Movie Review
The Old Man (2003) is a high-octane revenge drama from South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, steeped in the neo-noir action thriller genre. The film is the second part of Park’s Revenge Trilogy, which was preceded by Mr. Revenge Sympathy (2002) and followed by Lady Revenge (2005).
The film is not a typical entertainer – not a light watch and definitely not for the faint or soft hearted as it delves into taboo subject matter and is liberally laced with violence and gore.
What this movie is about is a profound and thought-provoking piece of cinema. It’s a classic and has gained cult status over the years. It was praised by critics worldwide and received numerous awards including the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and was praised by the chairman of the jury, renowned filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.
Oh Dae-su is an ordinary middle-class man, played brilliantly by veteran actor Choi Min-sik. A heavy drinker, he gets a little drunk and ends up at the local police station. If it’s his little girl’s birthday, never mind. It is late at night when his friend No Joo-hwan (Ji Dae-han) bails him out.
They stop by a phone booth to wish on Dae-sun’s daughter, but when Joo-hwan turns around, there’s no sign of the man. It’s like Oh Dae-su just disappeared off the face of the earth,
Dae-su finds himself imprisoned in what looks like a dingy hotel room with nothing but a television to give him any explanation for the next 15 years. Just like that, he is suddenly freed one day and has 5 days to find answers to all his burning questions or…
The film explores the theme of revenge but does not glorify it. It’s about a man who is estranged from his family and sent to hell for no fault of his own. The initial anger and insult gradually give way to philosophical appreciation and a certain degree of tolerance. Dae-su asks himself if he could have endured his captivity better if he knew why.
He begins to write, a kind of autobiography of his deeds, a confessional, reaching a certain level of self-analysis, having lived alone for years. He writes about all the people he’s hurt or wronged, and realizes that he’s committed enough sins for what he thought was an average life.
But 15 years in solitary confinement is a long time for any human being to lose all trace of human empathy. A number of sequences show that our man is in a ruined state. Oh Dae-su has a kind, come back from the dead. Social decency, patience, and compassion were overshadowed by a volcano of rage fueled by an unbridled desire for revenge. There is a pearl of folk wisdom – beware of a person who has lost the fear of shame and death.
One interesting thing about this movie is its unpredictability and its ability to send a deeper shock wave in every segment. And each segment leads to a new set of questions.
And interestingly, just because he’s out of his private prison doesn’t mean he’s free. Oh Dae-su realizes that he has just been put in a bigger prison and is under constant surveillance. He is more like a puppet on strings, manipulated to do the bidding of his depraved and depraved captor. In fact, leaving his private cell plunges him into an even deeper layer of hell.
“Old Boy” has overtones of Greek tragedies, and the name Oh Dae-su is reminiscent of the famous classical Greek character Oedipus Rex (see “Old Boy” for the connection). In keeping with the Greek theme, Lee Woo-jin’s character (portrayed by the enigmatic Yoo Ji-tae), the captor is likely reminiscent of the Greek God Apollo, handsome, strong and brilliant.
Despite being the same age, he looks younger and stronger than Oh Dae-su. Woo-jin is rich and powerful, lives in the heavens (tall building) and knows everything. In other words, Oh Dae-su is under constant surveillance. Lee Woo-jin is a classic antagonist with a soul darker than hell.
Oh finds a convenient scapegoat in Dae-soo due to an incident at school that he is responsible for but cannot bear the blame for. Oh Dae-su, on the other hand, is (more or less) flawless and was destroyed through no fault of his own. But he is human, and his desire for revenge makes him as fatally flawed as the heroes of Greek tragedies.
The film traces his metamorphosis from a loud, lovable, harmless scoundrel to a silent, brutal warrior with a singular agenda not to seek answers to his questions but also to avenge his suffering.
Later, when Oh Dae-su finds answers to all his questions, falls deeply in love with Mi-do and lives happily with her, she gives him wise advice to stop his revenge on Woo-jin and start a new life. somewhere far away. If he had listened to her, he would not have completely stripped himself of all dignity and humanity in the end.
Both Lee Woo-jin and Oh Dae-su are driven by revenge because they both believe they were victims. In fact, revenge is one of the main causes of violence in human history.
And Old Boy shows how this extreme thirst can completely destroy itself. It doesn’t matter if one takes revenge or not, the degradation is so complete that they never regain their humanity.