Old Boy (2003), the second in South Korean director Chan-wook Park’s ‘Revenge Trilogy’, (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance 2002, Lady Vengeance 2005), tells the story of Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-Sik), who wakes one day to find himself in a small room with only a television as company. Kept in solitary captivity for fifteen years, he is finally released, emerging a different man, one whose emotions and need for affection is raw, and whose entire being is hell-bent on revenge. The question that has been torturing him all these years: Who took his life away from him and why?
It is a tragic story, with fabulously shot fight scenes, top notch acting, and psychological twists and turns that would make Hitchcock proud. You will be thinking about this film days after seeing it as how could one forget so quickly the devouring of a live octopus (4 were definitely harmed in the making of this film) or the extraction of teeth with the help of a hammer.
Violent and gritty but not meaningless, this film asks questions of us all. Is it better to seek revenge, or truth? Is ignorance bliss? And once vengeance is had, what is there left in life?
The entire trilogy is a must see in my book.
Rated R for strong violence including scenes of torture, sexuality and pervasive language
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