Revenge is a dish best served cold, or maybe raw would be a better way of putting it as confirmed by the infamous octopus scene in this movie.This is a classic Korean movie released in 2003 but as it’s the latest DVD I’ve watched I’m going to give you my views on it.
It’s a story based on revenge, but with a many twists that keeps you transfixed until the final frame. A man Ho Dae-su (Min Sik Choi) is kidnapped off of the streets and held without any obvious motive for fifteen years in a shabby room. After numerous attempts at escape and suicide he is released suddenly on a rooftop in a suit given cash and a phone again all without a word of explanation, just when he thinks his ordeal is over it transpires that his fifteen years imprisonment was just the start of a twisted game of revenge.
To get revenge Ho Dae-su must uncover some very dark secrets and confront his past with the help of Mido (Hye-jeong Kang) a sushi chef that serves him the infamous raw octopus, which triggers a series of events.
The director Chan-wook Park has uses some clever camera shots to create his movie, in one particular scene the fight is played out like the comic that spun off from this film. The film does have great black humour running through it but also has strong suggested violence and a twist that walks a moral grey area which might not satisfy some viewers. It is though a clever and twisted tale with some great fight scenes that keeps the viewer interested until the end.
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This film is an exciting, thrilling revenge story with the best twist in it since The Sixth Sense. The film is effective at drawing the audience in because we know as little as Oh Dae-Su does, and also don’t know who to trust, so it keeps the viewer interested and as eager as Oh Dae-Su to find out the reason behind his capture. The film immediately gets the viewer hooked on the story, as after he is captured, he is crying out for answers as to how long he will be locked up for. ‘If they had told me it would be fifteen years, would that have made it easier?’
Despite the film’s violent and disturbing content matter, it contains some genuinely funny scenes, which provides brief comic relief to the audience in-between all the mystery and violence. For instance, when he is released, he thinks to himself, [before getting into a fight with a group of men], ‘Can the imaginary training of fifteen years be put to use?…Yes. It can’ Then the film hurtles straight into the thrilling storyline again as he becomes romantically involved with a woman, and gets closer to finding the man who imprisoned him.
Oh Dae-Su becomes more and more consumed with paranoia and revenge, so has to go through a painful decision of choosing ‘revenge? Or the truth?’ He chooses the truth. The twist is the most memorable part of the film, and makes all the waiting for the answer worthwhile. Park Chan-wook said the film is about ‘the utter futility of revenge and how it wreaks havoc on the lives of everyone around them’. There is an incredible twist which actually made the audience gasp out loud [a sure sign of a good film!], and leaves us wondering how he can continue to live his life normally again.
After this horrible revelation, I was left hoping that Oh-Dae Su could finally have some happiness after all the torture he had been through, and the ending didn’t disappoint. It was a nice touch at the end of a very emotional and gruelling film, as a happy ending was unexpected after all the plotting and revenge.I would personally recommend as a must see!
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