Oldboy started
in 1996 as a Manga written by Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi. There were 8 volumes released over 2
years. South Korean filmmaker Park Chan
Wook made this into a trilogy that I am desperate to get my hands on - Sympathy
for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)
– Themes of Revenge, Violence and Salvation respectively.
Why would most
of us in India know about Oldboy. Cut to
a controversial Sanjay Gupta movie called Zinda that released in January
2006. Of course Shri Gupta made his way
to Cannes a couple of years before and saw Park Chan Wook take away the Grand
Prix. He was quick off the blocks and
before the Koreans could say Oldboy, Zinda had hit the screens in India. To be fair, it was well made – albeit without
giving credit to the original.
Enough of the
history lesson for now. Lets get onto
the late (official) reaction from Hollywood – from the stable of one Spike Lee
(Inside Man, Girl 6). Spike Lee, for
what its worth, has never probably lived up to his reputation / potential as a
director. In the ones that I have seen,
you will notice moments where the scene is shot beautifully and is very intense
but the overall package always falls short.
Oldboy is no
different. In the 104 minute final cut
(against Lee’s 140 minute version), Lee rarely gives us a moment that makes up
jump off the seat. The story is of
course identical to the original with the difference being that in the Manga,
the seclusion is for 10 years, in Oldboy (Korean) it is 15 years, Zinda 14
years and in Oldboy (English) it spans 2 decades.
Joe Doucett
(Josh Brolin) is your average everyday advertising executive in the 90s – October
1993 to be precise who gets drunk on the job quite frequently and finds himself
in a gutter quite often. This time
around, he wakes up to find himself in a nice looking room. Only he has no way out. He is locked up for 20 years and on his exit,
he sets out to search for the person responsible.
Spike Lee does
well in parts – as mentioned earlier. Doucett
adapting himself to 2013, his unfamiliarity with the internet or email is shown
quite well. So are the shots that show
him getting out of captivity in a leather trunk. But at the end of the day, here is why Oldboy
isn’t a patch on the original - http://www.slashfilm.com/five-reasons-why-spike-lees-oldboy-is-worse-than-park-chan-wooks-oldboy/.
You could choose
to watch this on TV if you have an opportunity but I would strongly recommend
the Korean original with subtitles. It was
way ahead of its time in 2003. It
continues to be rated amongst the top 10 Asian movies of all time. Put that on your must watch list. The English version? Just about worth a dekko
I guess. 5 on 10.
Of course,
essential scenes have been chopped off and that makes it worse. And the likes of Samuel L Jackson find
themselves in a small and wasted role.
Overall disappointing.
Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd20pywMXuY
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