Nice, you made it through. Yes, I was petrified with shock as well! What did you think?
I love how this film can be classed as a modern urban update on the classical Greek tragedy genre. Oh Dae-Su is the modern Oedipus, hidden from his family for 15 years before unknowingly falling in love with his own daughter. Instead of gauging his eyes out, Oh Dae-Su cuts out his tongue, the body part which causes all the trouble in the first place.
Just like Oedipus, Oh Dae-Su was fated to commit incest. We learn near the end of the film his nemesis has controlled all of his actions from the point he was kidnapped at the beginning of the film. In a similar way, the director, Park Chan-wook, has us hypnotized until the big reveal at the end, here’s how he uses editing and sound to achieve that.
- Editing
- In Oldboy, the cutting from one shot to the next shot creates a very smooth rhythm which hypnotizes us into believing that the only way for Oh Dae-Su to succeed is by getting his sweet revenge. The director does this by slowly zooming in and out as well as slowly moving from side to side with the camera for periods of the film.
- Sound
- The sound also serves to lull us into a false sense of security. The sound mostly reminded me of the kind of cheesy backing music you hear in the Mexican Telenovelas just used to fill in whilst Oh Dae-Su narrates. This complements the relaxing movements of the camera to distract us from any potential clues (Oh Dae-Su recognizes his daughter at first).
Oh Dae-Su’s movement towards the inevitable is also shown in the awesome fight scene in the hall. Filmed as if we are playing an old 2D video game, we follow Oh Dae-Su as he fights his way from left to right. The video-game style makes Oh Dae-Su’s mission to the elevator at the other end of the hall a level in his route to the big boss at the end of the game. For us, and Oh Dae-Su, finding the boss is the only option we are presented with. Another interesting note is that Korean, like European languages, is also written from left to right, therefore his movement from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen also symbolizes his progression towards his inescapable fate.
What did you notice about the way Oldboy was filmed? Do you agree that we are hypnotized by the director into not seeing the outcome?