Oldboy (2003) dir. Park Chan-Wook
Abducted on a rainy night in 1988, the obnoxious drunk, Oh Dae-Su, much to his surprise, wakes up locked in a windowless and dilapidated hotel room, for an unknown reason. There, his invisible and pitiless captors will feed him, clothe him, and sedate him to avert a desperate suicide–and as his only companion and a window to the world is the TV in his stark cell–the only thing that helps Oh Dae-Su keep going is his daily journal. Then, unexpectedly, after fifteen long years in captivity, the perplexed prisoner is deliberately released, encouraged to track down his tormentor to finally get his retribution. However, who would hate Oh Dae-Su so much he would deny him of a quick and clean death?
The film won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and high praise from the President of the Jury, director Quentin Tarantino. The film has been well received by critics in the United States, with film critic Roger Ebert stating that Oldboy is a “powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare”. The film also received praise for its action sequences, most notably the single shot fight sequence. It has been regarded one of the best neo-noir films of all time and listed among the best films of the 2000s in several publications.
‘Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone.’
Runtime: 2h
Venue: Harrie Massey LT
