct in the scene of clocking for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, which also represents surveillance. Furthermore close shots about dumpling, camera and recording machine effectively portray the state of Daesu’s emotion, which are also aided by the effect of mono-tone music.
I like how the theme of incest is explored in this film. This ‘taboo’ topic was not only expressed through explicit visual images, but also showcases a double case of incest. One story of incest is already shocking enough, but by including another case of incest into the plot, Park Chan Wook expounds on this shock factor, and thus intrigues us to really think about true love is, and whether love can and should exist between people with blood ties. I also like how classical music is paired with antagonistic or sexual scenes (e.g. sleeping gas, violent scenes), as it sorts of beautifies the film in a morbid manner. Classical music is soothing, but when paired with these scenes, harmony meets discord, and creates a discordant piece of artistic music.
The use of warped images through wide angle lenses at the beginning also emphasize how Daesu is turning a ‘monster’ (e.g. when he was in his room practising boxing). Also, when he imagined the ants coming out of him, the camera circled around Daesu, giving a sense of disorientation as well, and signals the start of him as a ‘monster’. However, at the end, we are left with the question as to whether the monster within Daesu is really dead, or perhaps whether there was any ‘monster’ in the first place. Perhaps the ‘monster’ and Daesu, like all humans, exist as one, and none can really survive without the other. There is an inherent monster within each of us, but the crux lies in whether we can repress this monster, or allow it to transform us.
Old Boy by Park Chan-Wook has many gross, shocking visual scenes. The most notable scene in the movie is the ending scene where Dae-su begs Woo-jin for forgiveness and cuts off his on tongue in the meaning of him being careful of what he says from now on. The movie starts and ends with the theme of 'revenge'. Woo-jin locks Dae-su in a private jail for 15 years as a revenge for her sister's death and Dae-su in return, after his escape from the 15 year prison tries to kill Woo-jin for locking him up. This twisted storyline with Dae-su falling in love with her daughter unknowingly is very interesting. Few objects/ body parts such as fried dumplings, the purple package, the cut-off hand, and the tongue are shown in extreme close-ups to inform the audience of its importance in the film. The red geometric patterned walls of the private jail Dae-su was locked in symbolizes the hypnotic state Dae-su was experiencing throughout the 15 years in jail. The lighting is dim or low green tinted in most scenes which suits with the darkness and revenge theme of the film. There are also many long take, handheld technique scenes in Dae-su's series of flashbacks, the street fighting scene and the ending scene where Dae-su and Mi-do meet again in the snowfield hugging each other. There were many notable scenes to be mentioned and could agree to why this film received many attention and awards from the film festivals. Old Boy was very creative in delivering the message of why one needs to be careful in what they say and how a word one says without a bad intention could kill the others' lives.
My initial reaction to Park Chanwook’s Oldboy can be categorized as skepticism towards the film’s climatic scene when Oh Dae-su finds out why he was imprisoned. In the film, Oh Dae-su is solitarily confined for 15 years for telling people that Lee Woo-jin and his sister engaged in sexual activities. Because of this Lee Won-jin’s sister believes she is pregnant and commits suicide. The reason I wasn’t to fond of the movie is that I find it hard to believe that any high school student would engage in sexual intercourse with their sibling. So as engaging as the movie is in the beginning, when it is revealed to the audience why Oh Dae-su was being punished, I found it to be a bit of a unrealistic. Although I can understand why this would create such a thirst for revenge from Lee Woo-jin, I just find it unbelievable that two siblings engaged in sexual activities.
However what interests me about this movie is the comments on revenge and justice director Park makes. Oh Dae-su desire for vengeance (for being imprisoned) is so strong it overtakes his common sense. In the beginning he only wanted to know why he was being imprisoned but once he found out who and why he insists on revenge. Even when Mido asks him not to go to see Lee Won-jin he ignores her and goes. If he had listen and ran away with Mido he would never have been burdened with the information of knowing that Mido was his sister. In addition there is a saying that comes up several times, “Be it a grain of sand or a rock, in water they sink the same.” Which I think sums up the theme of even the smallest actions can cause harmful outcomes similar to outright reckless actions.
One of Park Chan-wook’s most poetic vengeance films, “Old Boy” contains many symbolic, poetic factors. The movie starts out with Oh Dae-su, the main character, imprisoned at unknown place for 15 years without knowing the reason why. During his imprisonment, there is a scene where he hallucinates ants crawling out of his arm and eventually his whole body was covered with bunch of ants. As implied by Mido, since ants are insects that always move around in groups, it is possible that lonely people just like Oh Daesu, being alone in tiny apartment for a long time, see or hallucinate ants more than others do. And also from the scene where he eats the living octopus, I could assume how much he wanted to be ensured that he is alive and he is being alive along live things around him by eating that octopus. Additionally, all kinds of media technology have shown the surveillance under the whole world where Daesu draws out this kind of world as the bigger prison of his own. Moreover, Park utilizes body as the most significant tool to lead on this film. He used frequent close-ups of many body parts. First, the hand is used as the witness to suffering; Oh Daesu marks each year he spent in that apartment by tattooing himself on his own hand. Also the grotesque smile on Daesu’s face and the picture in the room, the face was illustrated as a mask. And this smile relates to the repeated quote from the film which was “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you will weep alone.” Last but not least, from the quote “Be it a grain of sand or a rock, in water they sink the same”, it reflects Oh Daesu not knowing whether he did small or big fault to Lee Woojin in order to get himself imprisoned. According to this line I think that the mouth and the tongue were represented as not only the instrument of truth but also the instrument for transition to monster.
This is like my tenth time watching "Old Boy", but I realize whenever I watch it it is new. "Old Boy" is director Park Chan Wook's trilogy film. It really digs deep into the subject "revenge". It is interesting that how one person's hatred can be transferred into an enormous revenge which eventually mentally kills everyone and even physically kill a human being. The movie is extremely intense and at the same time exciting to watch since there is no space for boredom. However, I know that is why it got really criticized by the film critics who think that this movie is morally wrong. The film critics pointed out that the movie artistically portrays violence in a "cool" way, but the movie itself does not send any message or life lesson. It is true that this movie has only a lesson such as gossiping about others can lead to someone to suicide, however, it does not give any humanely vision about the world. This is Park Chan Wook's style, and I have a neutral view, but many critics just think it creates fanboys and there is nothing more or less. I do not have a negative view as the film critics might have. Personally, I think that movie is just a story plot, or a picture frame that can show the script writer or director's really personal view of the world. I do not think the director is a smart person or a scholar to teach or imbed a world's perspective to us. That is why I don't think there is any reason to criticize nor praise a movie. I think film should be criticized only by its technological and methodological reasons. Since, whatever it is a director is just one human being and one small artist who makes a movie.
Perceiving in an artistic view, I really think that Park Chan Wook is a genius in cinematography and art directing. He can really pull it off. The color tone is very grotesque as well as dark, jaded, yet beautiful. I am not sure but I think the color correction is definitely worked on the editing process. Also, the cinematography is wonderful. There are various scenes, that the camera makes a close-up to an object or a human and slowly pans to the right and changes into a totally different setting. This was especially beautiful when Oh Dae Soo in the beginning gets hypnotized and see green grass on his side as the camera moves. The fighting scene was impressive. Oh Dae Soo fights all the guys who worked for the building (prison) and there is a long tracking shot of his fight movement which is really choreographed wonderfully and cool. It is just like one art piece itself. The simply artistic side of the movie was wonderful. However, the story plot was very intricate and sophisticated, however, it does not have a deeper meaning or general view of the world. It is more like a sensational film.
There are many prevalent cinematic techniques used in “Old Boy” that were apparent to me, such as handheld camera movements, panning that occurs on a pivot around a room, and many close up shots of the characters’ faces. The most prevalent technique that stuck out to me was the focus on Daesu’s mouth and tongue through the use of close and extreme close up shots. Daesu’s mouth communicates language while his tongue leads him to the truth behind his imprisonment, and ultimately his self-destruction. Woojin explains how it was “[Daesu’s] tongue got [his] sister pregnant. It wasn’t [Woojin’s] dick. It was [Daesu’s] tongue”. This basically translates to the rumor Daesu spread about how Sooah had an incestual relationship with her brother, Woojin, that impregnated her and eventually led to her commit suicide. Woojin spent a majority of his life plotting his vengeance and succeeded in making Daesu carry out a similar incestual act. This truth causes Daesu to cut off his tongue in hopes for forgiveness because the audience has observed how his talking always leads him trouble (ex. during the initial scene at the police office, while he interacts with the people who fed him during his imprisonment, etc.)
Another minor detail I noticed was the repetition of the pattern seen on the objects that led back to Woojin. The pattern was found on an umbrella, a handkerchief, an envelope, and on three boxes. The predominant nature of the black base and purple triangles conveyed a hypnotizing effect, possibly foreshadowing the hypnotism that was carried out in order for Woojin to carry out his vengeance.
Won Jae Chang Park Chanwook’s film, Old boy, is a powerful and innovative film with lots of evocative imagery and style to spare time. This film begins the story of a man, Daesoo Oh, who was imprisoned fifteen years without knowing the reason and business man becomes a monster as he escapes from the room. The film is mainly about revenge but also include inconvenient topic of incest which is the main cause of revenge. An incestuous relationship between Lee Won-jin and his sister was revealed to the public by Daesoo. Because of this, Lee’s sister has committed suicide because she believed that she was pregnant and feared about it. The revenge was created by his sister’s death toward Daesoo. The director uses colour saturations and bright colours. There are many long take and handheld techniques used to show Daesoo’s series of flashback and street fighting. One of the best scene was Dae soo Oh’s claw hammer reaction scene. At this scene, director Park takes a symmetrical and side-scrolling view of massive fighting. The audiences are able to see detail of Oh defeating so many thugs by his strength, his strong will and the hammer. Unlike the other film, the fighting was clumsy and desperate. It was more natural combat which makes the scene more realistic to the audience.
Finally! I have finally watched THE representative Korean film, according to popular consensus. Old Boy did not disappoint, it is very well made film that stays consistently with its vision throughout its entirety. What a crazy plot/screenplay. We watch a man locked up for 15 years for what seems like a very unjustified/minor act and go to his lowest point (licking the shoe/acting like a dog) It makes the evil guy that much more resentful. The film had very interesting elements that seemed other-worldly/artistic? For example, when the ant crawled out of Daesu's skin, we get a super HD close up of Daesu's greenish arm. Choi Min-Sik is an incredible actor. For some reason he reminds me of an old Hollywood movie star, not quite sure who.
My favorite scene in the movie was when Daesu beat up the gang of men in the hallway. The music and layout of the scene was impeccable. By the time Daesu reaches the end of the hallway, one feels a bit relieved and satisfied that Daesu is able to enact some of his revenge in such a cool, bad-ass manner. Super bizarre film but so artistically and poignantly displayed. It makes one question how one harmless action caused an otherwise normal man just trying to lead his life turn into a monster.
This movie was really interesting to watch. I've seen it before but watching it a second time helped me see more details of the movie that i never noticed before. I realized that WooJin was not the same child actor as the one that acted in the sex scene and the suicide scene. I wondered if this was a mistake by the director or it was a changed to show DalSu imagining the past and imagined it with the current WooJin's face.
I really liked how the director used extreme close up shots on Dalsu's face to show more emotion. This added to the suspense of the movie and to what was to come next. The movie also had a sort of comedy within the intensity of the storyline. At the end of the movie, I wondered if DalSu truly forgot the "secret." Or maybe the two chair at the end represented the "monster" and OhDalSu.
Old Boy is a mysterious and spooky movie directed by Chan-wook Park. Even though this movie is one of the most popular Korean movies, I’ve never had a chance to watch it. Old Boy is part of the director Park's vengeance trilogy series including Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. Being part of Park's vengeance trilogy films, Old Boy deals with revenge. I could not amazed when Mido was Daesoo's daughter and it was all planned by Lee Woo-jin.
Throughout the movie, the movie centers around Daesoo, and the camera angles and techniques really creates the atmosphere of the movie. Extreme close-ups and strange camera angles of Daesoo all creates Daesoo's emotion and his controlled life in the movie. The beginning of the movie when Daesoo tries to communicate with the stranger through the small hole, or when he tries to smile by looking at a creepy picture on the wall of the room, are examples of how the camera techniques trying to portray character's emotion and twisted and worried feelings.
There are many aspects with morally unacceptable factors in this movie. Love relationship between Woo-jin and his sister, Woo-jin taking control of Daesoo's life for fifteen years, and Woo-jin making Daesoo to love his daughter all because of the revenge; these may be the factors which make the movie so unique and shocking.
When Woo-jin kills himself even though he finally destroyed Daesoo's life by his monstrous revenge, I felt how one's lifelong revenge could be futile and meaningless. The facial expressions of Woo-jin made me to think that even though he was successful in revenging on Daesoo, it was pointless and meaningful. He couldn't achieve happiness even though he destroyed the Daesoo, who destroyed Woo-jin's life. I guess that was the reason why Woo-jin killed himself after his revenge on Daesoo.
The movie Old Boy by Park Chanwook was remarkably made film that illustrated snowball effect and it's outcomes from a small decision. I mean, there are so much more into the movie like showing loneliness, revenge, love, and Daesu going through psychological problems through out the movie.
In the beginning of the movie, Daesu gets kidnapped and trapped in a room for 15 years by himself. He first gets all crazy and gets mad at people who put him in that room and he gets very lonely when he sees from tv that his wife died. He hallucinates ants, which symbolizes deep feeling of massive lonliness, going all over his body. The director uses extreme close shots to show various emotions on Daesu's face that works perfectly fine with the overall feel of the movie.
This movie is ironically funny because all the events of the movie started from "love" that messed everything up. And because Daesu messed up with everything from the past, Woo jin tries to mess up with Daesu's love as well, and he succeeds.
It was a bit clever thing to show someone suiciding to show how Daesu's characteristic of not caring about other's feeling and emotions, which reflected Daesu's mistake that he made when he was in high school. The man suiciding also foreshadowed how depressing the movie will be untill the end.
Old boy is about this man who got locked in for 15 years without knowing the reason. He collects the shattered clues to figure out who locked him in for what reason. In the movie Old boy, Director Park used body parts like hand, tongue, breast, etc in many scenes to deliver multiple meanings. Daesu uses needle and ink to record the number of years he was imprisoned. Since tattoos are permenant, this act shows how determined he was and how monstrous his vengeance was. Also the owner of the prison gets one of his hands cut off and his chopped off hand was used to threaten Daesu and Mido. There was a scene where Daesu grabs the octopus in front of him and eats it alive. It almost felt like he’s become a monster. Also Daesu pinch out teeths of the motel owner to find out truth. Daesu wasn’t able to kill Woojin right away after he found out about the scar on his chest. He decided to delay his revenge when he learned that heart remote controller. When the motel owner and his gangs came to his apartment to harass Mido, her breast was showing and this small detail summarized how much she suffered while Daesu was absent in the scene. Also when Daesu saw Woojin and his sister in the empthy classroom, his sister had her breasts showing and she was actually looking at the mirror to see her ownbody while Woojin was licking her breasts. In this frankly scene, breast was depicted in a sexual way, giving an emphasis to their odd relationship as sibling and lover. When Daesu told his friend about what he saw, it became a rumor, which made the sister kill herself eventually. Since the director uses the body parts many times, we are able to relate the pain on our own and feel more sympathy.
Personally engrossed, I cannot deny the fact that this film was not only well made but also remarkably constructured beautifully in terms of mise-en scene. The geometric patterns on the umbrella, presents, arrangement of ants, birds eye view all corresponds with the ungoing buildup of undeniable pathos and what is dreadingly expected by the core question; why is Daesoo trapped for fifteen years, and 'dont even beasts deserve to live.' The score reminded me of the Hollywood feature films such as "The Hours" or the Godfather Trilogy where both films depict thriller psychological trauma, which added to the emotional acceptance of this film. Other than the provoking feeling significantly captured and aimed by the sexual theme of incest, there was an interesting play on the patriarchal power play motifs by Parkchanwook, along the line of JSA in particular comparison. As much as the inconveneince, since the sexual theme is a crucial trajectory of tragedy, such patriarchal twist is a well imosed with the two victimized-mnipulating characters, Daesoo and Woojin. Although Daesoo is portrayed to have become a traditional idea of embodiement of masculinity during the containment, while woojin the opposite: the comparingly feminine and benignly genderizaed culturalized(into photography, practices yoga, etc); daesoo is ultimately emasculated; woojin epitomizes violence and nature of vegeance cloacked in socially what is accepted as femininity. This compositional juxtaposing not only visually but also narratively and conceptually is how Parkchanwook asks the ultimate issue; what is morality itself.
Due to illness, I am posting my response paper tonight.
I was very shocked by the movie Old Boy's presentation of how words can ruin people's lives. Woo-jin and his sister's lives were destroyed by Dae Su's mistake. At first, I could not believe how Woo jin can plot all these revenge on Dae Su. Dae Su not only had to live in a cell trapped for 15 years, but also was forced to fall in love with his own daughter. But, as I watched the movie, I realized how simple words can be brutal. If Dae Su did not say those words to his classmate before he moved to another school, Woo jin's sister would not have gone through all the pain and end up killing herself. And, Woo Jin's life would have been peaceful.
There are a lot of symbolisms in this movie related to words. One was when Dae Su is eating the live octopus. When the octopus is vigorously moving on top of Dae Su's mouth, I felt that it is symbolizing how words can be disgusting and gross. And, it was striking when Woo Jin said to Dae Su that it is not him that made his sister pregnant, but it was Dae Su's tongue. Again, tongue was described as a weapon that can completely destroy one person's life. At the end, Dae Su cuts his own tongue in order to pay for the debts of his sin.
Moreover, I was amazed with how this movie Old Boy revealed how cruel a human can be using unique elements. By isolating Dae Su in a room by himself for 15 years, he could not interact with other people, so when he got out of the room, he forgot all the bad words. Only thing that he interact with was TV, and TV did not show any bad words. Also, only food that Dae Su ate for 15 years was dumplings, and dumplings were the only key to knowing who plotted all this disgusting act. It was very noteworthy how the director set this food item as the clue in the story. Lastly, it was so shocking to find out that Woo Jin raised Mido for 15 years just to revenge on Dae Su. I think this movie is far beyond the imagination.
Melody Chi 8-5-13 Korean Cinema YISS, Summer 2013 Prof. Steven Chung Movie Response: Oldboy
The movie Oldboy uses a lot of circle imagery and a circular sense of time, perhaps to emphasize the inevitability of events in the movie. For instance, first, the patterns of the wallpaper in Dae-su's prison cell and Mido's "safe room" are both circular; Mido's especially is a pattern of completely circular, repeating suns. Likewise, in Dae-su's first flashback scene of Soo-ah, she is riding her bike in a circle, and afterwards, Dae-su flips (in a circle) over the pull-up bar to dismount and talk to Soo-ah. Circular camera pans are also used often in the film. For example, several times, the camera view spins in a circle around Dae-su, often to signal a moment of realization, an instance in which Dae-su's actions mirror the past, or a time at which Woo-jin's plans are being fulfilled. All of this circular imagery foreshadows the end of the movie, at which point Dae-su and Mido have entered into a (likely doomed) incestuous relationship that mirrors Woo-jin and Soo-ah's. In fact, in Dae-su's final interaction with Woo-jin, it becomes clear that events have come full-circle; Dae-su begs Woo-jin to not reveal Dae-su's identity to Mido in the exact same way that he previously begged his jailors to let him out of his prison room or tell him why he was being held. Similarly, Woo-jin kills himself, and like his sister's death decades before, his death sets another destructive future (this time, between Dae-su and Mido) in motion.
Water imagery is also used throughout the film to foreshadow and underscore this inevitability of events. For instance, Dae-su breaks through the prison room wall and touches the falling rain only the day before Woo-jin releases him from prison. I do not think it is a coincidence that Dae-su is only released after he reaches the outside world, which is clearly represented by the rain that he has been locked away from in his prison room. Instead, introducing the rain into Dae-su's previously sterile and unchanging environment appears to signal that, after fifteen years of stagnation, the next step of Woo-jin's plan (and ultimately, the destruction of Dae-su and Mido through their inevitable incestuous relationship) is commencing. In addition to Dae-su's environment, Woo-jin's home also contains water imagery. Woo-jin's penthouse is decorated with canals of water that surround a central point where Woo-jin stands in his final interaction with Dae-su, and one of the penthouse walls also contains a picture of an immense wave of water. Finally, and most obviously, Soo-ah kills herself (or is killed by Woo-jin) by plunging into a river. Water is an ideal form to embody the inevitability of events in the movie, as water (such as the ocean) repeats the same movements over and over again, and is also an unstoppable, destructive force.
Old Boy
ReplyDeleteSang Won Jee
The Famous Movie Old Boy was pretty effective in Visual ways to me. The walls of the every single room have the pattern with some geometric shapes. Also, the package that delivered to Daesou or to his daughter have the pattern with purple colors. In visual way, in the movie, these patterns and colors were pop up on the screen or made the character be focused by people. I think Director Chan-wook Park used extreme close shots and longshots with panorama views. The scene, when Daesoo came back to jail (?) or the boom that he kept for 15 years, he fights with many guys in the passage. In this scene, the long shot without cutting and panorama view was effectiveness. Few extreme close shots pointed out the important facts of the movie such as camera, gun man doo, angel wing, and recording machine. The movie was connected scene to scene very well. From room to Daesou’s face to green filed and came back to him. The story started again and connected the previous happenings. Also, the music or melody helped the character react of it. The music not used only as background music, It used as a connection between happenings and fortuned the story that will occur. The story of the Old Boy showed how the Human can be change depends on their situation very well. The emotion and behavior without knowing the truth can be beautiful but sometimes truth can hurts each other. In this movie, the love between brother and sister, father and daughter, showed very well. That’s why Daesou’s reaction of Mido changed during the time passes. Also the contrast between recording the life and live alone without recording was fun element of this movie. Eventually, Daesou started record himself with writing; however, recording the past by him and at the same time recording every behavior by some others was pretty ridiculous. The contrast between start of movie and end of movie with colors was good too. The movie started with deem and dark scenes but finished with snow covers the earth so all white scenes. I think the movie used the effective camera skills and color contrast between the character and background.
Eunice Choi
ReplyDeleteOld Boy
I have watched this movie twice now, and despite the twisted plot, I was amazed both times how beautifully this movie is made. The quirky qualities in various scenes successfully portray the mentality of the characters in a very surreal manner. For example, the strong sense of loneliness and despair rushes out of Daesu's physical body in forms of ants crawling after he sees on the news broadcast of his wife's murder. The image of ants reappear to portray Mido's feelings as well, hinting that she and Daesu already share a connection in their twisted relationship. The swapping of the past and the present is very noticeable in the film, and also very well made. Daesu visits his old high school to trace his steps of his younger self. The film is overplayed with yellowish filter, giving that old, worn out feel to Daesu's forgotten memory.
Oh Daesu develops to be a very interesting character while trapped in the room for 15 years. Daesu is entrapped in this room where there is no freedom (not even to kill himself), communication, and self-control. Daesu loses his humanity as he is cut off from the rest of the world physically, only relying on the television as his only source of information and intelligence. Hence, he is conditioned to talk and act like a machine himself when he was released. The environment of Daesu pushes him to the extreme, in which his lack of human touch and freedom turns him into this monster, thriving for answers and revenge. In a sense, the room is like a purgatory where he reevaluates his sinful life before his hellish journey to find the truth.
Joanna Han
ReplyDeleteEven though I have watched this film before, I was dreading watching it again because of its psychologically disturbing nature. However, having watched it so long ago, today’s viewing was a new experience for me. I realized how unique and interesting this film was in terms of cinematography and directorial style. I was impressed with how the director transitioned from each scene through random extreme close-ups or suddenly strange and different camera angles. I think these techniques really added to the mysterious and suspenseful atmosphere of the film as well as emphasize its extreme and twisted nature, both in theme and plot. Moreover, they highlighted the troubled mental states of many of the characters, especially when CGI effects were used, such as Mido and the huge ant in the subway representing loneliness.
One scene I must note is the final scene of the film. The camera closes in on Daesu’s face after Mido confesses her love for him. As confusing as it was the first time I watched it, it is still just as confusing now, if not more. Although I want to believe that the hypnosis was successful and Daesu was able to fully forget the fact that Mido was his daughter, the conflicting emotions that was shown on his face makes it hard to tell if he is the old Daesu or his other half, the monster. After all the horror and tragedy, the director leaves the audience with ambiguity. The image of Daesu’s anguished face is the most scarring scene of the film because it leaves the viewer with no conclusion, no resolution, and ultimately, no hope. In this way, it is also the most effective scene of the entire film because it represents and portrays the deep complexity of the character as well as the film itself.
Tina Kim
ReplyDeleteDirector Park Chan-wook portrayed the protagonist, Oh-Dae-su as a monster or beast throughout this film. The scene where he has Dae-su making a tunnel in his room was animal like and his appearance was beyond what a normal man should look like. Another scene was where Dae-su was eating the live octopus, rather than having it cut, he chews it off barbarically. Even in the long take fighting scene, Dae-su fights even after he has a knife stabbed onto his back, giving him an inhumane aura. He also smiled as more men appeared in the elevator scene which adds on to the effect that he is a monster. Daes-su sees himself as a monster as well, as we can see in his fake email account of monster@nate.com. When the warden was about to break Dae-su’s teeth in revenge, Dae-su hisses and laughs which scared the warden and his henchmen.
The director uses a yellow filter for the flashback scene, where Dae-su rediscovers the incest relationship between Woo-Jin and Soo-ah. The scene alternates between the current age Dae-su and young Dae-su. I thought that how the director did this was impressive. He also shot several scenes without Dae-su running up the stairs to create an affect that the audience themselves are discovering the reason to why Woo-Jin locked Dae-su up for 15 years. Another flash back scene was where Woo-jin remembers his sister’s suicide, the scene switches between his younger self, and current age. This scene help reveal more of who Woo-jin is by showing how he could not live without his sister and only lived on for the sake of avenging her death.
Seungyoon, Mok
ReplyDeleteI think 'Old Boy' is the most famous korean movie in the world. 'Old Boy' got a grand prix in the Cannes Film Festival. So, this film has been showed to the people of the world. Some people liked it, some people hated it. This movie is very controversial movie due to contents of the movie.
The theme of 'Old Boy' is a revenge. 'Oh Dae Su' is locked in a private jail for 15 years without knowing why he had been locked up. He prepared for the revenge in a jail and be come out of the jail by someone. He tried to get who locked him up and wanted to do the revenge. However, when he reached to the 'Lee Woo Jin' who locked him up, 'Oh Dae Su' got to know he slept with his daughter 'Mido'.
'Woo Jin' locked 'Dae su' up for many years and made him love 'Mido'. Everything he did was for a revenge. 'Woo Jin''s revenge caused 'Dae Su''s revenge. And finally, 'Dae Su' tried to revenge to 'Woo Jin', but he could not. It was because 'Woo Jin''s revenge was very severe and more harsh than 'Dae Su''s expectation. When 'Dae Su' got to know 'Mido' is his daughter, 'Dae Su''s revenge became nothing. Only thing he could consider at that time was the fact he loves his daughter.
A word 'Dae Su' just spit out made a tragic. And, 'Dae Su' even could not revenge to 'Woo Jin' although he lost his 15 years, his wife, and his daughter. He just when down on his knees in front of 'Woo Jin'. The reason he could not revenge is because it was really hard to accept the fact he loves his daughter and he wanted to protect 'Mido".
Why was 'Woo Jin''s revenge so severe? We never know because it is not our business just like 'Woo Jin' said.
Oldboy
ReplyDeletePark’s creativity in the film Oldboy is demonstrated by the originality of the concept which he modifies with more adventurous scenes. The theme of this film is revenge and the uniqueness of the film emanate from the fact that the film is stylish, violent, and full of energy. The uniqueness of features and elements in Park’s film production is demonstrated by the numerous notorious scenes based on Korean cultures that have attracted great public attention. For example, some of the unique scenes in the movie include the eating of a live octopus, pulling out of teeth using a hammer and the depiction of an extended corridor where the main character fights a small army of gang. Personally, I kept curious of the ending means, does Dae-Su finally forget about whom Mido is? He memorizes her as a lover? Or lost daughter? Also, he finally falls in love with Mido even he memorizes every single things of Mido as Woo Jin asked him whether they can fall in love with each other even they realize who exactly one another is? Due to the fact that Woo Jin aids and abets Sooah’s suicide, the vengeance is created by not only the hatred of the 3rd person, but also by a guilty conscience which lost the way of explosion of that. In the movie, it seems like Woo Jin successes the vengeance toward to Dae-Su even though he did not notice Mido about the fact of that Dae-su is her missing dad. Furthermore, the purple color and specific geometric patterns of the handkerchief and the presents wrapping papers which WooJin gives to Dae-Su and Mido significance how WooJin’s revenge created in precisely order. Because the purple color considers being the psychopath in psychological theory, the color of that tells that Woo Jin’s purpose of the revenge goes toward to a retarded. This movie gives the question mark of what vengeance real meaning is and how it drives the human react when he or she faces the climax of the revenge.
Hannah Choi
Oldboy is a 2003 thriller film directed by Park, Chan-wook. It follows Oh Daesu, a man imprisoned for 15 years, and his quest for vengeance against the man who imprisoned him. The film is very enthralling to watch and Park takes Oldboy in a direction that really seems like its own world. I am usually drawn to action scenes in a movie, especially choreographed fighting, and Oldboy has one that caught my attention. I found it really impressive that the hallway fight was filmed in a long take with what looked like little to no editing. Not only that, the position of the camera is setup to see a sideways long shot view of the hallway as it pans left to right following Daesu through the combat. The lighting is a low or dark green tint that fits well with the dirty and unrestrained attacks as Daesu and the henchmen fight with hammers and wooden planks. The whole long shot side view aesthetic reminds me of 2D side-scrolling beat’em-up video games too.
ReplyDeleteThe ending sequence of the film is a bit of a mind boggler though. The hypnotist proceeds with removing from Daesu the knowledge of his relationship to Mido. We are then shown Daesu and his reflection as one is supposed walk away with the knowledge. However, it is implied which one is which, but it is still ambiguous which figure held the knowledge. I think that the physical being that walks away is the real Daesu. The hypnotist calls the physical being a monster, but Daesu considers himself a monster especially through his violent and barbaric nature in the film. It is this monster, the real Daesu with the truth who leaves. The reflection left behind is an empty shell who will continue to live the lie. That’s why it is represented in the window reflection. With this in mind, the final question of whether the hypnosis truly work is less relevant because I think that the real Daesu escaped and it does not matter if the shell left behind knows the truth or not.
Dongsu
ReplyDeleteThe movie, Old Boy follows the story of a man who was locked in a motel for 15 years without knowing why and goes through a “ vengance game”. The whole mystery came from the what the main character Daesu said when he was young, the director makes a connection between the “mouth” with “truth” in this movie.
When Daesu tried to find a chinese restuarant that serve him potstickers for 15 years, he went on and kept eating pockstickers until he finds the restaurant. In this case,he remembered the taste of potsticker in his mouth and it helped him to find the clue to the next step. Also when Daesu took off the motel owener ’s teeth, the tortue became an act of seek the truth. Both tastebud on his tongue and teeth are part of mouth and it lead help him to find truth.
Daesu’s sin was making Youjins sister to sucide by telling the truth about relationship between yoojin and his sister. So Yoojin revenges back to him that making Daesu to have sex with his own daughter. When daesu tried to hide truth that he is Mido’s father, Daesu promisses Youjin that he’ll do anything. To prove his promise he lick Youjin’s shoes and cuts off his tongue himself. In these cases, he used his mouth as to hiding the truth.
Kathryn Brown
ReplyDeletePark Chan-Wook's Oldboy was very different than other films viewed in this class. The use of geometric patterns and designs becomes essential to the look of this film. Whether it be on the wallpaper of the rooms or on the wrapping of the gift boxes, they all add to the feeling of imprisonment and captivity. This element is introduced in other ways as well, which are not always so obvious. For example, in the scene where Dae-su is having flashbacks at his high school and is chasing Woo-jin, they run up and down the stairs and are shot from various angles, which gives a very maze-like impression. This may be some sort of allusion to artist M. C. Escher's work “Relativity”, which creates another space that appears to have no end. This, as well as other visual techniques, give a distorted sense of reality throughout the film. Surveillance becomes important to this movie as well, both in the narrative and in the actual camera work, where takes might be shot from above through a vent, as one instance. Other successful conventions are more apparent, such as the calendar transitions and drawn eye lines from Dae-su, much like a comic book. Images are spliced together in a way that moves the viewer between ideas in a cool way, such as the subway train driving into the shot to shift to the next scene. The film's visual effects, overall, are dark, yet intelligent and self-aware, giving it a unique feel that I enjoyed.
Ideas about revenge tend to be viewed differently through the filter of Korean film and in many Asian films, in general. This stems from traditional cultural values present in the history of East Asian countries, where it was often more accepted and honorable. This is interesting, coming from a western perspective, as films like Oldboy create multidimensional characters, like Dae-su, that do not read as entirely “good” or “bad”, making for a much more complex experience, raising questions about whether or not any of it was genuinely justified. Dae-su's voice narrates throughout, putting us inside his head, though it is still be hard to know exactly what he is thinking. At times, it is even difficult to tell whether he is laughing or crying with his hysterical smile. Truth, contrary to common representation, seems to be a negative in this film, though Dae-su is seeking to find it the entire time. It is symbolized here by the mouth, punishing those who withhold or spread truths by pulling teeth, cutting off tongues, etc. These unusual views on commonly used ideas, as well as the grotesque and violent scenes, can make this film somewhat tough to swallow (...haha), but makes for one that stands out in my mind as one of the most intriguing I have seen in a while.
Gayoung Park
ReplyDeleteChanwook Park is one of the most famous and respected movie directors in Korea. His film Old Boys was highly acclaimed for both its cinematic quality and its popularity, so I was very excited to watch this film. After watching this film, many thoughts went through my mind. I was very impressed by actor's acting skills, use of metaphors,
and Park's camera techniques. I want to focus on talking about Park's use of cinematography first including long takes and handheld techniques.
I would say that the best scene of the movie was Daesoo Oh's claw hammer reaction scene where it takes almost three minutes of long shots. In this scene, Daesoo revisits the place where he is imprisoned for 15 years and fights with gangsters who locked him. In a narrow corridor, Daesoo face with so many opponents blocking him, but he is never been forced into a corner and resist the pressure. When the audience are watching this scene, they feel as if they are looking at the inside of aquarium through the view of glass window, and this amazing scene is still considered as one of the best scene in Korean film history.
Handheld technique used in this film is also very impressive. He uses this skill very successfully; in the scene of which Daesoo follows Woojin staring upstaris in his series of flashbacks, Daesoo coming out of the street after fighting in the narrow corridor, and the ending scene of Daesoo and Mido in snow field.
Moreover, there are many metaphors used in this film such as camera, daily diary, phones, live squid, and etc. I was especially impressed by the use of color "purple". Purple itself has meaning of death and grief, and it also has meaning of atonement and salvation which relates closely to the theme of the film. When Daesoo was kidnapped, he had purple umbrella. Woojin's handkerchief was also purple-colored and he used this handkerchief to wipe off his blood. More importantly, the box which contained the album that had secret relationship about Mido and Daesoo was decorated with purple wrapping paper. The purple album, which Woojin prepared for more than 15 years, contains the meaning of atonement that symbolizes Woojin's revenge on Daesoo. Looking at all these metaphors, Chanwook Park used this "purple" color effectively to convey the character's sense of atonement.
Chanwook Park's Old Boy well disentangled the human emotions through the use of camera techniques and other factors. It was a great movie which I really enjoyed watching, and I want to end with this post by one particular line Daesoo said: "Even though I'm no more than a monster- Don't I, too, have the right to live?"
Hae Jung, Min
ReplyDeleteOld Boy was the best and the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. How the movie portrayed its moral was effective in a way such that by revealing the truth at the very end in the most unexpected way: Your gossip or even something that you said without thinking, could have actually caused a serious damage in someone's life, and could eventually affect your life as well.
While this was the moral on the surface, considering the era (2003) when the movie was made, I think the director of this movie, Park Chan Wook, wanted to criticize how people with power affecting the lives of those who did not have that much of a power. High school student,Daesu Oh, who had the power to make other people believe him, was able to influence Woojin Lee and Suah's lives, leading to Suah's death. However Daesu "forgot" about that incident, because "it was not of his business". That sentence made me realize that the hidden moral of this movie was to criticize the reality where those with power saying "stuffs they don't care" actually is a matter to someone. From the perspective of its effectiveness of portraying the moral of the film, it was great.
However, the part that shocked me and made me think that I would not want to see this movie again was the director's imagination of "romantic relationship between father and daughter". I am not trying to criticize any culture, but from the socially moral perspective from my culture (which is Korean), this is something that I have never thought of and would not want to think of. Of course, due to this relationship, the moral was extremely effectively transferred to the audience, but the fact that the father would have to live in a dilemma, which that he can't abandon Mido (Daesu's daughter) because she is his daughter, but can't continue this relationship in the normal romantic way because for the same reason was unimaginable for me and shocking how the director was even able to think of this plot from the beginning.
Just as a part of my thought, I thought that maybe, the start of the cliche of some conflicts in Korean dramas (lover being a long-last sister) could have started from Old Boy.
Sangbin Park
ReplyDeleteResponse: Oldboy
The movie Oldboy, a movie widely known as one of the most successful Korean films, was rather overwhelming for me to watch as the film is highly praised and has received many favorable reviews. While watching the movie, I could not help myself from watching the film from a biased perspective that the movie is well-made. Although I was captivated by superb acting abilities of the characters and remarkable film techniques, e.g. the long take of the fighting scene in the hallway, I felt uneasy watching the film. Incestuous love and seemingly excessive forms of revenge made me feel disgusted at times. Gory scenes were unpleasant and seemed unnecessary. However, I believe that the movie depicted insatiable desires of humans through the revenge of Yi Woojin. I felt that the movie was somewhat realistic illustration of inner human desires. It was an endless human desires expressed in a movie by extraordinary revenge plot.
In human societies, there are taboos. The director seems to get at those taboos namely evil revenge and incestuous relationship. Oh Daesu spends fifteen years in confinement living only off fried dumplings and faces miserable reality given to him by Woojin. Woojin’s revenge seems a bit too excessive. It is hard to believe any sound person would carry out such a scheme. However, this gets at the inner desire of the common people--many of us have a fantasy, or a yearning for, getting even. Woojin and Daesu both wanted to get even, simply they wanted an eye for an eye. Moreover, the movie adds on an inconvenient topic of incest. This also gets at human fantasy. Incestuous relationship is restricted and societal act of taboo. It is also often used to show humans’ insatiable desires. In conclusion, Woojin is a sinner and a criminal. He is a decadent who has committed merciless revenge and incestuous love. He is a victim to his own desires. At the same time, he is the expressive form of the inner desires of humans restricted and limited by orders and laws. It is an overstatement to assume that humans long for revenge or incest, but the movie aims to bring out the suppressed fantasies within the audience. Thus, the movie was meaningful to me in the sense that it attempted at showing infinite human desires.
Hyungwoo Kim
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of darkness, one of the more interesting aspects of the film pertains to its depiction of violence. Although Oldboy is widely considered to be an ultra-violent film, in actuality, it's fairly tame gore-wise. It's the way in which the sequences are set up and shot—and the inherent tension packed into them—that creates the impression of violent content when, for the most part, no such gratuitousness actually exists in the film. Consider it the Texas Chainsaw Massacre effect; people come out of the theatre thinking the film is gorier than it actually is. The talent to pull off such sensory sleight of hand is, in some respects, one mark of an effective artist.
And as the film unfolds, its underlying message about violence becomes clear. As one character states, "Seeking revenge has become a part of me." The film explores the question, "What else is there to live for once vengeance has been satisfied?" In the case of Oh Dae-su and Lee Woo-Jin, the answers differ sharply.
That isn't to say that there isn't out-and-out violence in the film at all. The gritty corridor fight scene in which Oh Dae-su takes on all comers in a one-take brawl is a marvel to watch. But nobody's doing any exaggerated wire fu. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any staged choreography at all.
The performances in the film are spot-on, particularly those from the two leads. Choi Min-Sik transforms himself before our eyes as Oh Daesu, beginning the film as a drunken fool then metamorphosing himself into the tough-as-nails, vengeance-seeking ass kicker of the second half of the film. As Lee Woo-Jin, actor Yoo Ji-Tae serves as the perfect foil to the protagonist. Although elegant and refined, Yoo imbues the character with the palpable sense of menace necessary in portraying the all-seeing warden in Dae-su's new urban prison.
Yoonil Cho
ReplyDeleteThe movie Old Boy is mainly about a guy who had been kidnapped and trapped in small room for 15 years waiting for revenge. The movie describes stimulating material such as incest which is the starting point of whole revenge. The motives used are very creative and sensational but some are too cruel to see. Although some story might have gone too unrealistic, shocking visual, whole story, and mostly actor's wonderful acting helped audience to concentrate on the movie.
The movie contains lots of symbolic scenes. Representatively one of the most famous scenes, the ant scene describes the loneliness of the character and the scene Oh Dae-su cuts his tongue describes his moral guiltiness. Color of the movie helps audience to understand the mood and emotion of character. For example, red color describes family by birth and sexual desire, and purple describes gloom, secrets, and surveillance. The movie provided lots of spectacles and inspiration to me. Although it was too cruel and sexual, images of the movie linger in my mind and left me lots of things to rethink about.
Grace Chang
ReplyDeleteOld Boy, a movie based on a Japanese manga オールドボーイ by Garon Tsuchiya, seems to tell the audience a story that we all have a monster in us by using Oh Dae-Su as a core example. The movie portrays bodily disfiguration through using his mouth and an entire body, which became quite prevalent as Dae-Su’s words that came out from his “mouth” destroy his entire life. As he stitches and counts the duration period of his stay in the private prison, he uses his hand as a witness to suffering. His body becomes a site of hallucination and loneliness as he imagines ants crawling all over him. He also uses his tongue/taste buds in search of Woo-jin and his whereabouts by consuming fried dumplings that he had been eating for the past 15 years, which also shows that he is not completely out of the prison yet. One of his torture methods is plucking out teeth with a clawhammer, and he eventually has to cut off his own tongue, showing the importance of one’s mouth. Lastly, his face becomes a mask; we cannot really tell whether he is smiling or crying as he puts on a grotesque smile just like the painting on his wall of the prison cell. He puts this “mask” on when (1) he faces with the gangsters in front of the elevator, (2) decides to kill Woo-jin first after hearing about his daughter, (3) and meets Mido again at the end of the scene.
The oddness and abstractness in the movie are also quite relevant to Dae-Su’s life. We first see the abstract shapes on the umbrella when he suddenly disappears after making a phone call to his daughter. The printings on the wallpaper of his private prison cell also have abstract and continuous shapes, making Dae-Su feel more entrapped within the room. The printings on the wall continue to be like this even after he comes out to a larger prison (the outside world). Also, the names of the restaurant are quite random in this movie; the name of the Chinese restaurant is called Purple Blue Dragon while the Japanese restaurant where Mido worked at is called Mediterranean Sea. These factors create superficial values in the actual outside world of Dae-su and convince the audience to observe Dae-su’s life more closely. When he gets hypnotized again for the last time, the monster supposedly walks away from Dae-su, but it feels like Dae-su is the one who is trapped in the window with a vibrant, pink lighting. They should be separated through hypnotization, but the monster may never be apart from Dae-su after going through series of events that build him up as an ultimate monster of Woo-jin.
Grace Chang
DeleteI forgot to add that the drastic change of Daesu's tone and voice during his conversation with Mido after knowing that she is his daughter portrays how he still has father/human side left in him. He calls her "sweet pea", treating her like a 3 years old daughter of his own to comfort her and not to make her worry, just like he did 15 years ago. Normally, he always talked in robotic way as if he was giving dictionary terms to everything, and his sentence structure was so stiff that average Koreans would find it very weird(he also never uses polite form(존댓말) until he begs Woo-jin to not tell Mido about the truth). However, Daesu disregards the fact that they became lovers but treat her like his daughter for the first time. Ironically, Mido continuously calls him 아저씨, which is more similar to uncle.
This would be my fourth time watching Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy this summer. Although I don’t enjoy watching a few scenes throughout the movie, I really like the movie as a whole. Two particular scenes that are interesting and striking to me are the most are the fighting scene and the last hypnosis performed toward the end of the movie.
ReplyDeleteDuring the fighting scene, I’ve noticed the take is extremely long and there’s a horizontal panning along the hallway. The constant panning back and forth along the hallway has added to the intense situation where it’s one person fighting against the many; the odd is not in the individual fighting against the mob. By the end of the scene, one can see that Daesu is extremely tired with blood coming from his wounds. This can help show how Daesu has become a monster during his imprisonment for 15 years. Also, Daesu had even commented how he cannot return to his previous self as “Oh Daesu” once his quest for revenge is completed.
Going along with the idea of Daesu is now a monster, the last hypnosis done to Daesu was interesting, especially during the scene where the “monster” and normal Daesu will split. During this scene, we saw a reflection of Daesu in the window with a tint of purple and the living Daesu. One is the monster that took revenge, while the other is the normal Daesu that doesn’t know anything. While the hypnosis was being done, the “monster” was supposed to walk away and eventually die at age 70. Interestingly, the figure that walked away wasn’t the purple reflection of Daesu; it was the living figure of Daesu. From this scene, it can be interpreted that the hypnosis had failed or that there will always be a monster inside of every human. Although we may try to get rid of this monster, it would never disappear.
Kevin Gunnels
ReplyDeleteOld Boy is a messed up movie. It is also one of my favorite movies that I have seen several times. This time I decided to look at it with a more cinematic approach (or at least I tried).
The most outstanding place to analyze I feel is the hallway fight scene. Clocking in at about 2minutes and 30 seconds it is a very long take for just about any film. On top of that it is a fight scene where everything needed to be executed perfectly. Oh Daesu fights about 20 people in a single hallway, fighting even though he is stabbed half way through.
The long take here is used to show a lot. The first I would point out is this is the ultimate test of his imaginary training that he did while he was locked up in the room for 15 years. He was locked for so long and did so much training that this cut is used to show that. Next it shows us how much power Oh Daesu has gained during this training. Doing it in one shot while the camera tracks along the length of the hall really shows the stamina and strength of this fight. Had it been broken up into pieces then it wouldn't have showed nearly as much strength.
Kelsey Savoy
ReplyDeleteAlthough this was my 3rd viewing of Park Chan-wook’s hit Oldboy, the film still manages to draw me in with its shocking plot and striking cinematography. The film opens with our future “protagonist”, Oh Daesu , in a series of rapid fire cuts, progressively acting more and more despicable as he drunkenly terrorizes everyone in his vicinity at the police station. Interestingly enough, this is the first characterization of the ‘good guy’ beginning this theme of blurring the lines between hero and monster. While the audience views Daesu as innocent within his prison room, he is bombarded by malicious accusations against him on the television. A close-up shot shows Daesu being literally consumed by ants and transformed into a monstrous figure with the accusations against his character in the background perpetuating that Daesu might be losing himself to the ‘monster’.
Questioning the viewers’ perception of ‘monster’ and ‘hero’, Park almost implicates the audience in Daesu’s revenge. During the scene where Daesu is brutally extracting teeth from the owner of the prison, non-diagetic sound is included to amplify the situation. Beautiful classical music is perfectly intertwined in the background of the scene almost nulling the extreme goriness of the scene and making it satisfying to the viewer. This use of non-diagetic sound, which the purpose of which is for the viewer only, continually makes extremely violent scenes less displeasing to the audience senses and gives the audience the same pleasure that Daesu experiences while enacting his revenge. In the same way that the hypnotism of Mido and Daesu changed their perception of one another, Park Chan-Wook successfully uses pleasing non-diagetic sound to counter violent aesthetics and change the audiences own perception of what it means to be a ‘monster’.
Andrew Song
ReplyDeleteThe movie, Old Boy, is about a man, who is portrayed as a victim at first but eventually reveals the fact as an aggressor in his past. Whole movie is about revenge: revenge of Daesu, who has been locked up in a private prison for 15 years without knowing the reason, against the mysterious man with id “evergreen” seems to be the main plot of the movie. However, as the story gets unfolded, the movie is all about the revenge of “evergreen”, or Woo Jin, who loses her sister because of Daesu revealing the siblings’ inappropriate romance. The reason Woo Jin locks up Daesu for 15 years is to put Daesu in the same situation to fall in love with his daughter who grows up as a complete lady as 15 years pass by. It is controversial that could be very sensitive subject, however, the director Park used his filming ability to make scenes and plots visually stunning, and also powerful and dramatic.
It is interesting that there are many aspects of “exchange”, or idea of a famous proverb “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”. For example, Daesu pulls out Chul Woong’s teeth with a claw hammer, then Chul Woong tries to do the same thing to Daesu. Also Chul Woong’s hand is chopped after he grabs Mido’s breast. Moreover, everything Woo Jin does to Daesu is to make him falling in love with his own daughter that mentally breaks him down. Once Woo Jin says that Daesu speaks too much. And then, Daesu cuts his tongue by himself. Of course, this action describes his guilt of oral mistake. Although the movie provides too much cruelty, sexuality or controversial themes, the movie successfully gives its message with Director Park’s stunning filming technique and shocking scenario.
Katie Allis
ReplyDeleteThis was my first time seeing the film "Oldboy" although many of my friends have recommended it to me before. I was warned about the violence in the film, but to me far more disturbing was the extremes to which the characters minds were twisted. I believe the actor for Daesu was very well chosen because he played crazy unbelievably well. His outward appearance was a clear indicator of the chaos inside his own head, which contrasts very starkly with Woojin, who is every bit as crazy yet lives in an expensive penthouse, is extremely well dressed and well groomed. Despite all of Daesu's efforts, in the end Woojin has ultimate control over him, and Woojin finished his revenge the way he wanted and dies by his own means. Daesu is left with few options and chooses to suppress the knowledge Woojin left him with.
There are hints pretty early in the film as to the identity of the Mido. I knew as soon as he sent Mido to find out about his daughter that it most likely was her, and then thought back to their first meeting where she said "orenmanida" when they had supposedly never met, which to me confirmed it. The fact that Woojin kept pushing them together was another big indicator.
I did find it interesting how Woojin relives his sisters' death right before he kills himself. It suggests to me that the old Woojin died at the same time as his sister, he kept going only for revenge, and once that is complete, he looks back to that time and finally takes his own life in the midst of his memories.
Esther Oh
ReplyDeleteThe use of visuals in Old Boy was appealing. Throughout the movie, I did not notice the music or sounds, but noticed the use of different visual elements and graphics. The film used mostly close shots or extreme close shots to focus on certain things. One scene that really stood out to me was the scene where Dae-Su was covered in ants. There was a close-up shot of the first ant, which really caught my attention. The close-up shots added to the relatively fast pace of the movie and highlighted the twists in the plot.
However, to balance out the close shots, panning the camera was used to make certain scenes stand out more. When Dae-Su fought in the hallway with a hammer, the panning of the camera allowed viewers to see more of what was happening and added to the element of action. This was visually effective in showing how Dae-Su learned to fight in locked up room over 15 years.
Fang-chieh Lien
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have heard about this film “Old Boy” several times before, I actually did not know anything about this film. Hence, I was very surprised by the plot. This film is not only about revenge but also about love and guilty. In the film, Woojin said that “you should not ask why you are prisoned but why you are freed.” It points out that those years are just a necessary period of time, which is definitely not the main part in Woojin’s revenge plan. It seems to me that the reason why those years are necessary is not only because Mido is finally 18 year-old this year, but also because that Woojin wants to reshape Daesu’s personality in order to make this plan more interesting and to bring stronger impact on Daesu’s life.
Woojin believes that the best revenge is to let Daesu go through the same thing which he had been through, and Daesu relies on the hope of revenge to endure the fifteen years. However, there is actually no winner in the end. The revenge of Daesu fails tragically right after he knows the truth. When he loves and wants to protect someone, his revenge will never succeed, for it becomes his weakness. Also, I think Woojin always knows that the rumor was not the only thing that caused his sister’s death, so he feels guilty that he was scared at that time and did not save his sister from falling. When Daesu is begging him not to tell Mido the truth, it seems Woojin is laughing and also crying. Since what keeps him going through all the way down here is the urge for revenge, he now has nothing to do but to deal with his guilt. I believe that this is also the reason of his suicide. The ending of this film was actually very surprising to me, for I thought that Daesu was going to kill himself after he found out the truth. It does not make much sense to me that he ends up choosing to forget and to continue being with Mido. I find this kind of ending very hard to accept.
Laura Markou
ReplyDeleteIt was my first time viewing the highly praised Park Chanwook film Oldboy, and I was not disappointed. Although the story itself is disturbing, the acting as well as the atmosphere of each scene was enticing. I found it interesting that there seemed to be a pattern of using quite bold, dark solid colors in different shapes throughout the film, whether it be the wallpaper, handkerchiefs, or the present boxes. I believe that these bold designs were used to represent how the protagonist Oh Daesu was not control of his own life but rather was being controlled every step of the way from being locked in the room till the end of the film.
Park Chanwook also used several extreme or close up shots to intensify emotion in the film. An example was of Daesu's hands which represented his anger. There were also many of the eyes as the eyes can hold much emotion if the acting is done well.
The ending of the film was actually quite puzzling for me as I was quite unsure of how Daesu wished to live and the expression that he gave in the end seemed to be unreadable. Other than the ending, I felt as though the rest of the film was quite given as themes of revenge, desire, and complicated connections were all present. The scene that I thought was quite cinematically significant was when Daesu was remembering why the antagonist Lee Woojin had despised him so much. There was times where the present day him was there and then the past him I found that to be quite interesting.
Joan Kim
ReplyDeleteOld Boy ends with an unforgettable twist. I left the room feeling disgusted at the fact that the antagonist was in love with his sister and how he forced Oh Dae-Su to sleep with his own daughter for revenge. Nevertheless, with a cinematic approach, I must praise the details in Director Chan-wook Park's film.
The film is about Oh Dae-Su finding out who captured him and confined him in a room for 15 years. Dae-Su is given shelter, food, and service but it is suffocating. The mise en scene -yellow lighting, blood-stained carpet, and a stained bathroom makes obvious that it is a safety hazard physically and mentally. I want to focus on one of the reoccurring images, food. Dae-Su is always given food which shows that the antagonist doesn't want Dae-Su dead. Later, Dae-Su searches for his antagonist by trying every dumpling place that ends with the similar words that he saw. This part was comical because he had to eat dumplings until he threw up... Food is a source of life and it was a clue to Dae-Su's puzzle. Dae-Su also eats a live octopus... Instead of eating something dead, Dae-Su requests for something alive. After getting off the phone with the antagonist, Woo-Jin, instead of cutting up the octopus, he eats it whole. To me, 1) watching this reminded me that eating live octopus is common in Korea 2) Dae-Su was like a monster...
Notes:
-The camera's view is often at a birds eye view or from a long take which made it seem like someone was watching over Dae-Su (which is accurate)
-The voice overs in the film accentuated the thrill of the movie
Old Boy by Park Chan Wook was visually shocking movie. It was hard to see the scenes that involve, ants, hammer,and cutting off Dae Su Oh's tongue. However, in spite of those cruel scenes, I could not stop watching the film because of the fact that main character, Dae Su Oh was trapped for 15 years by unknown man. The director did not show the reason till the near end of the movie, and that was the main reason why this film was loved by so many and considered as the successful film. Personally, I thought that the plot of the film was very interesting, but I could not understand how someone could be so crazy to take revenge on the other by trapping them for 15 years. Because of that, Dae Su Oh became a monster in the prison, and Yoo Ji Tae was able to live for the revenge. Yoo Ji Tae was trying to tell Dae Su that his little mistake can be detrimental and extremely huge to someone, specifically his sister.
ReplyDeleteOne of the great part of the movie, was the extreme close up of the characters. Close up of Dae su watching the television or eating "Gunmando" showed the timeline of his imprisonment life. As time passes by the close up showed his hair growing, and his wrinkles getting deeper. All these scenes depicted perfectly of his physical, mental stage, and I was also able to feel his emotion and his change by looking at the close up of his face. Another part that was interesting to see was the interior of the spaces that appeared in the film. The prison that Dae su lived was very weird with the poster with weird quotes, drawing, and even the pattern wall all gave me the emotion of weirdness, loneliness and alienation. I thought that the space itself could make one person go crazy, and indeed, it did (in case of Dae su) Also... Mido's house and the house where Yoo Ji Tae was hiding all were very old looking, and had a feeling of emptiness, and loneliness. Both the characters, Mido and Yoo Ji Tae looked like that all were suffering from loss of their lovers and suffering from deep loneliness. The one thing, that questioned me was the hypnosis.. it made the plot confusing,and I did not get the ending of the movie.
Shi Hui Chen Lin
ReplyDeleteOld Boy
The film “Old Boy” is a very psychologically disturbing film centering on the theme of revenge and unlawful love. The twisted story is presented through an unusual combination of different camera movements and angles, strengthening its absurdness and the overall feeling of suspense. The opening scene is a low angle shot showing Daesu on the rooftop with another man. It almost felt like Daesu was trying to do harm to the man. The sunlight behind Daesu is so strong that from a low angle the audience cannot see his face. This opening composition along with the edgy background music helps to set the overall tone of the movie—mysterious and suspenseful. The sudden cut brings the audience to a comparably normal life scene of Daesu (a middle-aged man being drunk and brought to the police station). This cut presents a sharp contrast with the opening scene. It responds to the later scene of Daesu splitting into two persons, the old self and the monster.
Apart from low angle shots, the director also employs high angle shots and bird’s eye view. It first occurs at the phone booth when Joohwan discovered Daesu was missing. This high angle shots and ultimately bird’s eye view creates suspense and guesswork from the audience. Another place when such shots occur is when Daesu fainted due to the gas at the hotel-like prison where he was confined. The audience was looking down from the ceiling and saw he lying on the floor. This shot creates a sense of confinement.
Another notable shot is the long tracking shot of the violent fighting between Daesu and the guards of the “prison”. Although it was a violent fighting scene, the camera movement and the background music makes it appear strangely beautiful and almost artistic. Canted angle shots are also used in the movie, most notably with Mido in the scene. When Daesu first met Mido at the restaurant, her back was shown in a tilted angle. In addition, when she was reading Daesu’s notebook in her apartment the next morning, her face was also presented in a canted angle shot. I think these imbalanced shots of Mido give a mysterious air to her character and role while also reflects the twisted relationship between her and Daesu.
Although the storyline is strikingly absurd and disturbing, the presentation and cinematography is very strong and impressing, making it an unforgettable film.
One of the most fascinating features of ‘Old Boy’ was how the tongue and mouth was symbolically used throughout the film. Before Oh Daesu was captured he spoke like a normal human being, and after his release he received numerous comments on the way he spoke (short sentences, harsh tone) which symbolizes his transformation from a person to a beast. When Daesu is released from 15 years of captivity his tongue (taste buds) allowed him to find which restaurant had supplied the dumplings he had eaten for many years that led to the building where he was held against his will. When trying to gain information to figure out the identity of his captor, Daesu pulls out the teeth of the boss. When Woojin claims that it wasn’t his penis that had gotten his sister pregnant but rather Daesu’s tongue which had caused the supposed pregnancy symptoms, the power of the tongue (words/language) is clearly depicted. As Daesu cuts off his tongue this reveals to be the sincerest form of apology as he renounces the knowledge of his past mistakes and the incestuous relationship with Mido, as the tongue relates to knowledge, language and speech.
ReplyDeleteOne of the crucial aspects of the film was the fact that Woojin did not have a real human heart, but rather a pacemaker equipped with a remote control. The heart is a representation of human emotion, and the absence of Woojin’s actual heart depicts his lack of empathy and emotions. Along with this sister’s suicide he himself ceased to exist. His pacemaker did not save his life; it merely served as an extension to his plan of vengeance against Oh Daesu. Throughout the film there were numerous close up shots of Daesu’s beast-like face and hair, and I feel as if the director did this on purpose to enforce the idea and constantly remind the audience that Daesu is no longer a human but rather a beast that is locked on vengeance.
Response to Old Boy
ReplyDeleteBriefly, the theme of Oedipus myth is used as a motive. This is quiet new approach to the subject of theme in Korean cinema because incest is taboo, and forbidden under Confucianism influence. This is too cliché. I want to talk about montages that used in film. Deep focus and Mise-en-scene used in fighting scene in jail corridor, Woojin’s pent house was impressive. Montages used when Daesu visits high school or Woojin’s elevator scene covers different views of characters and also bring in audiences to get involved in different perspective. Through out my experiences of watching movies, the editing skills, use of these skills were good, but eventually sequences that were set were not corresponding together. I guess that’s why I don’t’ mind watching Old Boys again and again.
I want to have what Daesu was wearing; S.T. DuPont Suit. The movie was out in 2003, I was barely a high school students. I watched Old Boy many times, first time in DVD room, several other times from Korean movie channels, or typical holiday movie showing channels. However, I found out that I don’t remember whole story. I remember some parts by parts, and then consider this movie a cliché. It is surprising that this old movie never looked that old. It has been almost ten years since this movie came out and it was fresh. I remember my friends saying watching recorded drama that came out a year ago, complaining about how the style out fashioned. That’s what I like about movie, because it hardly fades its color, tone, and style. I don’t think it depends on how many tickets they sold in box office. I think it is because movie tends to contain art and profitability at the same time.
Joung Eun, Kim
ReplyDeleteOld Boy by Park Chan Wook is one of the movies which you will watch it again and again and be amazed. Park Chan Wook uses many symbols and techniques in the film. First in the beginning, when Daesu disappears from the phone booth, the camera shows the road sign which has an arrow and X mark with the color red. This was surprising because in Korea, I believe that the road marks are usually in white. Color red seem to keep appearing throught out the movie. Also, at the end of the film when Daesu wakes up in the snow and his daughter, Mido comes in a red outfit and hugs him, and tells him, "I love you". I believe that the color red means a question mark or beginning of a tragedy. After the road sign, the next scene was Daesu's prison room and Mido's red outfit shows that they are in love, but after realizing Mido's identity, Daesu can't keep there relationship going, but he can't stop either. Also, in the beginning of the film, when Daesu is in the police station, I liked how Park Chan wook used the camera to become as a police officer talking to Daesu. I thought that was a great way to tell the story and show the characteristics of Daesu.
Oldboy isn’t simply a gory movie focused around revenge. It is also a deep psychological study of how easy it is for people to lose sight of their own humanity if they are pushed far enough. Throughout the film, without spoiling anything, there is a strong motif of the battle between the inner monster lurking in all people and their desire to suppress it.
There are really no heroes or villains in this movie. Seeing the entire movie, the only real emotion one could possibly have for any of the characters is sympathy. They were all so wrapped up in their own destruction that it became impossible for them to escape.
Joung Eun, Kim
ReplyDeleteOld Boy by Park Chan Wook is one of the movies which you will watch it again and again and be amazed. Park Chan Wook uses many symbols and techniques in the film. First in the beginning, when Daesu disappears from the phone booth, the camera shows the road sign which has an arrow and X mark with the color red. This was surprising because in Korea, I believe that the road marks are usually in white. Color red seem to keep appearing throught out the movie. Also, at the end of the film when Daesu wakes up in the snow and his daughter, Mido comes in a red outfit and hugs him, and tells him, "I love you". I believe that the color red means a question mark or beginning of a tragedy. After the road sign, the next scene was Daesu's prison room and Mido's red outfit shows that they are in love, but after realizing Mido's identity, Daesu can't keep there relationship going, but he can't stop either. Also, in the beginning of the film, when Daesu is in the police station, I liked how Park Chan wook used the camera to become as a police officer talking to Daesu. I thought that was a great way to tell the story and show the characteristics of Daesu.
Oldboy isn’t simply a gory movie focused around revenge. It is also a deep psychological study of how easy it is for people to lose sight of their own humanity if they are pushed far enough. Throughout the film, without spoiling anything, there is a strong motif of the battle between the inner monster lurking in all people and their desire to suppress it.
There are really no heroes or villains in this movie. Seeing the entire movie, the only real emotion one could possibly have for any of the characters is sympathy. They were all so wrapped up in their own destruction that it became impossible for them to escape.
The film Oldboy significantly portrays isolation of the protagonist who loses his sense of humanity. Incarceration for fifteen years with repetition of the same patterns of lives and foods is more than enough to turn a man into a monster. Especially the theme of marginalization through isolation is distinct in that marginalization not only generates a sense of revenge, but also the inter-wined relationship between Daesu and Woojin who share a lot of commonness and make neither happy nor unhappy endings. Under an atmosphere of strict surveillance, his life is not only crucified, but also transformed into a soulless animal whose hope for freedom and communication is not allowed. Such aspect is greatly enhanced through the use of geometric patterns of room and its creepy designs of wallpapers. Furthermore use of purple is noteworthy in that the color itself represents death and grief, which correlates with several significant scenes in the film. Daesu was wearing a purple umbrella when he was kidnapped and Woojin’s handkerchief is also purple, which was used to wipe out the blood. Such settings are well suited to emphasize the element of vengeance of the protagonists.
ReplyDeleteDaesu’s imprisonment arose due to the fact that he accidentally spread a rumor of an incestuous relationship of Woojin and Sooah. Also, he ends up having an incestuous relationship with his own daughter, Mido. Daesu and Woojin share quite a deal of common experience between them, and their vengeance against each other facilitates a sense of loneliness and isolation. The scene of Daesu’s bodily disfiguration (especially his tongue) and of eating a live octopus intensifies the sense of extremeness, which can be reflected as his monstrous aspect. Such is crucially expressed through long takes as reflected in the fighting scene of Daesu in the hallway at the prison. The long take is also distinct in the scene of clocking for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, which also represents surveillance. Furthermore close shots about dumpling, camera and recording machine effectively portray the state of Daesu’s emotion, which are also aided by the effect of mono-tone music.
Ng Hui Shin
ReplyDeleteI like how the theme of incest is explored in this film. This ‘taboo’ topic was not only expressed through explicit visual images, but also showcases a double case of incest. One story of incest is already shocking enough, but by including another case of incest into the plot, Park Chan Wook expounds on this shock factor, and thus intrigues us to really think about true love is, and whether love can and should exist between people with blood ties. I also like how classical music is paired with antagonistic or sexual scenes (e.g. sleeping gas, violent scenes), as it sorts of beautifies the film in a morbid manner. Classical music is soothing, but when paired with these scenes, harmony meets discord, and creates a discordant piece of artistic music.
The use of warped images through wide angle lenses at the beginning also emphasize how Daesu is turning a ‘monster’ (e.g. when he was in his room practising boxing). Also, when he imagined the ants coming out of him, the camera circled around Daesu, giving a sense of disorientation as well, and signals the start of him as a ‘monster’. However, at the end, we are left with the question as to whether the monster within Daesu is really dead, or perhaps whether there was any ‘monster’ in the first place. Perhaps the ‘monster’ and Daesu, like all humans, exist as one, and none can really survive without the other. There is an inherent monster within each of us, but the crux lies in whether we can repress this monster, or allow it to transform us.
Sent an e-mail
ReplyDeleteStudent number:2013841579
YoonJu Bae
ReplyDeleteOld Boy by Park Chan-Wook has many gross, shocking visual scenes. The most notable scene in the movie is the ending scene where Dae-su begs Woo-jin for forgiveness and cuts off his on tongue in the meaning of him being careful of what he says from now on. The movie starts and ends with the theme of 'revenge'. Woo-jin locks Dae-su in a private jail for 15 years as a revenge for her sister's death and Dae-su in return, after his escape from the 15 year prison tries to kill Woo-jin for locking him up. This twisted storyline with Dae-su falling in love with her daughter unknowingly is very interesting. Few objects/ body parts such as fried dumplings, the purple package, the cut-off hand, and the tongue are shown in extreme close-ups to inform the audience of its importance in the film. The red geometric patterned walls of the private jail Dae-su was locked in symbolizes the hypnotic state Dae-su was experiencing throughout the 15 years in jail. The lighting is dim or low green tinted in most scenes which suits with the darkness and revenge theme of the film. There are also many long take, handheld technique scenes in Dae-su's series of flashbacks, the street fighting scene and the ending scene where Dae-su and Mi-do meet again in the snowfield hugging each other. There were many notable scenes to be mentioned and could agree to why this film received many attention and awards from the film festivals. Old Boy was very creative in delivering the message of why one needs to be careful in what they say and how a word one says without a bad intention could kill the others' lives.
My initial reaction to Park Chanwook’s Oldboy can be categorized as skepticism towards the film’s climatic scene when Oh Dae-su finds out why he was imprisoned. In the film, Oh Dae-su is solitarily confined for 15 years for telling people that Lee Woo-jin and his sister engaged in sexual activities. Because of this Lee Won-jin’s sister believes she is pregnant and commits suicide. The reason I wasn’t to fond of the movie is that I find it hard to believe that any high school student would engage in sexual intercourse with their sibling. So as engaging as the movie is in the beginning, when it is revealed to the audience why Oh Dae-su was being punished, I found it to be a bit of a unrealistic. Although I can understand why this would create such a thirst for revenge from Lee Woo-jin, I just find it unbelievable that two siblings engaged in sexual activities.
ReplyDeleteHowever what interests me about this movie is the comments on revenge and justice director Park makes. Oh Dae-su desire for vengeance (for being imprisoned) is so strong it overtakes his common sense. In the beginning he only wanted to know why he was being imprisoned but once he found out who and why he insists on revenge. Even when Mido asks him not to go to see Lee Won-jin he ignores her and goes. If he had listen and ran away with Mido he would never have been burdened with the information of knowing that Mido was his sister. In addition there is a saying that comes up several times, “Be it a grain of sand or a rock, in water they sink the same.” Which I think sums up the theme of even the smallest actions can cause harmful outcomes similar to outright reckless actions.
Kevin Ling
Donghee Kim
ReplyDeleteOne of Park Chan-wook’s most poetic vengeance films, “Old Boy” contains many symbolic, poetic factors. The movie starts out with Oh Dae-su, the main character, imprisoned at unknown place for 15 years without knowing the reason why. During his imprisonment, there is a scene where he hallucinates ants crawling out of his arm and eventually his whole body was covered with bunch of ants. As implied by Mido, since ants are insects that always move around in groups, it is possible that lonely people just like Oh Daesu, being alone in tiny apartment for a long time, see or hallucinate ants more than others do. And also from the scene where he eats the living octopus, I could assume how much he wanted to be ensured that he is alive and he is being alive along live things around him by eating that octopus. Additionally, all kinds of media technology have shown the surveillance under the whole world where Daesu draws out this kind of world as the bigger prison of his own.
Moreover, Park utilizes body as the most significant tool to lead on this film. He used frequent close-ups of many body parts. First, the hand is used as the witness to suffering; Oh Daesu marks each year he spent in that apartment by tattooing himself on his own hand. Also the grotesque smile on Daesu’s face and the picture in the room, the face was illustrated as a mask. And this smile relates to the repeated quote from the film which was “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you will weep alone.” Last but not least, from the quote “Be it a grain of sand or a rock, in water they sink the same”, it reflects Oh Daesu not knowing whether he did small or big fault to Lee Woojin in order to get himself imprisoned. According to this line I think that the mouth and the tongue were represented as not only the instrument of truth but also the instrument for transition to monster.
This is like my tenth time watching "Old Boy", but I realize whenever I watch it it is new. "Old Boy" is director Park Chan Wook's trilogy film. It really digs deep into the subject "revenge". It is interesting that how one person's hatred can be transferred into an enormous revenge which eventually mentally kills everyone and even physically kill a human being. The movie is extremely intense and at the same time exciting to watch since there is no space for boredom. However, I know that is why it got really criticized by the film critics who think that this movie is morally wrong. The film critics pointed out that the movie artistically portrays violence in a "cool" way, but the movie itself does not send any message or life lesson.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that this movie has only a lesson such as gossiping about others can lead to someone to suicide, however, it does not give any humanely vision about the world. This is Park Chan Wook's style, and I have a neutral view, but many critics just think it creates fanboys and there is nothing more or less.
I do not have a negative view as the film critics might have. Personally, I think that movie is just a story plot, or a picture frame that can show the script writer or director's really personal view of the world. I do not think the director is a smart person or a scholar to teach or imbed a world's perspective to us. That is why I don't think there is any reason to criticize nor praise a movie. I think film should be criticized only by its technological and methodological reasons. Since, whatever it is a director is just one human being and one small artist who makes a movie.
Perceiving in an artistic view, I really think that Park Chan Wook is a genius in cinematography and art directing. He can really pull it off. The color tone is very grotesque as well as dark, jaded, yet beautiful. I am not sure but I think the color correction is definitely worked on the editing process. Also, the cinematography is wonderful. There are various scenes, that the camera makes a close-up to an object or a human and slowly pans to the right and changes into a totally different setting. This was especially beautiful when Oh Dae Soo in the beginning gets hypnotized and see green grass on his side as the camera moves. The fighting scene was impressive. Oh Dae Soo fights all the guys who worked for the building (prison) and there is a long tracking shot of his fight movement which is really choreographed wonderfully and cool. It is just like one art piece itself. The simply artistic side of the movie was wonderful. However, the story plot was very intricate and sophisticated, however, it does not have a deeper meaning or general view of the world. It is more like a sensational film.
Jeongwon Moon
There are many prevalent cinematic techniques used in “Old Boy” that were apparent to me, such as handheld camera movements, panning that occurs on a pivot around a room, and many close up shots of the characters’ faces. The most prevalent technique that stuck out to me was the focus on Daesu’s mouth and tongue through the use of close and extreme close up shots. Daesu’s mouth communicates language while his tongue leads him to the truth behind his imprisonment, and ultimately his self-destruction. Woojin explains how it was “[Daesu’s] tongue got [his] sister pregnant. It wasn’t [Woojin’s] dick. It was [Daesu’s] tongue”. This basically translates to the rumor Daesu spread about how Sooah had an incestual relationship with her brother, Woojin, that impregnated her and eventually led to her commit suicide. Woojin spent a majority of his life plotting his vengeance and succeeded in making Daesu carry out a similar incestual act. This truth causes Daesu to cut off his tongue in hopes for forgiveness because the audience has observed how his talking always leads him trouble (ex. during the initial scene at the police office, while he interacts with the people who fed him during his imprisonment, etc.)
ReplyDeleteAnother minor detail I noticed was the repetition of the pattern seen on the objects that led back to Woojin. The pattern was found on an umbrella, a handkerchief, an envelope, and on three boxes. The predominant nature of the black base and purple triangles conveyed a hypnotizing effect, possibly foreshadowing the hypnotism that was carried out in order for Woojin to carry out his vengeance.
Won Jae Chang
ReplyDeletePark Chanwook’s film, Old boy, is a powerful and innovative film with lots of evocative imagery and style to spare time. This film begins the story of a man, Daesoo Oh, who was imprisoned fifteen years without knowing the reason and business man becomes a monster as he escapes from the room. The film is mainly about revenge but also include inconvenient topic of incest which is the main cause of revenge. An incestuous relationship between Lee Won-jin and his sister was revealed to the public by Daesoo. Because of this, Lee’s sister has committed suicide because she believed that she was pregnant and feared about it. The revenge was created by his sister’s death toward Daesoo.
The director uses colour saturations and bright colours. There are many long take and handheld techniques used to show Daesoo’s series of flashback and street fighting. One of the best scene was Dae soo Oh’s claw hammer reaction scene. At this scene, director Park takes a symmetrical and side-scrolling view of massive fighting. The audiences are able to see detail of Oh defeating so many thugs by his strength, his strong will and the hammer. Unlike the other film, the fighting was clumsy and desperate. It was more natural combat which makes the scene more realistic to the audience.
Alice Kwon
ReplyDeleteOld Boy
Finally! I have finally watched THE representative Korean film, according to popular consensus. Old Boy did not disappoint, it is very well made film that stays consistently with its vision throughout its entirety. What a crazy plot/screenplay. We watch a man locked up for 15 years for what seems like a very unjustified/minor act and go to his lowest point (licking the shoe/acting like a dog) It makes the evil guy that much more resentful. The film had very interesting elements that seemed other-worldly/artistic? For example, when the ant crawled out of Daesu's skin, we get a super HD close up of Daesu's greenish arm. Choi Min-Sik is an incredible actor. For some reason he reminds me of an old Hollywood movie star, not quite sure who.
My favorite scene in the movie was when Daesu beat up the gang of men in the hallway. The music and layout of the scene was impeccable. By the time Daesu reaches the end of the hallway, one feels a bit relieved and satisfied that Daesu is able to enact some of his revenge in such a cool, bad-ass manner. Super bizarre film but so artistically and poignantly displayed. It makes one question how one harmless action caused an otherwise normal man just trying to lead his life turn into a monster.
Bo Lee
ReplyDeleteThis movie was really interesting to watch. I've seen it before but watching it a second time helped me see more details of the movie that i never noticed before. I realized that WooJin was not the same child actor as the one that acted in the sex scene and the suicide scene. I wondered if this was a mistake by the director or it was a changed to show DalSu imagining the past and imagined it with the current WooJin's face.
I really liked how the director used extreme close up shots on Dalsu's face to show more emotion. This added to the suspense of the movie and to what was to come next. The movie also had a sort of comedy within the intensity of the storyline. At the end of the movie, I wondered if DalSu truly forgot the "secret." Or maybe the two chair at the end represented the "monster" and OhDalSu.
Jihye Park
ReplyDeleteOld Boy (2003)
Old Boy is a mysterious and spooky movie directed by Chan-wook Park. Even though this movie is one of the most popular Korean movies, I’ve never had a chance to watch it. Old Boy is part of the director Park's vengeance trilogy series including Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. Being part of Park's vengeance trilogy films, Old Boy deals with revenge. I could not amazed when Mido was Daesoo's daughter and it was all planned by Lee Woo-jin.
Throughout the movie, the movie centers around Daesoo, and the camera angles and techniques really creates the atmosphere of the movie. Extreme close-ups and strange camera angles of Daesoo all creates Daesoo's emotion and his controlled life in the movie. The beginning of the movie when Daesoo tries to communicate with the stranger through the small hole, or when he tries to smile by looking at a creepy picture on the wall of the room, are examples of how the camera techniques trying to portray character's emotion and twisted and worried feelings.
There are many aspects with morally unacceptable factors in this movie. Love relationship between Woo-jin and his sister, Woo-jin taking control of Daesoo's life for fifteen years, and Woo-jin making Daesoo to love his daughter all because of the revenge; these may be the factors which make the movie so unique and shocking.
When Woo-jin kills himself even though he finally destroyed Daesoo's life by his monstrous revenge, I felt how one's lifelong revenge could be futile and meaningless. The facial expressions of Woo-jin made me to think that even though he was successful in revenging on Daesoo, it was pointless and meaningful. He couldn't achieve happiness even though he destroyed the Daesoo, who destroyed Woo-jin's life. I guess that was the reason why Woo-jin killed himself after his revenge on Daesoo.
(Ju Hyun Lee)
ReplyDeleteThe movie Old Boy by Park Chanwook was remarkably made film that illustrated snowball effect and it's outcomes from a small decision. I mean, there are so much more into the movie like showing loneliness, revenge, love, and Daesu going through psychological problems through out the movie.
In the beginning of the movie, Daesu gets kidnapped and trapped in a room for 15 years by himself. He first gets all crazy and gets mad at people who put him in that room and he gets very lonely when he sees from tv that his wife died. He hallucinates ants, which symbolizes deep feeling of massive lonliness, going all over his body. The director uses extreme close shots to show various emotions on Daesu's face that works perfectly fine with the overall feel of the movie.
This movie is ironically funny because all the events of the movie started from "love" that messed everything up. And because Daesu messed up with everything from the past, Woo jin tries to mess up with Daesu's love as well, and he succeeds.
It was a bit clever thing to show someone suiciding to show how Daesu's characteristic of not caring about other's feeling and emotions, which reflected Daesu's mistake that he made when he was in high school. The man suiciding also foreshadowed how depressing the movie will be untill the end.
Ji Hee Lee
ReplyDeleteOld boy is about this man who got locked in for 15 years without knowing the reason. He collects the shattered clues to figure out who locked him in for what reason. In the movie Old boy, Director Park used body parts like hand, tongue, breast, etc in many scenes to deliver multiple meanings. Daesu uses needle and ink to record the number of years he was imprisoned. Since tattoos are permenant, this act shows how determined he was and how monstrous his vengeance was. Also the owner of the prison gets one of his hands cut off and his chopped off hand was used to threaten Daesu and Mido.
There was a scene where Daesu grabs the octopus in front of him and eats it alive. It almost felt like he’s become a monster. Also Daesu pinch out teeths of the motel owner to find out truth.
Daesu wasn’t able to kill Woojin right away after he found out about the scar on his chest.
He decided to delay his revenge when he learned that heart remote controller.
When the motel owner and his gangs came to his apartment to harass Mido, her breast was showing and this small detail summarized how much she suffered while Daesu was absent in the scene.
Also when Daesu saw Woojin and his sister in the empthy classroom, his sister had her breasts showing and she was actually looking at the mirror to see her ownbody while Woojin was licking her breasts. In this frankly scene, breast was depicted in a sexual way, giving an emphasis to their odd relationship as sibling and lover. When Daesu told his friend about what he saw, it became a rumor, which made the sister kill herself eventually.
Since the director uses the body parts many times, we are able to relate the pain on our own and feel more sympathy.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePersonally engrossed, I cannot deny the fact that this film was not only well made but also remarkably constructured beautifully in terms of mise-en scene. The geometric patterns on the umbrella, presents, arrangement of ants, birds eye view all corresponds with the ungoing buildup of undeniable pathos and what is dreadingly expected by the core question; why is Daesoo trapped for fifteen years, and 'dont even beasts deserve to live.' The score reminded me of the Hollywood feature films such as "The Hours" or the Godfather Trilogy where both films depict thriller psychological trauma, which added to the emotional acceptance of this film. Other than the provoking feeling significantly captured and aimed by the sexual theme of incest, there was an interesting play on the patriarchal power play motifs by Parkchanwook, along the line of JSA in particular comparison. As much as the inconveneince, since the sexual theme is a crucial trajectory of tragedy, such patriarchal twist is a well imosed with the two victimized-mnipulating characters, Daesoo and Woojin. Although Daesoo is portrayed to have become a traditional idea of embodiement of masculinity during the containment, while woojin the opposite: the comparingly feminine and benignly genderizaed culturalized(into photography, practices yoga, etc); daesoo is ultimately emasculated; woojin epitomizes violence and nature of vegeance cloacked in socially what is accepted as femininity. This compositional juxtaposing not only visually but also narratively and conceptually is how Parkchanwook asks the ultimate issue; what is morality itself.
ReplyDeleteKSJ
Due to illness, I am posting my response paper tonight.
ReplyDeleteI was very shocked by the movie Old Boy's presentation of how words can ruin people's lives. Woo-jin and his sister's lives were destroyed by Dae Su's mistake. At first, I could not believe how Woo jin can plot all these revenge on Dae Su. Dae Su not only had to live in a cell trapped for 15 years, but also was forced to fall in love with his own daughter. But, as I watched the movie, I realized how simple words can be brutal. If Dae Su did not say those words to his classmate before he moved to another school, Woo jin's sister would not have gone through all the pain and end up killing herself. And, Woo Jin's life would have been peaceful.
There are a lot of symbolisms in this movie related to words. One was when Dae Su is eating the live octopus. When the octopus is vigorously moving on top of Dae Su's mouth, I felt that it is symbolizing how words can be disgusting and gross. And, it was striking when Woo Jin said to Dae Su that it is not him that made his sister pregnant, but it was Dae Su's tongue. Again, tongue was described as a weapon that can completely destroy one person's life. At the end, Dae Su cuts his own tongue in order to pay for the debts of his sin.
Moreover, I was amazed with how this movie Old Boy revealed how cruel a human can be using unique elements. By isolating Dae Su in a room by himself for 15 years, he could not interact with other people, so when he got out of the room, he forgot all the bad words. Only thing that he interact with was TV, and TV did not show any bad words. Also, only food that Dae Su ate for 15 years was dumplings, and dumplings were the only key to knowing who plotted all this disgusting act. It was very noteworthy how the director set this food item as the clue in the story. Lastly, it was so shocking to find out that Woo Jin raised Mido for 15 years just to revenge on Dae Su. I think this movie is far beyond the imagination.
Melody Chi
ReplyDelete8-5-13
Korean Cinema
YISS, Summer 2013
Prof. Steven Chung
Movie Response: Oldboy
The movie Oldboy uses a lot of circle imagery and a circular sense of time, perhaps to emphasize the inevitability of events in the movie.
For instance, first, the patterns of the wallpaper in Dae-su's prison cell and Mido's "safe room" are both circular; Mido's especially is a pattern of completely circular, repeating suns. Likewise, in Dae-su's first flashback scene of Soo-ah, she is riding her bike in a circle, and afterwards, Dae-su flips (in a circle) over the pull-up bar to dismount and talk to Soo-ah. Circular camera pans are also used often in the film. For example, several times, the camera view spins in a circle around Dae-su, often to signal a moment of realization, an instance in which Dae-su's actions mirror the past, or a time at which Woo-jin's plans are being fulfilled. All of this circular imagery foreshadows the end of the movie, at which point Dae-su and Mido have entered into a (likely doomed) incestuous relationship that mirrors Woo-jin and Soo-ah's. In fact, in Dae-su's final interaction with Woo-jin, it becomes clear that events have come full-circle; Dae-su begs Woo-jin to not reveal Dae-su's identity to Mido in the exact same way that he previously begged his jailors to let him out of his prison room or tell him why he was being held. Similarly, Woo-jin kills himself, and like his sister's death decades before, his death sets another destructive future (this time, between Dae-su and Mido) in motion.
Water imagery is also used throughout the film to foreshadow and underscore this inevitability of events. For instance, Dae-su breaks through the prison room wall and touches the falling rain only the day before Woo-jin releases him from prison. I do not think it is a coincidence that Dae-su is only released after he reaches the outside world, which is clearly represented by the rain that he has been locked away from in his prison room. Instead, introducing the rain into Dae-su's previously sterile and unchanging environment appears to signal that, after fifteen years of stagnation, the next step of Woo-jin's plan (and ultimately, the destruction of Dae-su and Mido through their inevitable incestuous relationship) is commencing. In addition to Dae-su's environment, Woo-jin's home also contains water imagery. Woo-jin's penthouse is decorated with canals of water that surround a central point where Woo-jin stands in his final interaction with Dae-su, and one of the penthouse walls also contains a picture of an immense wave of water. Finally, and most obviously, Soo-ah kills herself (or is killed by Woo-jin) by plunging into a river. Water is an ideal form to embody the inevitability of events in the movie, as water (such as the ocean) repeats the same movements over and over again, and is also an unstoppable, destructive force.