With the buzz on OLD BOY basically being: "This is the second coming of Christ. Bow down, sinners." it's hard to watch the movie and not be disappointed that the water in your house doesn't actually turn to wine by the time it's over. I saw it on DVD a few nights ago, and I had really mixed feelings.

It was a good movie, don't get me wrong, but I thought that the review in Variety pegged it: ultimately filmic, but emotionally barren.

Interestingly enough, it brought to mind KILL BILL and the two movies are practically rivals. Both are about a character who's been unjustly imprisoned/rendered comatose, who goes out to seek revenge on their opressors. Both characters are/were single parents. Both movies are made with a really intense visual style. Both movies feature lots of violence and violent setpieces. Both movies serve the double purpose of being movies and fashion items.

Between the two, OLD BOY wins by miles. Whereas Quentin Tarantino went back into the past and mined his favorite old movies to find a style for KILL BILL, Park Chan-Wook somehow traveled into the future to unearth his style. OLD BOY is like huffing a quart of pure cinema: a long heady rush that probably kills some brain cells on the way. Park uses a anime/manga influenced style for his movie that I've rarely seen in live action, with lots of trippy visuals and with an editing scheme in place that shows effects before it shows the cause.

Choi Min-Sik acts circles around Uma Thurman, and he's the other reason this movie gets by. This is the performance of his career and he's infinitely watchable. There's a character design element to his character of Oh Daesu that reminded me of manga or anime, as well. A way that his fashions, his physicality, his haircut and his dialogue and blocking all seem to be of a piece, as if hundred of low paid animators did concept sketches and then WETA workshop carefully handcrafted his shoes, pants, pens, pads, chopsticks and sunglasses.

It's a great movie, and a good story, but dirty-minded viewers who expect the worst from the world will be able to figure out all its secrets by the 45 minute mark. It doesn't ruin the film, but it does make the emotions on display become tiresome after a while. There's a reason that no one makes movies of their cats playing with mice and releases them theatrically.

JSA and SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE were far more satisfying to me as a viewer, because their characters' trajectories made more sense and seemed far more emotionally realistic. I guess it's a sign that the awards go to the wallets and the trends rather than the more deserving projects that SYMPATHY went nowhere, and OLD BOY has enough awards to build a small bridge out of.

The Aint' It Cool News '04 holiday gift guide (http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=18956) includes a rather cool Oldboy action figure imported from Korea (.http://www.kojun.co.kr/V2/gallery/index.jsp).

Does anyone know if any action figures of characters from Takashi Miike films exist? Googling "Takashi Miike action figures" turned up nothing. Of course, an action figure of Miike himself would be great too.

A figure of Kakihara from ICHI THE KILLER popped up a few years ago from Medicom Toys. Here is the best pic I was able to find of it online:

http://www.justbetoys.com/medicom/medicom_ichi_kakihara.jpg

Martin Scorsese told that he wanted to get 'formal simplicity' but did not
accomplish yet in 'Inside Studio'. 'SFMV' is formally simpler than 'Oldboy',
which is the reason why I like the former more than the latter.

I initially favored Sympathy for Mr Vengeance over Oldboy as well, but upon repeat viewings I came to favor the latter. I think initially I was reacting negatively to the hype over Oldboy, but as that bias broke down I came to like it much more than Sympathy or JSA.

It's really kind of a pointless internal debate, though. If I like one better than the other, does it really matter? They're both excellent films.

If you include ANDROMEDEIA, the film that Miike directed of the J-pop girl group SPEED, then, yes, there are MANY figures available. There are dozens of non-poseable toys available (probably at discount these days) of the now defunct pop quartet, and trading cards, and phone cards and every other thing you can imagine. But I also think that either MAD HOUSE or KOTOBUKIYA produced some DEAD OR ALIVE action figures, or small sculpted toys.

I agree. The two films are different kinds of films in many ways, like comparing CADDYSHACK with RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. I'm not suggesting by that example that either OLDBOY or SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE are comedies, but SYMPATHY is much more of a genre film, and OLDBOY seems somehow more important, or at least attempts to put forward more of a message -it's definitely more arthouse. I prefer OLDBOY, because it strives for more (and I think succeeds), but specifically because the lead performance is commanding, powerful and deserving of recognition. It will be interesting to see what Roman Polanski and Johnny Depp do with the material in the remake (if the rumors are true) and interesting to see what the American licensor does with its release in 2005; it can only be eligible for an Oscar if Korea submits it for best foreign film.
The follow-up to OLDBOY which is titled SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE, looks to be another triumph, and will close-out the Vengeance trilogy quite nicely. I had a chance to read an Anglicized script at Cannes, and it offers more of the same for those of us who enjoyed the first two entries -more of the same with a twist!

But see, I think they do bear comparison because they're both by the same director. And I have to say that OLD BOY feels like a comic book to me, whereas SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (which I actually enjoy way less than OLD BOY) feels much more serious and "important" (to use your word).

SPOILERS AHOY

My problem with OLD BOY is that character is completely and totally negated by the end of the movie, whereas SYMPATHY is entirely character-driven. The people in SYMPATHY lash out at one another because they think they have no choice. It's a cruel world we live in, and they want their pound of flesh. It gets a kind of tragic heft by the end because they know what they're doing is wrong, but they've got moral tunnel vision and feel compelled to carry out their bad decisions.

By contrast, the characters in OLD BOY actually HAVE no choice. They've been programmed by hypnosis to behave as they do, and when they think they're doing something of their own free will they're actually doing exactly what the mastermind criminal wants them to do. The movie sets up a struggle between Oh Daesu and Yoo Ji Tae's character that starts out as interesting, but then turns into a bogus and pretty fraudulent non-event when we find out Oh Daesu has just been caught in an inescapable trap the entire time. So why'd he fight at all? The director seems to be saying that fighthing was worthless because everything he's done has been preordained, so...well...um...exactly: so what?

I really hate directors who confuse being cynical with being smart, and in OLD BOY's case, Park Chan Wook has gotten these two traits deeply confused. Cynicism seems cool and deep when you're smoking clove cigarettes and telling all your friends how the only people who understand you live in France, but it's cheap philosophy. You might argue that tragedy is pretty much shopworn goods at this point, as well, but it's lasted for centuries and is still capable of moving people, whereas cynicism is not generally known for its emotional value.

When you get to the end of OLD BOY, I would argue that if you're feeling anything resembling a real emotion at all, you're getting it from Choi Min Sik's performance, not from Park Chan Wook's film. Don't get me wrong: I like OLD BOY a lot. But at the end of the day it's got the intellectual and emotional weight of a comic book -- less, even. It's just a "Lex Luthor Comes Up With a Plot to Defeat Superman" story, only with different details (instead of kryptonite: incest; instead of Superman: Choi Min Sik; instead of Lex Luthor: Yoo Ji Tae).

Maybe that's why I like it so much! Heh.


Incidentally, that Roman Polanski/Johnny Depp remake rumor Piotr mentioned is the first I'd heard of that particular combo...last I'd heard Justin Lin, director of Better Luck Tomorrow was attached to direct at Universal, with Nicholas Cage in talks for the lead. Have the say the Polanksi/Depp idea sounds like a better film.