Oldboy
Virtuosic and ultra-violent revenge thriller by Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden), awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes by the jury led by Quentin Tarantino.
Spike Lee remade this cult classic in 2013, but his film fell short of the South Korean original. OLDBOY is made up of equal parts Kafka (the storyline), Lynch (the surreal atmosphere; the dark sexual undercurrent), Hitchcock (the suspense), Tarantino (the excessive violence and black humour) and El Greco (the light). One day in 1988, Oh Dae-su is kidnapped. He wakes up in a kind of improvised private prison. His isolation lasts for fifteen years, fifteen long years during which he wonders who could be behind his abduction. Via the TV in his cell, he learns that his wife has been brutally murdered. Dae-su vows to take revenge. When he is released, he goes in search of his kidnapper, armed with his fists and a claw hammer. Advance warning: a strong stomach is recommended for some scenes, such as the one in which an octopus is eaten alive. (mv)