Reviewed by Tim Gray

WATCHING Old Boy, one wonders why the whole of Taranaki rolls out the red carpet when Tom Cruise comes to town, yet Park Chan-wook doesn't get so much as a mention on TV One's Headliners for shooting the surreal epilogue to (the Cannes Grand Prix winning) Old Boy in Aotearoa. Whatever the case, New Zealanders who missed Old Boy at last year's International Film Festival have the opportunity to repent their sins by making their way directly (do not pass "go", do not collect £200) to the film upon its release on the 14th of April.


No amount of "waxing lyrical" will account for this genre-defying surreal revenge blockbuster. Old Boy is in equal parts a gory revenge flick, a tender love story, a glamorous crime thriller as much as it is an investigation into desire, guilt and memory (and its dysfunctions). The result of this is a sure-fire audience divider, and everyone should find something to love, and be repulsed by, within the film.

The film centers on Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a dissatisfied businessman who at the onset of a mid-life crisis wakes up to find himself victim to an unexplained and unaccounted fifteen-year incarceration. Living 1988-2003 in an 8x8 room with little more than a television, a needle and thread and a diary, Dae-su is eventually freed as inexplicably as he was imprisoned, but not before hearing of the murder of his wife, and is sent spiraling into a quest for answers and bloody, bloody revenge. This culminates in a surreal climax with one of the most malevolent villains to appear outside of a Bond film.

Just as Park's tale threatens to regress onto the well-travelled highway of revenge movie cliché, he serves up helpings of dramatic intrigue and utter bewilderment by the ladleful, pointing to much deeper concerns and highlighting the paradox implicit throughout the film. His tightly-spun narrative steps outside of the realm of the genre film by admitting to the consequences of seeking "satisfaction".

In Old Boy, revenge makes monsters of men. It is a void, the pursuit of which will not yield satisfaction, but rather leads to Dae-su's realisation at the end of the film – that his pain is better forgotten than avenged. Park teases us, first offering revenge as a cathartic outlet to our hidden rage but then invalidating it as a pathetic tool of those with guilty consciences to redress their past wrongs by blaming them on others, destroying them, and hence purging these memories of significance. In this way, revenge becomes a shameful act of self-destruction, a means of externalising pain with a view to destroying it.

Born into a Renaissance of revenge films, Park's characters are equally self-absorbed and egotistical as any one might find in Kill Bill. But unlike Tarantino, Park seems comfortable with cultivating a genuine love story within the movie, the consequences of which raise interesting philosophical issues, in contrast to the bitter cynicism that made Kill Bill Vol. 2's conclusion that much less satisfying.

This is supported by a stellar performance by Choi Min-sik, who makes an easy conversion from a broken man to a depraved blood-lusting killer: this dentist makes house calls! This performance is consolidated by one of the most evocative and convincing moments on the silver screen ever at the climax of the film.

Park achieves all this with lush, richly-detailed shots, and seamless transitions between scenes, time and geography. Only occasionally does he resort to sepia tones, and the prevalence of fresh, colourful images sustains the dreamlike atmosphere. Accompanying this is a memorable soundtrack to heighten the surreal experience at critical moments – Vivaldi's Four Seasons has never sounded so dread-inducing.

Ultimately, Park succeeds in threading together an original and memorable narrative, and while Old Boy presents revenge in far more glamorous terms than did Park's 2002 revenge gut punch, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the savage conclusion ensures that revenge is no more satisfying here. Whatever the case, Old Boy justifies itself as a worthy Grand Prix winner, and will doubtless have audiences biting their tentacles...er, tongues.