Given that Spooktober just came to an end, let’s follow the thread with a peculiar movie, a sort of neo-noir thriller that for its strangeness will surely not be appreciated by many but is still well worth the curiosity.
Old Boy is a South Korean movie directed by Park Chan-wook; it is loosly adapted from the homonymous Japanese manga written by Garon Tsuchiya.
It is the story of man who is imprisoned for fifteen years without any sort of explanation; after he is suddenly released, the story follows him and his search for vengeance. The plot unfolds slowly, piece by piece, exploring not only the strangeness of the world of Old Boy, but also the motives of the characters involved.
I would assume that an important part in judging the acting skills of an individual is at least to understand the language they are speaking; the subtitles in a movie would not help in fully grasping the linguistic complexities of how dialogues are delivered. While I do not understand Korean, I think I have a decent understanding of acting: Choi Min-sik (who plays the main character) demonstrates a great ability in modelling his character to his whim. His mood changes, his stares, the way he either accelerates or decelerates certain scenes (hence the pacing) and his presence in the scenes are all factors that constitute in my mind a competent actor. There are certain moments where it might even seem that he is overdoing it, but that just fits perfectly with what is happening on the screen.
Old Boy is a very crude movie that leads the viewer in a tense world filled with questionable characters. The eeriness of the movie is only amplified by an accurately picked soundtrack and a predominantly urban scenery, one that feels strangely asphyxiating.
As a side not, apparently the movie is part of a trilogy; it might be worth looking into it.
Also also, there is an American version that was produced several years later, but we do not speak about that here.
I would give this movie a 7 out of 10 not-your-usual-K-dramas.