Throwback Series: Vertigo and Oldboy

 

VERTIGO (1958)

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

 

Yup, this one’s pretty good!

 

Honestly, I don’t know what else to offer outside of that laconic statement, but I also don’t know what else I could say that film critic upon film critic hasn’t already said ever since the film underwent its reevaluation after its initial mixed reception? Vertigo is just a solid psychological thriller, with a main detective character that has a very unique flaw (i.e., acrophobia), a great musical score by Hitchcock mainstay Bernard Hermann, and a gut punch of a finale that is just loaded with different types of symbolism, ranging from religious to nihilist. Sure, some aspects haven’t aged very well, particularly the way the film treats its female characters, but overall, Vertigo is a very good film, and sort of a Rosetta Stone for certain aspects of director Christopher Nolan’s work.

OLDBOY (2003)

(dir. Park Chan-wook)

 

Now, here is a film that I might have a bit more to say about, because…man, what a ride! I’m serious, Oldboy might be one of the most harrowing, emotionally rollicking films I’ve had the chance to view since…I dunno, probably The Lighthouse!

 

Here’s the basic setup: in South Korea, a seemingly random drunk named Oh Dae-su is mysteriously captured and held hostage in a small room. Though he is a prisoner, his captors provide him with food and a TV, where he learns that he has been framed for the murder of his wife. After fifteen years of this, he is spontaneously let go and is contacted by the mastermind of his capture: Lee Woo-jin, a wealthy man who offers Dae-su a choice: if Dae-su can discover the reason behind his capturing, Woo-jin will kill himself. And if he fails, then Woo-jin will kill a local waitress acquaintance of Dae-su's named Mi-do. 

Now, from that setup, you’re probably thinking this is a run-of-the-mill noir that just happens to take place in South Korea. Well, that’s where you’re wrong, dear reader. Even though it does play like that for the first two acts of the film – albeit, in a more gross and violent fashion than some American noir films are comfortable with – once we get to the third act, everything is flipped on its head, and it is one of the most chilling, frightening reveals I’ve ever witnessed.

 

In fact, the whole climax is something I wasn’t expecting. Without giving too much away, throughout the course of the film, we’re expecting Dae-su and Woo-jin to engage in a knockdown, drag-out fight that most American noir/revenge stories have conditioned us to expect. But it’s not like that at all; it’s disturbing, very dialogue-heavy (almost like something out of theatre), and outright sad.

 

I don’t even know what more to say than check this movie out! But I must warn you, it’s not for the faint of heart.