Chan Wook Park’s Oldboy is as
grippingly thrilling and torturing to watch at times. To describe the plot as
“A guy gets locked in a room for fifteen years and doesn’t even know why?”
right away makes you want to watch this movie. The agonizing idea of being
locked up in a room with only a crappy TV, a journal and your thoughts to keep
you company is brutalising enough. With no chance to escape the only way to
freedom seems to be suicide. But even suicide is out the question because you
would only be saved by your captors and be locked in the room once again.
The constant suspense that keeps
you on the edge your seat is fuelled by the psychological agony of the
protagonist. Chan-wook Park creates an atmosphere of the unknown and with the
protagonist Dae-su Oh (Min-sik Choi) we embark on a journey of discovering
something we could never of guessed or comprehend.
Whenever I think about Oldboy I
always remember what Dae-su Oh’s question “If they had told me it was going to
be fifteen years, would it have been easier to endure?” The same question
always goes through my mind but even after ten years I still cannot answer
it. To be locked up and imprisoned for
fifteen years is a heavy price to pay. But to be caged in a room for fifteen
years without even knowing why is honestly indescribable. It is a question of
“Why?” that would drive me insane not the prison itself. This is what makes
Oldboy such a compelling film to watch. In the film we see the mystery of
Dae-su Oh's imprisonment unfold, the intensely dark visceral acts of revenge he
embarks on and in the end we are left with a devastating experience.
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