Park Chan-wook’s Revenge Trilogy in 4K
If Korean cinema is very popular today (as evidenced by the countless productions broadcast on Netflix), it was not yet the case in France at the beginning of the 2000s. However, it is perhaps in this period that South Korea expressed some of its films more notable works. At least this is where important authors, such as Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, have been revealed. The first with Memories of murder (2003), the second with Old boy (2003)that emerges, with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) e Lady Vengeance (2005), in 4K version restored on March 6, 2024. A theatrical release that will soon be followed by a 4K Blur-ray box set bringing together the three films by the revenge trilogy by Park Chan-wook.
Great success in South Korea with more than three million viewers, the feature film has over time become a cult film in France. Seen by fewer than 200,000 spectators during its first theatrical release, Old boy has since been taken into consideration a reference of its kind. Let’s keep in mind mythical sequences like the sequence shot in the corridor, or the live octopus scene that actor Choi Min-sik actually ate during several takes. But Old boyit is also and above all an original speech and a twist as memorable as it is traumatic.
The story ofOld boy
We follow a man kidnapped one day in front of his house and seized for years. Neither he nor the viewer knows the reason for his kidnapping. And man will have to be patient and do what he can within four walls without sinking into madness. Until the day he is released. 15 years later, here he is back in civilization. He will therefore do everything to find the person who orchestrated his kidnapping. However, his desire for revenge will lead him to discover a horrible reality that could destroy him.
With Old boy, Park Chan-wook proposed the second part of his revenge trilogy. But above all we find an important theme among the filmmakers: the fiction. The director, in fact, has this ability to lead the viewer in one direction, before revealing the truth about his characters. Here, the “hero” Oh Dae-soo initially appears as the victim of this kidnapping. But the trend reversal in the last act our relationship with him changes. And the same goes for his tormentor, Lee Woo-jin (Yoo Ji-tae).
A twist from which we will not emerge unscathed
Through a flashback, we find out that Lee Woo-jin and Oh Dae-soo attended the same high school. While the first had an incestuous relationship with his sister, the second one found out and reported them. Because of this, Lee Woo-jin’s sister committed suicide and the latter always felt that Oh Dae-soo was responsible for it. But his revenge didn’t stop with locking him up. Because Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung), who Oh Dae-soo met after his release and with whom he had sex, she is actually his daughter.
An incest caused by Lee Woo-jin and which will now haunt Oh Dae-soo. But to protect Mi-do from this truth that would destroy her in turn, the man even arrives cut your tongue and offer it to Lee Woo-jin to keep it a secret. An act enough for Lee Woo-jin, who subsequently commits suicide and leaves Oh Dae-soo, I’m sinking into madnessalongside Mi-do who will never know anything about it, but who will continue to take care of her father, until the last shocking twist.Old boy.
Alfred Hitchcock’s cinema seems to be an important reference for Park Chan-wook (especially with Decision to leave). However, he is more on Brian De Palma’s side than thatOld boy is approaching, with this turning point and this theme of incest that they remember Obsession (1977). Moreover, the South Korean filmmaker approaches it in a similar way, without trying to draw a moral judgment from it, but as an instrument of psychological destruction. The difference is perhaps that of Park Chan-wook the characters are even darker, far from heroic or admirable, but never judged by the director. There is finally a certain horror evident in his revelations, but the empathy for the protagonists remains. We are shocked and appalled by this film that finds emotion in the most extreme violence.
On line, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance AND Lady Vengeance they are also notable. Less known thanOld boyare available urgently in theaters from March 6, 2024.
Source: Cine Serie
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