#yes cinematography isnt just visuals it's visual storytelling i know i study it

[thebewisepodcast]

May 27th, 2017~ Old Boy (2003) by Chan Wook Park

A melodic and rhythmic piece of Korean cinema.

Upon hearing all the quality ravings about this film, I saw fit that I watch it one day.

Not only did I watch it, I was surprised by it. Not only was I surprised by it I loved it. It wasn't the movie I expected it to be at all. Warped, Imaginative, Intricate, these are all the trappings of a master class filmmaker. Chan Wook Park gets the most believable performances out of his leads within a story that is as unbelievably original as it gets. The main thing you pay attention to is the use of CGI as a pure narrative enhancing device, a contrast to how it is used in American cinema. In American cinema, films have the habit of basing all around CGI. How wonderful is that? In American cinema budget expenditures are solely locked within the confines of spectacle while this film used it simply for the sake of narrative which was remarkable  to witness.

Make no mistake about it, this is in fact an action movie, but it is also a dramatic piece as well. This is the brand of cinema that I believe American audiences are ready to digest and would push the culture of American cinema forward. It won't be Netlfix that kills American cinema it will be films that don't learn from Old Boy and study it. There is action, but there is also intricate framing present too. There is action, but there is also impactful cinematography. There is action, but there is also valuable multidimensional characterstoo. This duality can be brought into American film. We can take it. We can handle the intricate plot lines and robust, yet stylish violence. I mean Quentin Tarantino has been the only filmmaker making films of that nature and even he is slowing down in delivering the work that visual storytelling needs to push itself forward and survive the current homogenization

This film came out in 2003 and it is still what modern cinema needs. I have never seen a film like it and it has been 14 years since it's release. It is a stylish piece with a clear sense of vision. Somethings get muddied and lost in the realm of iplausibility like Lee Woo Jin played by Ji-Tae Yu able to kidnap a grown man and orchestrate this whole scheme and why he waited virtually his whole life to exact his revenge, not to mention him hiring a hypnotist to execute it. But all that I let slide, but what about the fact that I'm supposed to believe that him and Oh Dae Su played by Min-sik Choi (one of my favorite actors period) are supposed to be around the same age. Hey Old Boy:Fuuuuuuuuck you.

But no really. All for the sake of narrative, this story is tragic and you feel for the characters because of what befalls them not necessarily because you like them. The use of pity was the main driver to make me feel for Oh Da Su in his last moments as every part of this film is a tale  ofcause and effect. Part of me felt bad because the effect far surpassed the cause in many instances. My stand out performance is Ji Tae Yu's. I only really fell in love with his performance because of the film's climax. He stole it all. The portrait of man who you believed to be a senseless villain, evil for evils sake, picking on poor Oh Dae Su, shifts upon hearing his own motivation. Is he justified? No. But you see the rationale and appreciate that this isnt just a good vs bad story that is found in most American cinema. Dimensions are there on opposing sides but rest assured that this is a revenge flick. Just a different kind. "You talk too much, Oh Dae Su" Hoooly shit. Then to imagine what befalls Oh Dae Su and him snipping off his tongue in the end is modern, visual poetry. The film is vaguely poetic. 

Poetry lies in every frame and every action beat as well as the film as a whole.

Another stand out was Mi-Do played by Hye Jeong Kang. I found her BEAUTIFUL and my eyes were drawn to her every time she was on screen. There were minor things I didn't like. One being  the hypnotism angle dominant in the film. Another being minor technical flubs which I have a list:

 ~When the man attempts to commit suicide by jumping off the roof with his dog. He jumps, hitting a car below, but the dog is obviously swapped with a stuffed white bear.

~Or the part when Oh Dae Su fights in the elevator. So the guys let him on the elevator to fight?

~Or the time when he follows the delivery boy up to his former place of imprisonment how the hell did he know the delivery boy would go there?

~Or the end when he had blood all over his face but in the next frame it was gone?

Back to Mi-Do though, the actress has this genuine moment of sheer brilliance when Oh Dae Su is explaining why he fainted to her back at the apartment.

She says "Do you always talk like that" and scrunches her face slightly in a way that melted me. That moment to me was true. Truer than any moment I've seen in film in a long time. I love that moment and I love this film.

One of my favorite films ever made?

Yes.