Oldboy: The Corridor, the Twist, and Park Chan-wook's Rage

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Oldboy has been reduced, over twenty years, to three things: a man eating a live octopus, a fight down a corridor filmed in one long sideways take, and a twist so vicious that people who have never seen the film know to be careful discussing it. That reduction does the film a disservice, because underneath the shocks Park Chan-wook made a genuine tragedy — a revenge story so total that it swallows the avenger, the target, and the audience’s own appetite for revenge along with them. Revisited now, with the initial jolt long spent, it plays less like a provocation and more like a Greek drama with the lights turned all the way up.

Park Chan-Wook - vo.rs

Oldboy: The Corridor, the Twist, and Park Chan-wook's Rage