OldBoy - The Cool Black Review

OldBoy

Directed by: Park Chan-wook

Produced by: Lim Seng-yong

Written by: Hwang Jo-yun, Park Chan-wook, Lim Chun-hyeong, Lim Joon-hyung, Garon Tsuchiya

Starring:
Choi Min-sik
Yu Ji-tae
Kang Hye-jeong

Cinematography: Chung Chung-hoon



Release date(s): Internationally 2003-2004
USA-Various film festivals -2005

Summary: The film follows the story of one Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik), who is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls for an attractive sushi chef.

REVIEW by Cool Black
Since I’m not a fan of too much international cinema, (I’m a slave for American cinema. I know :-( ) I never even heard of OldBoy before Spike Lee signed on the direct the remake (read more about that here ) Having said that, let’s get on with the review.

If you think the summary above sounds way out, you don’t know the half of it. The film takes some wild detours into the “web of conspiracy” and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

The protagonist Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik) and antagonist and Lee Woo-jin (Yu Ji-tae) are both excellent. This IS a tale of vengeance, but expect more dramatic scenes about the plot than action because of it. Truthfully the drama is more important to this film than the action and Choi Min-sik and Yu Ji-tae give great performances.

The direction by Park Chan-wook and cinematography by Chung Chung-hoon is some of the best I have ever seen. The visual style was well…excellent. Park Chan-wook gave necessary balance to both the visual and dramatic in this picture and excelled at both.

The violence in the film is for a reason, which again I won’t get into, but it has to do with the “quest for vengeance”. I’ve seen lesser films have unbridled violence for less than substantial reasons. There are really no elaborate action “set pieces” and again the action is organic to the film. Even when Oh Dae-Su finds out why he was imprisoned, the ensuing violence is not what you’d expect…well some of what you’d expect, but again I’ll have to refrain from saying more.

Ultimately, if you are a fan of action thrillers and excellent movies, you should see this film!

Spike Lee is BACK- 2 Times, 2 Times

Spike Lee whose last feature was 2008’s Miracle at St. Anna, has spent the last several years working on TV documentaries and is now back making TWO narrative feature films.

From Blackfilm.com-

Blackfilm.com has exclusively learned that Spike Lee is currently working on a new feature film called ‘Red Hook Summer‘ with production slated to start this month. Details on the plot is limited, but a close source has informed us that the story centers on a adult from Atlanta who comes and spends the summer in Red Hook section of Brooklyn, NY. The kicker to this story is that Lee will be reprising his role as Mookie, the character he played over twenty years ago in his most famous film, 1989′s ‘ Do the Right Thing.’

*According to Twitter Spike has started Principal Photography on Monday, July 11, 2011! - Cool Black

UPDATE: August 2, 2011: Principal Photography is COMPLETE. Read about it here

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Spike Lee To Direct 'Oldboy' For Mandate

By THE DEADLINE TEAM
Monday July 11, 2011 @ 11:42am PDT

Mandate Pictures just announced that Spike Lee will direct Oldboy, a remake of the cult 2003 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook that won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Mark Protosevich has adapted the screenplay and will co-produce; Roy Lee and Doug Davison will produce via Vertigo Entertainment with Lee's 40 Acres & A Mule. Mandate president Nathan Kahane will executive produce. Lee and Protosevich are repped by CAA. Dan Freedman, SVP business affairs, negotiated the deals for Mandate.

This is the project that Steven Spielberg and Will Smith were looking to collaborate on back in 2008, with DreamWorks seeking the remake rights at the time. The film originally was set up at Universal before Mandate took over. The story centers on a man who is kidnapped on his daughter's birthday and held for 15 years in solitary confinement without explanation. He is eventually released and sets out on a path to take revenge on those who destroyed his life.

Cool Black's Mad Commentary: While I'm happy to know Spike Lee will make another film in Brooklyn not exactly excited that he will be revisiting a character from my favorite "Joint" Do The Right Thing. I prefer for all of those characters to be frozen in time. Oh well. It's his thing.

As far as Oldboy this sounds like an interesting film to be remaking. I only hope the studio doesn't interfere too much which happens on a lot of foreign remakes. They never turn out to be any good.

Update: August 17, 2011: I recently saw and reviewed the original OldBoy. Read that review here

External links-

You can read more about the original OldBoy and its WILD plot here

Read the article and more comments about Oldboy remake at the great site Shadow & Act here

June 30, 2011- Hollywood Reporter
Spike Lee: Why I Haven't Made a Feature Film in Three Years
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/spike-lee-why-i-havent-207371

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