Salon.com film critic Stephanie Zacharek picked Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy as one of the 10 best films of 2005.
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11 Comments
Great Movie, definitely my favorite Korean movie, and possibly one of my favorite movies of all time. But didn’t it come out in 2003? And just for the sake of making a Japanese troll, Old Boy was originally a Japanese comic book series, but I think that’s rather well known and non-epoc making.
Are there any common elements in the respective story lines?
Yea, the whole story. The movie was a movie made of the comic. Not that that’s a bad thing, books/comics get made into movies all the time.
I’m not trying to say anything other then just being an ass
No, not the whole story. The first half. The movie diverges from the comic as it goes along (to the movie’s detriment, imho).
Salon is, of course, judging on US release date, which was this year.
Oh okay, thanks for clearing that up. I had heard that it was very true to the comic, which I myself have not read.
Well, if Oldboy is based on a Japanese comic, then that comic must have borrowed from Sophocles: Oedipus is at first blind to his fate, then experiences a terrible moment of realization (peripety) before gouging out his eyes, all because he has angered the gods. Connect the dots.
Another movie in the same strange vein is ’sum’ (island) by the same director. Talk about a strange but nonetheless compelling movie. If you like this kind of macabre tale…check it out.
Seom (’The Isle’) was actually by Kim Ki-duk, who has made a few rather dark films, some of which are interesting, and some of which are unwatchable. Seom got invited to the 2000 Venice film festival where it attracted attention by causing a film critic to faint… those who have seen it will be able to guess the scene…
That’s wonderful, congratulations Korea. Considering the conditions those people live in it’s amazing they can do these things.
Oldboy?
Meh, didn’t like it. Revenge movie with no revenge. Just another dreary Korean drama. Though I can see why people got off on the hammer scene.
Since my attempted trackback failed, here is the link to what I think about “Oldboy.”
One Trackback
Going Positive
Via Marmot: Salon’s film critic Stephanie Zacharek has chosen Oldboy as among her best films of the year. Her original review was not just positive, it was ecstatic. It’s worth reading, especially in light of the post below. It is