Day 152: Oldboy

After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) is freed and he wants vengeance. His captor wants Dae-su to understand why he wanted to keep him locked up for 15 years. Perhaps it would’ve been better to have just left Korea because what he finds out is devastating. Spoilers!

We follow Dae-su as he recounts his ‘story’, which consists of being kidnapped, drugged, imprisoned for 15 years and having his wife’s murder pinned on him. After he is freed, he meets Mi-do (Hye-jeong Kang) and the two become close very quickly. She helps him to find out where he was being held and she tends his various injuries. His captor, Woo-jin (Ji-tae Yu), says that unless Dae-su can work out why he was imprisoned, he’ll kill Mi-do. Dae-su races to work out what could possibly be the reason but he does eventually remember; when they were all at school, Dae-su saw Woo-jin getting intimate with his own sister and then rumours began to spread which made her life hell and eventually led to her suicide. Woo-jin hypnotised Dae-su and Mi-do in order for them to come together and fall in love, but it’s revealed that Mi-do is actually Dae-su’s daughter. Dae-su is obviously horrified (they had a lot of sex) and he begs Woo-jin not to tell Mi-do. He agrees and then goes off and kills himself, his work now complete.

I find incest such an interesting subject. It seems so alien to me that you could develop feelings for a relative, especially one you were raised with. But then, people usually end up developing feelings for the people they spend a lot of time around and have shared experiences with, which sounds like the relationship you’d have with a close relative, no? I don’t know, it’s so interesting. I wonder how many people are in relationships with someone they’re related to and I wonder how they cope with the stigma surrounding it.

Thiiiiis fiiiiiilm. I can’t believe I’ve not watched it until just now. It is excellent and you should all be watching it right this second.

9/10