The Korean film Oldboy, directed by Park Chan-Wook, is an exploration into revenge and extreme sadism based in part on a Japanese comic book. There are many confusing flashbacks and flashforwards, but the origin of the plot evidently begins when Oh Dae-Su (played by Choi Min-Sik) and Lee Woo-Jin (played by Yu Ji-Tae) are students at the same high school in Korea, and Woo-Jin's sister (played by Yun Jin-Seo) dies, evidently from falling into the waters of a dam. But who is responsible? The next chronological event appears to be that adult Dae-Su, an alcoholic, is arrested for being drunk and disorderly, and his friend No Joo-Hwan (played by Chi-Dae-Han) picks him up from the police station. On the way home, while Joo-Hwan's back is turned, Dae-Su disappears. Still in a drunken stupor, he is evidently kidnapped, held captive for fifteen years in a dingy hotel room with a television set and a window, fed fried dumplings through a slot at the bottom of the door, and gassed nightly in order to put him to sleep so that someone can clean the room, attend to his self-inflicted wounds, and change his clothes. He has no idea who are his captors or why he is being imprisoned by them, but the TV tells him that someone has framed him for murdering his wife, and his daughter has been adopted by a family in Stockholm. After Dae-Su escapes, a gang of thugs captures him, hypnotizes him, and he is released with a wad of cash and a cellphone. Also after his release, he meets sushi chef Mido (played by Kang Hye-Jeong), who takes an interest in his plight and tries to help him in his quest for revenge. But muscular Woo-Jin has designed a scenario of psychological torture, evidently spurred by his desire to pin his sister's death on a presumably innocent Dae-Su. When the cellphone soon rings, the mysterious Woo-Jin tells him that he has kidnapped Mido, whom he will kill if in five days Dae-Su is unable to determine why he was jailed for fifteen years; however, if he finds out, then Woo-Jin will commit suicide. Violence, of course, results. To figure out what happens in the fast-paced movie, a filmviewer may have to see Oldboy twice, but some will leave long before the ending out of disgust for the unvarnished sadomasochism, including bondage, bootlicking, toothpulling, and self-mutilation. An American retake of Oldboy is now in the works, but the original Oldboy is a bizarre yet suspenseful film that could not have passed the censorship board in the United States. MH
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