In case you haven’t met me or read any of my articles regarding Spike Lee’s Oldboy, I’m a massive fan of Park Chan-wook’s 2003 Korean thriller of the same name. It’s one of my top five movies of all-time and the idea of an English language remake or adaptation of the Manga certainly pissed me off. That being said the remake is finally set to arrive this week and for fans of the original you’ll likely be disappointed but for the unsuspecting non-cinephiles who are unfamiliar with the property, you’ll be in for a decently twisted treat.
In Oldboy, Josh Brolin stars as Joe Doucett an asshole who, after a night on a drunken bender, wakes up in a “hotel” of sorts with no explanation and no way out. He will soon realize that this will be his new home for a long time, 20 years in fact. After being randomly released, Joe is out for vengeance and begins a violent quest to find out who imprisoned him and why. Along the way he meets a young nurse of sorts named Marie Sebastian (Elizabeth Olsen) who believes Joe’s story and is willing to help him find the person who has controlled his life for 20 years.
One of the most difficult things when watching a remake of a thriller such as this is allowing the film to captivate and engulf you completely. The reason it’s so difficult with Oldboy in particular is that the story rides on major plot twists and knowing what they are beforehand takes you out of the picture. I sat there constantly comparing the two films, finding the similarities and differences all while eagerly waiting to see how Spike Lee and screenwriter Mark Protosevich approached the big twists as well as a couple of the film’s famous scenes.
The most exciting part about watching Oldboy, for those who have seen the original, is that the audience has no idea what kind of film they are really in for. Very rarely do graphically violent films get a wide release, these are usually reserved for limited releases and art-house theaters but Oldboy is an exception and people will most certainly be in for a gruesome awakening. Though it can feel like Lee is restraining himself a little bit, I was just happy to see this type of film in a regular movie theater because it’s always fun to watch old people get disgusted and walk out of a movie.
For fans of the original, if you’re expecting something seriously different but with the same type of twists you’ll be pretty disappointed. This is a film that stays true to the original but with a few minor changes in an attempt to keep fans of the original on their toes. It’s also a little less violent since, you know, this is getting a wide release. In fact, the best way to describe Lee’s Oldboy is “same, same but different,” the same phrase Vietnamese salespeople use in the street markets of Ho Chi Minh City. That being said, you probably won’t like it too much.
Since I am keeping this spoiler free, the one specific aspect I’ll talk about is the famous one shot hammer fight scene. While not nearly as intense, Spike Lee took a very cool approach, rather than having it all take place on one floor, Lee’s version follows Joe in
one shot starting from a high level in a building and having him fight down instead of across. While cool, the main issue with this is that it isn’t nearly as well choreographed and it seems like a lot of the attackers just stand around waiting for their turn to be hit.
If I were to point out one part of the film that I didn’t like it would be the captor’s story about his/her family and what happened to them. The scenes that are shown are comically brutal but I found the actual impact of the key scene to be rather weak considering the importance of this specific reveal. Then when you compare it to the original it seems even less shocking because it then makes the captor seem more psychotic than someone seeking retribution for something in the past.
Overall, as a fan of the original, the Oldboy remake is good in that it is pretty faithful to the original, but that is also part of its downfall as it doesn’t bring much originality or a unique sense of style to make it stand-out from the original, which I believe to be the key aspect for remakes to succeed. Maybe if I hadn’t seen the original film I’d enjoy this one more but in comparison, it is hard to match the gritty and intense nature of the Korean version. If there was one piece of advice that I could pass onto an audience member about to see this remake, watch the Korean version first as the twists will be more impactful and more exciting than the ones in Spike Lee’s remake. If you decide to see Lee’s version first, at least you’ll get to see a well acted graphic film with a mainstream audience, something that rarely happens in this day and age that isn’t horror related.
Rating: A faithful but underwhelming remake of a modern and thrilling classic (5/10)
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