“Oldboy” is the finest example of a cult film we have in the 21st Century. “Pulp Fiction,” “Fight Club,” “American History X,” “Memento”: all these movies have attained ubiquity to some extent, the Internet uniting all these factions to raise these movies from the underground and into the mainstream. All it means to be a cult film today is to have a ravenous fan base or for a passionate fan base to emerge when the mainstream wasn’t there to swoop it into the stratosphere.
“Oldboy” on the other hand has the same kinetic style, the same cryptically impossible story and the same rebellious themes of the classic cult favorites, and because it comes from Korea, it somewhat has the capability of flying beneath the radar, able to be made into an American studio film by Spike Lee without ruffling too many feathers.
In a way, “Oldboy” is a standard revenge drama. Oh Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) is a flawed, but good man driven to pitifulness by alcohol, and he is abducted without explanation and forced to right a wrong done to his family. Later when he is freed, he will meet a beautiful girl to help him on his journey, he’ll get a mysterious phone call from a suave sounding villain, and he’ll become a Charles Bronson-esque vigilante skilled in combat. The cryptic nature of the mystery will culminate into an epic twist and climax, and many will be killed along the way.
It’s pulpy violence dramatized in the usual ways, with tragic melodrama, psychological parables and the utmost cinematic craft. But what sets “Oldboy” apart is its willingness to test the limits of that narrative structure. Oh Dae-su’s fate to be imprisoned in a hotel sized room for 15 years with no solace or explanation other than the TV is a monumental scale up on the good-man wronged trope. We’re provided more clarity than Dae-su has, but the Lynchian and Bunuelian visuals and camera angles skillfully keep us in the dark as well.
Upon escape, we can immediately sense the lengths that he will go, but no one anticipates the shock of seeing Dae-su eat an octopus live and whole. “I want to eat something alive,” he says, suggesting that he needs completely to consume the life that was taken from him.
Even the brutality itself is not purely cathartic. One of the famous shots is a lengthy tracking shot along the missing 4th wall of a narrow corridor. Using a hammer and his fists, Dae-su overcomes a swarm of baddies and a knife in his back to reach the other side. The image is full of visceral pleasures, but the nature of the composition says otherwise, a choreographed masterpiece that compliments the orchestral score and a stylized, precise visual but captured in an unpolished way. This is a revenge story with layers and rough edges, perfectly appropriate for the 21st Century.
Then of course is the twisted reveal at the film’s preposterous finale. Frankly I found the ending unmotivated, unexplained and too grandiose in proportion, but those familiar with Director Chan-Wook Park’s most recent film “Stoker” may recognize, understand and appreciate the forbidden sexual chemistry that permeates throughout both films’ precise arrangement.
Spike Lee on the other hand is a very different director. It will be interesting to see what themes he brings to this challenging story in a studio setting, although one can bet it won’t really involve eating a live octopus whole.