Just saw Oldboy

[Gunleik Groven]

For now, just: WOW

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364569/

Go and see. It's beatutifull.
City of good was the last time I saw a movie that did something similar to me visually (but in a totally diferent way).

Go see!

[AntonyCASAFilms]

Great film.

The poodle scene made me laugh so much.

[Yannick Hagman]

One of the best films ever.

[Isaac Brody]

That tracking fight shot with the hammer is brilliant.

[C.H.Haskell]

Hah...this movie is pretty incredible, try watching the japanese original! :D

[J Davis]

Japanese? I thought it was a korean film.
If you like oldboy u should check his other film Sympathy for Mr Vengeance.

[N_Villers]

I liked "Lady Vengeance" even better. And yes Korean not Japanese.

[Jaime Vallés]

Amazing movie. Yes, the fight scene with the hammer is one of the most impressively staged sequences I think I've ever seen on film.

It's a spectacular, and very disturbing, movie. Two thumbs way up!

[Nils J. Nesse]

4 or 5 years since I saw it, but I remember that hammer sequence!

[J Davis]

Chan Wook Park has another film out called
I'm a cyborg but thats OK,
Not had time to see it but its pretty much top of my list right now

Anyone here seen it yet?


link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_a_Cyborg,_But_That%27s_OK

[DRappazzo]

Great film, something I think everyone interested in world cinema or asian cinema in particular should make a point to see. And the tracking shot with the hammer fight scene is incredible. I have seen stories that Will Smith and Spielberg want to do a english language re-imaging of this film, personally I hope this never happens.

Here is the story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/nov/07/spielberg-smith-oldboy-remake

[Christian Tanner]

saw it at the cinema a few years ago.

what struck me the most actually was the strickingly good storytelling and how "american" the story in general felt. (except maybe for the "tongue" scene in the very end). but then i'm not an expert...

[C.H.Haskell]

Japanese? I thought it was a korean film.
If you like oldboy u should check his other film Sympathy for Mr Vengeance.

YES, sorry...my apologies, it the original is Korean.

[Seung Han]

Not one to name drop but couldn't resist this one. I just had soju with the Old Boy DP Jung last week. Really nice guy. He just finished shooting a vampire movie with the Park Chan Woo. He is color correcting it right now. His next project is with the director who made "The King and the Clown." Funny thing is he kind of looks like a younger version of Old Boy...

[J Davis]

Awesome!
An asian vampire movie is something I've been wanting to do myself.
Can't think of a better person than Chan Wook Park to bring an idea like that to
the big screen

[jpp]

Oldboy is fascinating as a case-study of contemporary cinema. Love the movie or abhor it, the material has a life and pulse inconceivable today in any financed American production. Despite the commercial appeal of violence, the taboos violated are simply too much for American venture capitalists. They wouldn't touch it -- or comprehend it. And taboo may well be the last frontier. Everything else is a remake or a sequel.

Anyone who doubts that funding is fate in cinema, or that films ultimately express the personalities of film-funders (this is "auteur theory", revised for the 21st century), need only look at Oldboy, and then try to sit through the Sundance Dramatic Competition. Or a recent Tarantino film. And weep.

BTW, Spielberg & Co. claim their upcoming version is more closely related to the original Japanese manga, and is not a remake of Park's film. But still, you have to wonder. If the Hollywood types took some of their personal billions and financed a few genuine indies every year (indies, that is, completely at odds with their own interests), they might not have to look to Korean films or Japanese manga for ideas. With any luck, they might be able to steal American.

[Fredrik Callinggard]

That tracking fight shot with the hammer is brilliant.

Funny thing is that it's like so many great things a consequence of time or money and therefor a compromise.

They were behind and couldn't afford to do it in more then one take.

[Eren Ozkural]

YES, sorry...my apologies, it the original is Korean.

Well, it's based on a Japanese Manga that was published by Dark Horse overseas...so it's kind of originally Japanese, although besides the general plot outline there isn't that much in common.

I remember discovering Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance back when I just bought Tartan Asia Extreme DVD's on a whim to try something new every weekend. Boy, was it an eye opener. Then watched Oldboy when it came out, I was stunned beyond words. Bought the soundtrack and everything.

Then came Lady Vengeance and I don't know what happened.
Does anybody else here occasionaly wonder if they've just watched the same movie as everyone else did? A few close film buddies and I were appalled by it, yet everywhere I turn people seem to love it.

I guess it's just a case of different strokes for different folks.

Since I got burnt by that I haven't gotten around to watching "Im a cyborg" although it sounds wonderfully quirky and a breath of fresh air from the Vengeance trilogy. I'll probably visit it after I watch Thirst, his new vampiric monk movie. Hell, I have Joint Security Area sitting on my shelf right next to me, unwatched. Maybe now's a good time...

[N_Villers]

Awesome!
An asian vampire movie is something I've been wanting to do myself.
Can't think of a better person than Chan Wook Park to bring an idea like that to
the big screen

Getting even further off-topic but there is a wonderful old kung-fu // vampire film from the 70s I believe titled "Legend of The Seven Golden Vampires." Not art like Park's films are but above average quality campy fun IMO.

-noel

[martinnoweck]

Hell, I have Joint Security Area sitting on my shelf right next to me, unwatched. Maybe now's a good time...




Go for it! Also a very fascinating movie!

for those who like the hammer scene in "old boy" - check the making of part of the dvd ;-)

regards,
martin

[jpp]

Sorry to harp on this one, but the energy and inventiveness of Oldboy is not unique in Korean cinema at this moment. If films do indeed reflect the conditions of finance, then there should be other venturesome examples by other venturesome directors. And of course there are.

Another film ("Tale of Two Sisters") which was just remade in the U.S. as "The Uninvited" (though the latter has little to do with the Korean original), again accesses areas of mind and response inconceivable for an American-financed film.

This stuff, like it or not, is tapped into fundamentals of human urges, creative imagination and deep psychology. Meanwhile, most of the films we get here seem to be tapped into other movies and TV, marketing surveys, celebrity worship and an exhausted reliance on the audience's fight/flight response. Even effective exploitation of sex is beyond these people, lacking the courage and imagination for it. Folks in American movies make love with their clothes on in MPAA-approved positions, and the movie comes to dead halt while it goes on.

So follow the money.... The same business school geniuses who brought us the banking crisis have turned the American movie industry into a waste dump of recycled marketing formulas. They figure that if you switch the advertising megaphone up loud enough, and have tens of millions of dollars to do it, the movie consumer will come anyway. What a pity that we let these people run the American economy (into the ground).