I first discovered the works of Park Chan-wook in his beautiful, but tragic film, JOINT SECURITY AREA, a drama about the unlikely friendship between a group of North and South Korean border patrol soldiers. The film easily became a favorite amongst audiences as it gave more insight on the mental and political struggle of the Korean people, and it did so by merely capturing camaraderie in the most honest, cinematic light. The director followed up JSA two years later with SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, a somewhat similar tragedy about a deaf man who extorts a wealthy industrialist by kidnapping his daughter. SFMV fell like a domino rally of unfortunate occurrences that took its players calm, good people to those who were capable of anything. The true antagonists in both JSA and SFMV were intangibles, which in turn, created individuals that were truly products of their environment. Warring countries, racism, lack of income for personal healthcare, physical handicaps, unemployment, politics, and amongst others were the undertones and invisible forces shaping Park’s characters. The magic in Park’s stories is the ability to put regular folks with everyday workingman troubles in extraordinary situations, not to shine or overcome great obstacles, but to test their demons. In his new film, OLD BOY, it is no different.

Imagine being locked up in a room with nothing but a television set. Your only source of information and contact to the outside world would be presented through sitcoms, movies and infomercials. It would become your friend, lover, and entertainer. Though, you would never be satisfied with the company. The only food you were fed were the same dumplings day in and day out. No matter how much you tried, you could never escape. Though, after fifteen years, you were finally released. What is the first thing you would do? Who would you call and what would your first meal be? For Oh Dae-su, the protagonist of OLD BOY, he would come out with the frenzied desire to find out why and who; to kill the person who imprisoned him by doing so in the most painful, slowest way possible.

What would follow upon Oh Dae-su’s discharge would be a raving rampage of sheer vengeance that would lead him to analyze every important and insignificant action of his life; things he would have never thought of if he had not been imprisoned. It is surprising that he was able to use the skills acquired in his confinement, the knowledge gained from television and the fighting ability from his shadowboxing to get through the brute, physical complications and to solve the mysteries and puzzles that lay ahead. Perhaps it was through urgency and desperation that made him the vigorous and determined man he became. His aptitude in both intelligence and physical prowess developed during the last 15 years exceeded even his own expectations.

Throughout the course of the film, Oh Dae-su gives a running monologue that leads us every step of the way. His rationalization is quirky and has a childlike profundity to it, serving him both well and poorly in his actions. The monologues are so naturally and realistically executed that it immediately conjures up the narratives of Wong Kar Wai films, which in turn, also creates a similar somber atmosphere and mood that Oh Dae-su navigates in. This adds so much to the characterization because we are immediately sympathetic to his rationalized evils. For the sake of the film, he may be on the positive side of the revenge spectrum, but it ends up becoming much grayer as the story builds on.

Without revealing anymore (as it would spoil the film), OLD BOY is a meticulously crafted masterpiece. While its direction, cinematography and story are its muscles, the character of Oh Dae-su, played astoundingly by Min-sik Choi, is the true heart of the film. His character is either a successful experiment on repercussion or a dangerous tour in inner turmoil. Either way, OLD BOY does what most films are incapable of doing: to entertain by analyzing meaningful and significant emotional pain. When the reveals are revealed and the reversals are reversed, people will be talking about Park Chan-wook’s OLD BOY and its ending for a long, long time.