Force Fed Films: "Oldeuboi" (2003)

 Most of the time when Jim gives me a movie, I usually have no interest of watching it. Hence the name, Force Fed Films, but it is different in the case of this movie. “Oldeuboi” (Oldboy in English) was described to me many of times before, but a very brief description and a fight scene. I was instantly interested. And being a foreign movie, I knew this was going to a fairly nutty movie. But here is the problem; I hate being told about movies before watching the movies. I easily over-hype myself up for any upcoming movie. I am just really hoping this movie deliver what I was expecting.


We start off with Dae-su Oh being kidnapped and put into this weird prison room after being released from the drunk tank. The world eventually considers him a missing person. Dae-su slowly goes crazy in his room, but it isn’t any regular prison cell. He gets fed, groomed and even has a bathroom and bed to himself. Talk about luxury, dorm rooms aren’t even this nice. But the fun starts when he is released after 15 years in this hell hole. Dae-su has nothing, no family, and no friends and is left with one goal in life. To find out who did this and why did they did this.

Dae-su goes crazy real early on. But that is only one of his many personas. 

This movie is filled with so many great themes, and a few disturbing ones. Just the whole idea of a man trapped in a room for 15 years is interesting as it is. They show his evolution from a pathetic man to this sort of badass very uniquely. It isn’t just some sort of linear montage of him working out and writing down deep thoughts onto a book. No, instead the tone of the movie follows his train of thoughts. It starts off real goofy, than as he develops, the mood gets a lot more serious. And all this is great, because it really gets your head into what Dae-su is thinking. 

Now the best part of the movie is the thriller aspect, with Dae-su trying to hunt down his punisher. Like I said before, when he is set free the movie takes on a whole different turn. First half of the movie has a very mellow, but grotesque, flow laying down the story. But then it picks up to this unique cat vs. mouse chase. Dae-su is given 5 days to solve the mystery on why his punisher put him in that room. If he can’t get this done, his lover dies. Now the following hour that show the five days, possess some of the most intense scenes I’ve watched in a long time. With the mix of unique twists and shocking scenes, there is never a time where I felt I knew what was going to happen next. 

Now I want to bring up the unique fight scene where Dae-su battles a bunch of thugs in a narrow hallway. He takes the “300” approach of narrowing down a large number of enemies into a narrow space and takes them on in lesser quantities. The whole scene is shot like if you were playing one of those levels on a 2D side scrolling plat former, where the screen keeps moving and you need to keep pace with the camera. And if you don’t keep up, you die. Think of that, but live action and with stellar stunts. Because the camera keeps on moving, the fights seem to be so fluid. If you don’t get to see the whole movie, make sure you get to see this one scene.

When you think you understand is when you actually don't really understand what is going on.

What let me down, and this has nothing to do with the movie being bad. I guess I was expecting more of a graphic movie, but don’t get me wrong. Watching a man get his teeth pulled out is disturbing, but none of that is actually seen. I guess all those Takashi Miike movies have desensitized me. Instead of the blood and gore that was supposed to freak me out. What really got me is the weird sexual perversion they touched on. That was probably the most awkward moment of the whole movie, at least for me.

Now before I let you guys go. I want to bring up one last part that was interesting. The movie plays a lot with perception. You will be dropped in the middle of scene, and you can piece along what you think is actually happening. When the movie revisits that scene, now with all that knowledge of the upcoming events, the scene will appear completely different now. They do this a good number of times.

In the end, the movie is fantastic. It is a great mystery thriller movie by all aspects. I was always being led down a trail I had no idea where it would stop and the shock scenes had me on my toes all through the movie. I really didn’t get into this, but the acting is just great by everyone especially Min-sik Choi who played Dae-su. Check this out before the remake that Wesley Snipes is working on.