As I noted last week, the Koreans know what they’re doing when it comes to making movies.  Some of the best horror movies I’ve watched in recent years have been either Korean or South American (and Spanish filmmakers are up there, too).  Needless to say, I’ve been on a bit of a Korean film kick.

After last week’s review of 2024’s Exhuma, I took Ponty’s advice and watched Oldboy (2003).  As Ponty promised, it is one twisted film, but absolutely exquisite.  I can see why he dubbed it his “favourite Korean movie.”

The movie opens in 1988 with our protagonist, Oh Dae-Su, drunkenly causing a ruckus at his local police precinct (right after an awesome opening scene of Oh Dae-Su holding a man by his necktie over the edge of a building in 2003).  It’s his daughter’s birthday, but he’s soused to the gills and making a nuisance of himself.  His friend Joo-hwan picks him up at the police station, and while on a phone call with Oh Dae-Su’s wife and daughter, Oh Dae-Su disappears.

He wakes up in what appears to be a crappy motel room, in which he is trapped for an indeterminate length of time.  His meals arrive through a pet door, and each night he is gassed so he will sleep—and so his invisible captors can clean his room, tend to his self-inflicted injuries, and the like.  Days turn into weeks into months into years, and Oh Dae-Su’s only outlet to the rest of the world is television.  He also fills journals with confessions of his personal failures, and spends his time working out and punching the hotel wall to toughen himself.  It is clear that Oh Dae-Su is planning revenge for when he finally escapes his confines—or, perhaps, he is just incredibly bored.

Finally, Oh Dae-Su is released, and must begin piecing together the identity of his invisible captor, and why he was locked up in this strange prison for so long.  To thicken the sauce, Oh Dae-Su has been hypnotized before his relief, the purpose of which is unclear at this point in the film.  He soon links up with Mi-do, a young and notable female sushi chef (according to the film, women are rarely sushi chefs, because their hands are too warm and heat up the fish), who helps him in his quest to discover what happened to him—and to take revenge.

So much of the fun of the film is that the audience is along for the ride with Oh Dae-Su.  The film feeds clues like breadcrumbs, revealing just enough more information that we can follow the investigation along with our protagonist.  It is a mystery, an action film, and a revenge fantasy rolled into one.  The film also probes challenging questions about family, and how our seemingly insignificant choices in our youths can come back to haunt us in terrifying ways.

The film is incredibly violent and visceral.  It is legendary for a lengthy, single-shot fight sequence that, when I watched it, felt like a video game, as Oh Dae-Su takes on a room of young Korean thugs in a brutal fistfight.  There is dental torture (just use your imagination).  There is a lot of blood and guts.

In spite of all of that violence, it pales in comparison to the twist of all twists.  When you watch the movie, there will be a moment where your realize it before Oh Dae-Su (at least I did), and your jaw will drop and your heart will break for our hero.

Definitely see Oldboy.  Ponty’s praise for it is not exaggerated.  It’s currently on Netflix, so check it out!