Cringe, but don't look away.
The makers of
Old Boy
have obviously never heard the expression "revenge is a dish best served cold." This film is pulsing with a white-hot revenge that burns steady through to the final frame.
As the film opens we meet Daesu (Min-sik Choi), a loudmouth restlessly waiting for someone to pick him up from the drunk tank. After being released into the custody of a friend, Daesu disappears on a busy street, blending into the crowd in the pouring rain.
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He finds himself trapped in a hotel room where unknown captors regularly bring him food and gas him to make him sleep. He keeps time with the television, his only companion, and begins chronicling his captivity in a journal. Swearing revenge, he begins training himself to fight and trying to figure who his tormentors are. After 15 years he is finally released, equipped with a cell phone, cash and clothes, but his captors' plans are only beginning. What unfolds is an elaborate labyrinth of clues that lead Daesu to the truth behind his long internment.
The film is filled with staggering and unflinchingly brutal violence, at times capable of making even the most desensitized viewer cringe. Armed with a hammer, Daesu mows down dozens of thugs only to be confronted with a fresh batch, filling a hallway and an elevator with their beaten bodies. Throughout the film, Choi looks like Charles Bronson with a rock 'n' roll haircut as he stumbles around soaked in
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blood and covered in bruises. Director Chan-wook Park (
The Humanist
) doesn't stop there, graphically detailing a torture scene that feeds fear of the dentist.
Old Boy
plays with its primary theme by offering Daesu a choice between exacting his revenge and knowing the truth about his imprisonment. His captor is discovered relatively early in the film, but the why is left unanswered until the bitter end.
The film at times loses its focus, confusing an already complicated plot and the running time seems much longer due to the gruesome images and subject matter. Park never resorts to mere shock or gore, however-surprising considering how much blood soaks the celluloid. The result is the strange sensation of a satisfying trip through hell detailing the catastrophic results of a man's quest for revenge. With
Old Boy
, that classic dish may have found a new recipe.
