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And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better—cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?---Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground Even now, so many years later, all this is somehow a very evil memory. I have many evil memories now, but ... hadn’t I better end my “Notes” here? I believe I made a mistake in beginning to write them, anyway I have felt ashamed all the time I’ve been writing this story; so it’s hardly literature so much as a corrective punishment. Why, to tell long stories, showing how I have spoiled my life through morally rotting in my corner, through lack of fitting environment, through divorce from real life, and rankling spite in my underground world, would certainly not be interesting; a novel needs a hero, and all the traits for an anti-hero are expressly gathered together here, and what matters most, it all produces an unpleasant impression, for we are...
Hope
To be human is to be a miracle of evolution conscious of its own miraculousness — a consciousness beautiful and bittersweet, for we have paid for it with a parallel awareness not only of our fundamental improbability but of our staggering fragility, of how physiologically precarious our survival is and how psychologically vulnerable our sanity. To make that awareness bearable, we have evolved a singular faculty that might just be the crowning miracle of our consciousness: hope.--
Erich Fromm
OLD BOY (2003)
"An incredible thriller that relentlessly heaps taboos on top of images of extreme brutality, "Oldboy" is surely not for the squeamish. The film by Korean director Park Chanwook is a visually beguiling trip that keeps pulling you along and keeps you wondering what fresh hell could possibly come next. And that makes it considerably more compelling than a lot of the latest from Hollywood."
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook violent and offbeat story of punishment and vengeance is one of my favorite films of all time.
One day, for reasons unknown, Oh Dae-su finds himself imprisoned , with no knowledge of what his crime was or whom put him in prison . A small television is his only link to the outside world and a daily ration of fried dumplings is his only food.
His life is a daily struggle to keep his mind and body in good shape until one day when he learns through a news report that his wife has been killed. Then he decides he must escape and starts digging tunnel with a pair of chopsticks. Before he can finish and after 15 years of imprisonment Oh Dae-su is suddenly released, again with no explanation at all . This is beginning of the struggles to unravel the secret of who is responsible for locking him up, what happened to his wife and daughter and the beginning of the story of vengeance (And brace yourself it is not going to be one you expect , not at all) .
Old Boy was screened in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize
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I am not an expert on the Korean cinema, which is considered in critical circles as one of the most creative in the world ("Oldboy" won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2004). I can say that of the Korean films I've seen, only one ("The YMCA Baseball Club") did not contain extraordinary sadomasochism. "Oldboy" contains a tooth-pulling scene that makes Laurence Olivier's Nazi dentist in "Marathon Man" look like a healer. And there is a scene during which an octopus is definitely harmed during the making of the movie.
These scenes do not play for shock value, but are part of the whole. Oh has been locked up for 15 years without once seeing another living person. For him the close presence of anyone is like a blow to all of his senses. When he says in a restaurant, "I want to eat something that is alive," we understand (a) that living seafood is indeed consumed as a delicacy in Asia, and (b) he wants to eat the life, not the food, because he has been buried in death for 15 years.
"Oldboy is a powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare."
SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE (2005) (Effed UP Movies) >>>
The Philosopher Behind the Lens
Lens Born in Seoul in 1963, Park Chan-wook studied philosophy at Sogang University, a background that deeply permeates his work. Originally intending to be an art critic, he famously resolved to become a filmmaker after watching Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.
After early commercial failures, his career transformed with Joint Security Area (2000), breaking box office records. He cemented his legacy with the "Vengeance Trilogy," bringing South Korean cinema to the global stage and winning the Grand Prix at Cannes for Oldboy (2004). Known for his meticulous framing, dark humor, and exploration of moral ambiguity, Park is a true modern master.
Vengeance as a Double-Edged Sword
Part of Park Chan-wook’s "Vengeance Trilogy," the film explores the futility and destructive nature of revenge. While Dae-su seeks revenge for his lost years, he eventually realizes he is merely a pawn in a much larger, more meticulously planned revenge plot orchestrated by Woo-jin.
Fate and Taboo
Drawing heavily from Greek tragedy (specifically Oedipus Rex), the film deals with themes of incest and inescapable destiny. The central mystery revolves around a "slip of the tongue" from Dae-su’s youth that set off a chain of tragic events, leading to the film's famously disturbing "twist" ending.
Isolation and Sanity
The first act of the film meticulously depicts the psychological toll of long-term isolation. Dae-su’s transition from a "drunken windbag" to a "beast" trained in "imaginary boxing" highlights the human capacity to adapt to horror.
The Hallway Fight
Perhaps the most famous scene in modern action cinema, this nearly four-minute sequence was filmed in a single long take. It eschews the fast cuts of typical action films, showing a weary, injured Dae-su fighting dozens of guards with only a hammer. It emphasizes the physical exhaustion and "meat-grinder" reality of combat.
The Soundtrack: "The Last Waltz"
The score, composed primarily by Cho Yeong-wook, is essential to the film's operatic feel.
Classical Influence: The use of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Winter) during the tooth-extraction scene creates a jarring, sophisticated contrast to the onscreen brutality.
Character Themes: Most tracks are named after classic films (The Last Waltz, Cries and Whispers, Farewell, My Lovely), reflecting the meta-textual nature of the story.
Melancholy Waltzes: The recurring waltzes emphasize the "dance" between the protagonist and antagonist, suggesting that their lives are inextricably linked by the past.
The Ending
The film's conclusion is famously divisive and haunting. After discovering the truth, Dae-su chooses to have his memory partially erased by a hypnotist so he can continue his relationship with Mi-do.
The Final Smile: The film ends on a close-up of Dae-su's face. His expression shifts between a smile and a grimace of pain, leaving the audience to wonder if the hypnosis actually worked or if he is doomed to live with the knowledge of his sins forever.
Woo-jin's Fate: The antagonist’s suicide in the elevator serves as the final proof of the futility of revenge; once his "project" is complete, he has no reason left to live.
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone."
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