OLD BOY (Park Chan-wook, 2004, South Korea) The second film of his revenge trilogy packs a wallop like a hammer-blow to your skull, or the sharp metallic taste of steel and blood like a razor cut to your tongue. (BTW, both happen to our protagonist). And I have not even mentioned the live octopus eating scene...yes, you just won't fucking believe it. Oh Dea-su is kidnapped and locked in a room for 15 years; food and essentials are brought to him by strangers and he is never told who is responsible. Or why. When he is mysteriously released he vows to kill the one responsible. But our hero doesn't ask himself the right question: it's not WHO locked him up but WHY was he released! Much plot twisting, head-splitting, teeth-pulling, tongue-cutting leads to the final answer. Just don't open the fucking purple box. (A)
It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
OLD BOY (Park Chan-wook, 2004, South Korea) The second film of his revenge trilogy packs a wallop like a hammer-blow to your skull, or the sharp metallic taste of steel and blood like a razor cut to your tongue. (BTW, both happen to our protagonist). And I have not even mentioned the live octopus eating scene...yes, you just won't fucking believe it. Oh Dea-su is kidnapped and locked in a room for 15 years; food and essentials are brought to him by strangers and he is never told who is responsible. Or why. When he is mysteriously released he vows to kill the one responsible. But our hero doesn't ask himself the right question: it's not WHO locked him up but WHY was he released! Much plot twisting, head-splitting, teeth-pulling, tongue-cutting leads to the final answer. Just don't open the fucking purple box. (A)
