Everyone has someone or something that’s against them, don’t they? At least in their heads. Whether it’s something as big as the government, the next-door-neighbor who is always playing loud music late at night, the fellow employee who got a promotion over you, and so on. Because we all have our little worlds built of our dreams, aspirations and beliefs, don’t we? And if we have an antagonist, an opposing force that through words or actions would attempt to prevent our happiness, then it makes the things we think and the things we want seem far more important than they would be otherwise, don’t they? At the very least it gives us an excuse for when we fail, or a reason not to try something at all. Sometimes it’s even the act of opposing these antagonists that give us purpose in life, a foundation of hate with which to build our entire lives around. Is it healthy? Maybe not, but it’s a good way to pass the time at least.
So it goes for Oh Dae-su, the protagonist of Oldboy (winner of the 2004 Palme D’or award at the Cannes Film Festival) One night, after a belligerent evening spent in a police station, Dae-su is kidnapped by a mysterious group and imprisoned in a mysterious hotel room. There’s food, there’s tv and running water, but there’s no way to leave and there’s no way to know where this hotel is located. The only option to to sit and wait as time passes. All by yourself.
15 years later, Dae-su is finally released from this purgatory, his mind cloudy from over a decade of isolation and enigmatic drugs. Who put him into that hell? For what reason? Therein lies the mystery, and Dae-su will journey deep into a world of sex, violence and human misery in order to discover the truth. Problem is, sometimes you’re better off ignorant.
The problem I have with Oldboy is the same problem I had with Black Mirror, a British anthology series you might have heard your friends rave about: at a certain point, it’s not really drama, it’s melodrama. The first half of the movie, where we see Dae-su dealing with confinement and when he’s starting his path of vengeance? Very interesting, very entertaining, but as we learn more and more about the truth, the logical leaps one has to make in order for this story to make sense become more and more difficult. It’s like,if you have to make so many assumptions about a story, if you have to have so much faith that this conspiracy spread out over 15 years managed to work out perfectly without any problems involved ever, then why even bother acting like it’s a mystery at all? Because if you’re going that far with it, it’s not a mystery, it’s a child on the playground saying ‘nuh uh, because actually my cape was also magic dinosaur proof all along’. It’s not telling a story, it’s forcing a narrative.
Sorry if I seem a little harsh, but the last 20 minutes are enough of a masochistic slog that it’s color my opinion of the entire movie. Still, it’s a violent, sex-filled movie that is actually pretty funny on occasion, so if you’re into seeing people do dental work with a claw hammer, this might be the movie for you. Just don’t order the octopus.
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