Tonight I continued catching up with the 30-odd hours of stuff recorded on the V+ and watched Oldboy. The warning before the film started advised that it contained violence, sex, strong language, torture and a man eating a live octopus… not a common thing to hear!
Its a Korean film, directed by Chan-wook Park, but it really felt like it had been directed by David Fincher. The twists and turns in the plot reminded me very much of The Game, the mysterious boxes with ‘gifts’ in them had echoes of Se7en, and the narration, camera tricks and blood were like Fight Club.
Just like Fight Club, it is not a film for the faint-hearted. There were at least four places where I instinctively looked away and had to force myself to watch. Anyone who has seen it can probably guess which bits they were. ((Octopus, teeth, teeth again, tongue)) But it was a compelling film, impossible to stop watching. I know that because Jayne sat through it all with me, and she usually has little patience with subtitled films. It was all very thought-provoking though
I really wish I had bought it on DVD instead of recording it from the TV (on a channel with adverts) From what I have read about it now, some of the making-of extras sound fascinating. I’m sure it will turn up for a few quid at some point though.
Oh, YES. Oldboy is an AWESOME film. And yes, some of those extras are worth watching. I think the endless hammer through a crowd scene was incredible…
I was reading about that scene. Paradoxically, it was a single shot but filming took three days. I don’t know if that means it took a lot of immaculate planning, or that it took many attempts before getting it right… but I’m sure it is explained in the DVD extras.
Old Boy is an excellent fil. Have you seen Lady Vengeance or Sympthy for Mr Vengeance. THey form part of a sort of trilogy.
THere is an Amercan remake of Old Boy in the offing. Hmmm I wonder what sort of screw up that will be
Not seen either. Are they any good? I was thinking of keeping an eye out for the box set.
There is a box set, it was in Virgin (Zavvi) about 6 months ago for about £80. A bit steep, but you did get a special edition hammer.
We’ve seen Lady Vengeance, and it was pretty good, if very shocking. All three are currently in Zavvi for about £6 each, so we got them all. Haven’t got around to watching the first two yet, but you can have a borrow of the once you haven’t seen if you like.
I might take you up on that.