Oldboy Movie Analysis – Earthling Cinema

Greetings, and welcome to Earthling Cinema.
I am your host, Garyx Wormuloid. This week’s

artifact is Oldboy, starring Choi Min-sik,
which, roughly translated, means “Korean

Josh Brolin.”

Now I should probably give you a spoiler alert,
but I’m not going to, because my policy

is that if you haven’t seen it after 12
thousand years, you’re probably not gonna

see it.

Oldboy tells the story of Oh Dae- su, a man
who is celebrating his daughter’s fourth

birthday by getting wasted, which is what
humans call it when they get slizzered. He

is promptly kidnapped, and wakes up in a hotel-
inspired prison, so basically a Best Western.

He is held captive there for fifteen years,
during which he passes time by punching the

wall.

Dae-su is released without explanation, and
immediately finds the nearest restaurant,

where he ingests what I believe is called
a KFC Double Down.

It is here that he befriends Mi-do, a young
chef who is sympathetic to his cause.

Eventually, Dae-su’s captor reveals himself.
His name is Lee Woo-jin, and as Dae-su discovers,

they went to high school together. Go Wildcats!
Dae-su suddenly and conveniently remembers

that while in school, he had spied on Woo-jin
having incestuous relations with his sister,

then spread rumors about it, causing the sister
to kill herself. Coincidentally, the prom

theme that year was “Enchantment Under the
Waves.”

Woo-jin saves the best for last: Mi-do is
actually Dae-su's daughter! If there had been

a spoiler alert, it would have been right
before that. Woo-jin imprisoned Dae-su for

fifteen years so his daughter could grow up,
and then used hypnosis to spark an attraction

between the two. Classic Woo-jin. Ever the
concerned father, Dae-su begs Woo- jin not

to tell Mi-do the truth, even cutting out
his own tongue as a gesture of goodwill, or

maybe just to be gross. Woo-jin agrees, and
then gratefully accepts his membership in

the “killing yourself” club. Later, Dae-su
and Mi-do hang out in the snow.

One of the most important themes in Oldboy
is the human concept of the truth. Although

Dae-su is let out of captivity, the only way
he can really free himself is by discovering

why he was locked up. Until then,
he is merely living in a "bigger prison."

Presumably smaller than the prison planet,
Phantron 8, but still pretty big. Humankind

was obsessed with the truth, insisting it
be upheld in business and personal relationships,

although not in politics for some reason.
As keeper of the truth, Woo-jin taunts Dae-su

by saying, “Like a gazelle from the hand
of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of

the fowler, free yourself."

The best way to free yourself is with money
-- I’m talking cold, hard won. Woo-jin is

exhorbitantly wealthy, which makes him virtually
omnipotent, like the flying guy in the Superman

movies. With enough money, he can pay to have
a man imprisoned for fifteen years, or get

a man to cut off his own hand, or have a doctor
install a kill switch for his pacemaker.

Heck, with the kind of dough he’s throwing
around, he could probably buy the New York

Yankees, whatever that is. Conversely, Dae-su
is a salaryman, whose name means "getting

through one day at a time.” He fights back
against the system using common items like

a hammer (a symbol of the proletariat) and a toothbrush (a symbol of tartar control).

You might even say Oldboy holds a mirror up
to capitalist society. The reason you might

say this is because mirrors are featured prominently
in the film. Here we go, rapid fire: Dae-su

tries to kill himself using glass from a mirror.
When Dae-su confronts Woo-jin, he is shown

in the mirror. Woo-jin’s sister uses a mirror
to see Dae-su spying on her. Dae-su’s face

is reflected at the end of the photo album.
During the final hypnotism, Dae-su sees the

monster’s reflection in the window. The
last two aren’t technically mirrors, but

come on, cut a guy some slack. These mirrors
(and mirror substitutes) indicate the fragmentation

of the self, which for us is normal, but for
humans was distressing. Dae-su asks himself,

"After my revenge will I be able to go back
to the old Oh Dae-su?" The old Oh Dae-su has

a tongue, so probably not.

Oh Dae-su is similar in many respects to the
Greek character Oedipus, from his name to

his haircut. Oedipus relentlessly pursues
the truth against the advice of his wife-slash-mother

Jocasta. Similarly, Dae-su pursues Woo-jin
at his penthouse against the advice of his

girlfriend-slash- daughter-slash-sidekick
Mi-Do. When the truth is discovered, Oedipus

stabs his eyes out with gold pins. Dae-su
cuts out his tongue with scissors made of

an undisclosed material, most likely metal.

Woo-jin says revenge is good for your health,
like a nice juice cleanse. But what happens

when the revenge is complete? Will those old
painful feelings return? I’m leaning toward

yes.

Perhaps the only real salvation is to forget.
After Oh Dae-su finds out about the whole

daddy-daughter situation, he asks the hypnotist
to help him forget his secret and kill "the

monster." Despite what the human bible says,
the truth doesn’t always set you free. This

is the only inaccuracy in the human bible.

The ending is ambiguous. Dae-su smiles, but
his smile quickly fades into a frown. Has

he successfully forgotten? Is he laughing
with the world? Or is he weeping alone? Or

is he just freezing his cute little butt off?

For Earthling Cinema, I’m Garyx Wormuloid.
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