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Oldboy
R0 - United Kingdom - Tartan Video Review written by and copyright: Rob Hunt (15th August 2005). |
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The Film
 OldBoy tells the story of a man (Dae-su Oh) who is kidnapped and locked up in what looks to be a shabby hotel room for 15 years - with only dumplings for food and a TV to keep him company. As he nears escaping his prison he is mysteriously set free for no apparent reason, where he has only a short period of time to find out the truth to why he was locked up. At first appearing to be another exercise in the revenge genre, OldBoy soon shows itself to be a unique and quite different exploration, further encapsulated in a shocking, albeit not totally unexpected, twist at the end. The film is released (in the UK) under Tartan's "Asia Extreme" label - due to the fairly brutal and horrific violence. Whilst this violence is present throughout the film the most disturbing element is that most of it is not shown, leaving the horrors to the imagination of the viewer. I found this to be the best technique to use, as I would not want anything shown badly/ruined for me, and it enhances the film, in my opinion, by leaving it out. Interestingly this film seemed to split audiences three ways. Those who think it is amazing and worthy of most, if not all the praise, those who think it is slightly overrated but still very good and those who hate it completely. Personally I would be in the first category, although with repeat viewing very slowly leaning towards the second. As with the most treasured films I have seen, the first viewing is the most powerful and most unique (with the exception of "Mulholland Dr."). Upon subsequent viewings of OldBoy it is true to say that part of the plot and shock factor is diminished from the inital viewing, but to it's credit I still found it a fascinating watch, even through all three of the added commentaries. For me there is so much to appreciate and admire in OldBoy, from the inspired camerawork to the sparkling cinematography to the outstanding musical score. Whilst these would all be little to nothing if the film was not good, I find them all fascinating in their own right, a refreshing change to most of my (Hollywood-induced) viewing habits. This leads on to what I would consider another of OldBoy's strengths - it's panache. Like the Pay-per-View US TV channel "HBO", part of OldBoy's quality lies in it's simple, brutal honesty - appearing both highly controversial and yet deeply emotional simultaneously. This is certainly one of the reasons I was enthralled by OldBoy. Sadly, this also links in to the comments that the film is misogynistic. Whilst I cannot argue that there are mainly only two female characters present, who are both shown in sexualised situations, I do not feel that the comments are completely true, however the majority of the sympathy is indeed placed with the male characters. To say any more on the story would ruin some fantastic pieces of cinema for those who have not seen it, but whether you hate it or love it this is, to me, some of cinema at it's very best - unapologetic, controversial, provocative, unique and fresh.
Video
Tartan have presented OldBoy in it's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, with an anamorphic transfer. The image is beautiful and crisp, with little to flaws present - doing the incredible cinematography justice. From what I could tell there was little to no artefacts present, although there did appear (to me) to be some very very minor ghosting present on the rooftop scene (although this could be a result of the bleach-bypass effect used throughout most of the film) - I cannot be sure which. Apart from this very small worry, the transfer is fantastic, with deep rich colours throughout.
Audio
Tartan have provided a wide array of audio tracks for this DVD release - all in the original language of Korean. There is a 2.0 Stereo track, a DD 5.1 track (with EX encoding) and a DTS-ES 6.1 track. I sampled all three tracks and found the latter two to be very good indeed. This film really benefits from surround sound, especially in the action-based scenes, and the sound present is mixed well. Dialogue is clear and at a good level, with the wonderfully haunting score accompanying it (along with the many other sounds). I was not able to sample the 'ES' part of the DTS-ES track, but listening to it slightly downmixed into DTS 5.1 still impressed me a lot. The DTS-ES track adds more to the bass and general atmosphere than the 5.1 track, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the 5.1 track either. Superb audio.
Extras
The extras are spread out over 2 discs - with the 3 Audio Commentaries and Theatrical Trailer on Disc 1, and the Behind The Scenes featurettes, Interviews and Deleted Scenes on Disc 2. DISC ONE: There are 3 Commentaries present on this disc. The first is a sole effort from Director Chan-wook Park who discusses the film well, with little amounts of pausing in between. He is fairly critical of his work on all the tracks he is present on but still appears to be proud of the final product. The second is by Chan-wook Park alongside the Cinematographer Jeong-hun Jeong. This commentary is slightly more technically-orientated than the first and contains a majority of new comments from Chan-wook Park, with the occasional reference to things present on his solo commentary. It is interesting to listen to this track to discover which scenes each of the two are proud of, and which they are not. The track starts off formal but becomes slightly more informal towards the end. Finally there is commentary by Chan-wook Park with Actors Min-sik Choi, Ji-tae Yu and Hye-jeong Kang. This is the most fun of the commentaries and contains almost no repitition to anything else on the disc. It is clear that everyone had a good time but that things were a little strained at times, and they all have a good laugh at times throughout. The other extra on the first disc is the (presumably international) Theatrical Trailer (1:31). Whilst I know of many people who disliked this trailer, personally I thought it was very good. The lack of dialogue and the emphasis on the music hopefully attracted a wider audience, getting them interested enough to see the film before they make a decision based on the language it is in. DISC TWO: The second disc is split into three separate sections - Behind The Scenes, Interviews and Deleted Scenes. Behind The Scenes contains 6 featurettes - "Flashback" (22:57), "The Cast Remembers" (10:58), "Production Design" (13:14), "CGI" (7:10), "The Music Score" (16:50) and "Le Grand Prix at Cannes" (8:51). All of these are fairly informative, including more behind-the-scenes clips that most DVDs do, minimising showing clips from the film itself. The titles are pretty self-explanatory and they were all a treat to watch. Particularly fascinating to me was The Music Score, as the soundtrack of Oldboy is one of the most prominent features that has stayed in my mind. Interviews was a rather lengthy section of the DVD, including 63:33 of interviews with Chan-wook Park, Garon Tsuchiya, Min-sik Choi, Ji-tae Yu, Hye-jeong Kang, Jin-seo Yun, Dae-han Ji, Byeong-ok Kim, Dal-su Oh, Kwang-rok Oh and Seung-shin Lee, with one of the Chan-wook Park interviews being a Tartan exclusive. I found these interviews to be very interesting indeed, although was slightly put off the Tartan exclusive by the lack of any subtitles due to the fact a translator was employed. Whilst I can appreciate the interviewer does not speak Korean it was a little bit irritating hearing Chan-wook Park say something dramatically (sometimes at length) and then have it all said again. I thought that whilst this could be the method of interviewing that the translator could simply have created some subtitles for Chan-wook Park, gotten himself a nice mention at the beginning or end or both, and cut out the duplicated parts with him in - especially since the interviewer himself is neither shown nor speaks, instead using title cards for the questions. Despite these annoyances, however, this interview had some good questions and answers in it. Deleted Scenes contains 10 scenes, totalling 24:12, with Optional Commentary by Chan-wook Park. After listening to the commentaries the Deleted Scenes (which I watched prior to my commentary-marathon) made a lot more sense, and were given even more value when watched with Commentary by Chan-wook Park. A fair few of the scenes are extended versions, and whilst some can easily understood as to their omission most are of interest, providing other unique ideas that appear good, but obviously were not up to the calibre of the rest of the film. All extras (except the Tartan exclusive) are subtitled in English.
Overall
OldBoy is a stunningly fantastic and original film and is a welcome addition to any film fan's DVD collection. Technically this release is very good and is a fairly impressive output from Tartan. The commentaries are worth a listen and the extras are definitely worth a watch. Whilst not containing as many extras as some of the other editions available it certainly contains the best soundtrack of all available DVDs (DTS-ES), and the only one with subtitles in English on all the extras. To me (who enjoys having as many extras as possible whilst having the film presented in the best possible sound and video) this is the best release out there and one I would recommend adding to your collection, or giving a rent!
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