Oldboy (2003) – 4K Theatrical & Blu-Ray Review
Oldboy (2003) Review
It’s time to experience extreme vengeance as Park Chan-wook’s sensationally violent masterpiece Oldboy, releases again on the big screen with a newly mastered 4K restoration, on the 2nd August, courtesy of Arrow Films. However please note that the version that was sent for review purposes was not Arrow’s newly restored version, but one that was sent purely for viewing purposes only and is not an accurate representation of their final, new 4K restoration.
Hang on! This is all rather perplexing! Surely a review of the 4K release should actually be of the 4K print? After all isn’t that the unique selling point behind this theatrical re-release and subsequent Arrow Blu-Ray release – you know, the fact that it’s in 4K! But for reviewing purposes we’ve been told that we not actually getting the 4K version. So if you want to know what the 4K version of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy is like just watch your DVD/previous Blu-Ray copy and imagine how it will look in 4K. Oh well, I’d better get on and review the film but remember it’s NOT the 4K print 😉
Based on the Japanese manga of the same name, written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya, the film tells the horrific tale of Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a businessman who is inexplicably kidnapped and imprisoned in a grim hotel room-like cell for 15 years, without knowing his captor or the reason for his incarceration. Eventually released, he learns of his wife’s murder and embarks on a quest for revenge whilst also striking up a romance with a young, attractive sushi chef, Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung). He eventually finds his tormentor, but their final encounter will yield yet more unimaginable horrors…
When I first saw Oldboy, upon its original theatrical release, I felt that I HAD to like it simply because the critical establishment were praising the film to the roof. I was rather naive back then, I suppose I thought that Oldboy was like, you know, proper cinema, because lots of high-brow critics were loving it, and that as it was ‘proper cinema’ then I should really like it if I was the film fan/critic that I imagined myself as being. The truth was I never quite got what all the fuss was about but I would still concur with other serious ‘film fans’ about the film’s worth and merits, and to this day I still don’t get what all the fuss is about.
Oldboy is the second instalment of the director’s Vengeance Trilogy and was followed by the much better Lady Vengeance (2005), but as the lead character there is female (there’s a clue in the title) it’s unlikely that the collective misogynistic body of male film critics/film fans were going to embrace it as the better film. Nope, let’s stick with this overdone nonsense instead and heap praise on the rather tiresome hammer attack sequence, yawn as our lead character eats a live octopus (and yes, he actually did) and hold your head in your hands at the final ‘reveal’ as to why our lead was incarcerated for so long. It’s this final ‘twist’ that irritated me the most about Oldboy, as I felt it was morally ambiguous and undid everything that had worked in the movie up until this point.
