Oldboy

Before I watched Oldboy, I had read rave reviews on the internet. I knew that this path-breaking Korean movie enjoyed a cult status and there was no self-respecting movie aficionado who will pass this movie unnoticed.

The story of a regular guy imprisoned for 15 years for no reason at all and his saga of bloody revenge when he gets out of incarceration was just too mind-blowing and attractive to miss. Previous revenge movies immortalized by Quentin Tarantino still hold a special place in my personal movie hall of fame and I wanted to badly watch Oldboy.

So it was with great anticipation and eagerness that I at last started watching it on a weekday night.

When the 1.5 hours long movie finally got over, I instantly disliked it. Except for its gory violence and stylized cinematography, I did not find anything worth appreciating. In fact, I was appalled, shocked and surprised by the climax’s mind-bendingly twisted surprise.

Disliked is a mild word though, I actually loathed the film in first viewing. It was like watching some snuff movie which I could not imagine, understand and/or accept (except, of course, its not a snuff movie at all.)

This was my first reaction to this movie.

Over the next week or so, I constantly thought about Oldboy. It was like a bad song that you just can’t get out of your mind. And the more I thought about it, the more it dawned upon me why the movie has earned its cult status.

I realized that Oldboy is much more than mindless action and horrific violence brilliantly picturised. Behind the crazy violence of the anguished, tormented hero lay a deep story of insurmountable sadness, guilt and a need to redeem what was lost. This sadness, this grief is actually the essence of the film. The true reason of the violence and the reason why the characters behave the way they do.

The director has bravely taken a bizarre event that I could never imagine and converted it into something brilliant. So although the audience (like me) is not prepared for the gruesome reality, they will ultimately see that in case of an event of this magnitude happening in anyones life, the person will behave as irrationally as the characters in the movie did. The movie manages to shake the minds, hearts and the very thoughts of the viewers and that is the triumph of the movie.

Oldboy is a twisted movie by all accounts, but it is twisted because you as a viewer are not able to accept the directors vision and keep searching for an alternate answer. Unfortunately, this movies does not provide any and that makes its anguishing and brilliant at the same time.

And I am a convert and a part of the Oldboy cult.