Perspectives on film: I review ‘Oldboy’ and my mother-in-law helps.
ALERT: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN OLDBOY AND INTEND TO, TURN BACK NOW.
It’s amazing how two people can watch the same movie and, depending on their life experiences, each give you a completely different description.
For example, after months of urging by a co-worker who loves Asian cinema, I watched ‘Oldboy.’ My mother-in-law was home so she watched it with me.
‘Oldboy’ is a Korean film about a man who is kidnapped one night, framed for his wife’s murder and imprisoned ina hotel room. After 15 years, he’s let out with only one goal in mind: revenge. But first he has to find out who did this to him and he wants to know why. The result is Hitchcockian suspense meets Sophoclean tragedy with shining moments of darkly absurd humor, and a smattering of high-octane chopsocky violence. Ultimately, ‘Oldboy’ is a statement on the futility of wrath and brings a fresh new twist on the Oedipus story.
Now, just because ‘Oldboy’ is stongly rooted in highbrow cinematic and literary traditions doesn’t mean it’s strictly for eggheads. There’s a claw hammer dentistry sequence that makes anything Quentin Tarantino’s ever done look like H.R. Puf’N’Stuf.
I gave it five stars on my Netflix rental history. Loved it.
FINAL WARNING: THE REST OF THIS REVIEW GIVES AWAY THE TWIST ENDING. READ NO FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT THE ENDING SPOILED.
Now, here’s how my mother-in-law later described the movie:
“It was real campy. It’s about a guy who eats a live octopus, then he cuts his tongue off, and he has sex with his daughter.”
She’s not wrong. All that stuff does happen. We just have different perspectives. She still thinks ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ is softcore gay porn, but she liked ‘Oldboy’ okay.
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October 21st, 2008 at 5:16 am
I have this problem all the time. I’ll watch something like Freddy Cruger, or any slasher flick, laugh my ass off and stick it in comedy. My mother finds these movies and wonders how the hell this disgusting filth got into the house and which one of us sick fucks put it in comedy. This reaction is due to the fact she doesn’t always read the titles before she sticks a DVD in the player.
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Jon reply on October 21st, 2008 6:46 am:
Sounds to me like it is time to start mixing the titles in the boxes around, so that the box for “The Sound of Music” has a copy of “Saw III” in it…. :)
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StoneWolf reply on October 21st, 2008 7:34 am:
That’s not a bad idea. Plus, since I don’t live at home anymore but they make me visit all the time, I can probably get my Dad blamed for it. His memory is going and we all know he can never remember where he put anything.
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October 21st, 2008 at 12:54 pm
People’s movie tastes are strange. I have one friend who’s a film buff, but I still can’t get him to watch “Drop Dead Gorgeous” because it’s about a beauty pageant. Conversely, he actually canceled dinner plans with someone else when I told him “Flash Gordon” popped up on On Demand.
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Sean reply on October 21st, 2008 8:17 pm:
Don’t go speaking ill of Flash (ah-Ah!) Gordon now. Max von Sydow made some bank on that one. Timothy Dalton, too, come to think of it. Plus, for the longest time, I could swear that the king of the Hawkmen was the guy with the beard from Highway to Heaven.
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Dave Van Domelen reply on October 22nd, 2008 6:18 am:
Possibly the high point of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (for me, anyway) was seeing Brian Blessed (aka Vultan from that Flash Gordon movie) as Robin’s father. Blessed was also Richard IV in the first season of Blackadder.
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Minty reply on October 23rd, 2008 10:33 am:
I’m not speaking ill of it–I’m the one who suggested it to my friend in the first place! I just found it interesting that he turned his nose up at a well-shot “fake” documentary when he really likes films like that, and yet couldn’t wait to see “Flash Gordon.” I love that movie (with a FABULOUS cast), but I can’t deny that it’s not what a film snob (aka my friend) would consider particularly artistic.
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