There's a Live Action, Too?!- Old Boy

Old Boy was made in 2003 in South Korea. It is based on a manga by the same name written by Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobuaki Meinegishi. This movie is not to be mistaken for The 2013 american verison titled Oldboy.

In 1988, Oh Dea-Su is arrested for drunken behavior, missing his daughter's fourth birthday. His friend, Joo-Hwan, picks him up from the police station. On the way home to Dea-Su's house they call his family to let them know his whereabouts. While Joo-Hwan talks to Dea-Su's wife, Dea-Su is kidnapped with out a trace. He wakes up in a hotel like room were he is locked up alone. He has no human contact or explanation for his kidnapping. He is frequently gasses with mind altering drugs. Dae-Su soon learns through news reports his wife has been murdered and he is the prime suspect. He passes the time shadowboxing, planning revenge, and secretly attempting to tunnel out of his cell.
In 2003, exactly 15 years after he was imprisoned, he is released without reason on to a rooftop. While in a sushi restaurant, Dae-Su receives a taunting phone call from his captor, who refuses to explain why he was imprisoned. He then collapses in the sushi restaurant and is taken in by on one the chefs, Mi-Do. After Dae-Su, in an instance of insanity and need for human touch, tries to sexually assault her, she tells him that she does like him, but says she is not ready to be intimate and she will let him know when she is ready.
Dea-Su tries to find his daughter and discovers that she was adopted by a Swedish couple after his wife's death. All he was given to eat in during his imprisonment were dumplings. He tries various dumplings to locate the restaurant the made the ones he ate in prison. He locates the restaurant and fallows the delivery man to the place where he was held. A private prison where people can pay to have others incarcerated for any amount of time they want. He tortures the prison warden, Mr. Park, by pulling out 15 of his teeth, one for every year of Dae-Su's imprisonment) and for information. Mr. Park tells him he made a recording of his captor, Dae-Su takes the tape. It's a recording of Mr. Park and Dae-Su's captor, he learns that he was lead because he was "talking too much".
Dae-Su finally finds his captor with the help of his old friend Joo-Hwan. It is a wealthy man named Lee Woo-Jin. Woo-Jin gives Dae-Su an ultimatum, discover the motive for his imprisonment in five days and Woo-Jin will kill himself, if not, Mi-Do will die. As Dae-Su prepares to torture Woo-jin the same way he tortured Mr. Park, Woo-Jin tells him that he has a remote for turning on and off his pacemaking and will shut it off if he is tortured.
Meanwhile, Mr. Park is about to assualt Mi-Do. Dae-Su gets there in time but is over powered by Mr. Park's men. Before they can do anything to him, Woo-Jin calls them off. Mi-Do tells him she is ready to be intame with him and the two have sex
Dae-Su sets out to complete Woo-Jin's quest. His search takes him back to his old high school. Where he finds out that Woo-Jin and him when to the same school. While at the school he remebers that he once caught Woo-Jin and Soo-Ah, Woo-Jin's sister, having an incestuous encounter with each other. He spread rumars about her about her being a whore and a slut, before he moved to Seoul. Beause of the rumors, Soo-Ah suffered from a false pregnancy and committed suicide. After Woo-Jin amputates Mr. Parks hand, he agrees to help Dae-su and protect Mi-Do while he confronts Woo-Jin.
Arriving at Woo-Jin's penthouse, Dae-Su admits he accidentally drove Soo-Ah to suicide. Woo-Jin reveals how each of Dae-Su's movements were meticulously planned by him through posthypnotic suggestion. He then gives Dae-Su a photo album that contains photos of a girl from childbirth all the way to young adulthood, which ultimately turns out to be Mi-Do, revealing she is Dae-Su's daughter. The daughter he'd seen in footage provided by Woo-Jin had merely been a forgery. Woo-Jin had Dae-Su imprisoned for 15 years so Mi-Do would be old enough to fall in love with Dae-Su. She was hypnosis to ensure the two would fall in love, with the intention of making Dae-Su feel that same pain he previously felt.
Horrified and enraged, Dae-Su rushes at Woo-Jin. His bodyguard, Mr. Han intervenes, the two fight and Mr. easily subdues Dae-Su. After, Mr. Han is unable to hear Woo-Jin, due to an injury Dae-Su gave him, Woo-Jin shoots him. He then reveals that Mr. Park is still working for him and has given a similar album to Mi-Do. Dae-Su begs Woo-Jin to spare Mi-Do from the truth. He says he will be Woo-Jin's dog and even cuts off his tongue as atonement. Woo-Jin calls Mr. Park to tell him not to open the album. He then gives Dae-Su the remote to his pacemaker. A still furious Dae-su presses the remote multiple times, only to find that it starts a recording of him and Mi-Do having sex. Woo-jin calmly enter the elevator and remembers his sister's death. He then shoots him self in the head as the elevator arrives on the first floor.
Some time later, Dae-Su sits in a winter landscape with the hypnotist whom Woo-Jin used, touched by handwritten pleas, she hypnotizes him and alters him memories to forget that Mi-Do is his daughter. Mi-Do then finds him alone in the snow, she tells him she loves him and embraces him. Dae-Su smiles, but it is slowly replaced by a look of pain, questioning if the hypnosis worked or not.



First off I love how realistic the fight scenes in this move are. Unlike other action movies, especially Asian action movies, where it's one guy against 20 and he beats them without even braking a sweat, Dae-Su gets tiered. No only does he get tiered he's hurt and barely able to stand. All the men against him  are also in pain, tiered, and scared. The fact that he is stabbed in the back and is effected by that makes a movie better. Instead of the tough guy who is stabbed but doesn't even feel it, he has trouble standing. And, every wound he gets is shown. He gets a black eye so for the rest of the movie his eye is hurt. He is stabbed in the back the rest of the movie he had a huge bandage on him back.
The small detail are what really make the movie. For ten years Dae-su shadow boxed in his room. So, he has scars on his knuckles from it. He's tried to kill him self twice so he has two different scars on his wrists from his attempts at suicide. His hair stays the same messed up cut till he goes to the salon. Those details make a movie better and even if you don't notice them they are still there. An other thing, the movie is shot wonderfully. From the opening scene of him holding a man by his tie over a ledge to the hallway fight scene to the end scene with the snow. Every thing is beautiful.
Choi Min-Sik the actor who plays Dae-Su, is an amazing actor. When he eats the live octopus it is one of the most bad ass, punk rock things any one can do. And that man is wonderfully dead pan through the whole thing. He goes from a crazy drunk, to a sociopath, to a pissed of ex-prisoner, to a pleading man, and ending with a man looking for redemption. The range he shows in this movie alone would be hard for any actor. Yet, he does it with out any trouble.
This is one of the best revenge stories that I've ever seen. There are tv shows that are just about revenge. There are a mass amount of movies that just deal with that topic alone. And this one takes the cake. I can't see how any move would ever top this. Because in the end it's Woo-Jin that wants the revenge not Dae-Su. Even though it's Dae-Su's story he never gets his revenge.
The story at it's core is simple. One man's quest for revenge and how he gets it. How it is told is very complex. But, there are simple elements to it such as how Dea-Su finds out Mi-Do is his daughter. the progression of how he finds the right dumplings, they just show him eating different ones over and over again. There are so many simple moments . Choi Min-Sik and the simpleness of him showing the lose of his wife and daughter. It's only a few seconds but right then you know how much this man is hurting.
I did feel that the movie did drag a little in the middle. Everything was planed on how Dea-Su found out all the information, but I felt that it did drag a bit. Also, I think the end of the movie should have been when Woo-Ji shot him self. And, that the snow scene wasn't needed. The movie would have had more of an impact if Dea-Su was just left with the truth in Woo-Ji's apartment.
The movie is great and I recommend it to any one that like action movies. Mind you there is a lot of blood. Also, any should watch it that just loves a good revenge story.
Next week I'll be doing The Bleach Musical.

~^.^