In Park Chan-wook's "Vengeance Trilogy", "Old Boy" is the most extreme one, the distortion of time and space is like a strange set in magic. The clock that appears shortly after the film starts is easily reminiscent of Dali's "Eternal Memory". I don't know if the director did it on purpose, and this type of film is often full of too many specious, too much. Multiple deconstruction methods. In "Old Boy", "revenge" is obviously the easiest theme to reflect. Compared with the conventional plots in the past, the success of "Old Boy" is that it focuses not on the process of revenge, but on the avengers. psychology. The violence and harshness of those revenge processes are just a catharsis rather than a purpose.
"It is sand or stone, and it sinks like falling water." This line is repeated in the film, it is both a prophecy and a generalization of the theme of the whole film. Everyone has their own dark side, and when it is magnified, the animal nature of man will be revealed. Sand and Shi actually represent the two, Li Yuzhen avenged for the death of her lover, and Wu Daxiu avenged her 15-year captivity. Li Yuzhen's bureau, every link, echoes this sentence: He designed Wu Daxiu and Mei Dao to fall in love, that is, to put Wu Daxiu in the same situation as himself, fall into forbidden love, and eventually self-destruct. After the outside pressure intervened, Li Yuzhen chose to let go and live alone, while Wu Daxiu chose to hypnotize and forget. In this gambling game, neither of them had a complete victory. Li Yuzhen verified his creed. Wu Daxiu failed to "fall in love knowing that it was impossible" as he said, but he himself failed to get rid of it after revenge. The burden in his heart has lost the meaning of life; Wu Daxiu got the answer, but he didn't ask the right question, and he could never find his original self again. "Vengeance can relieve anger, but what about revenge, the wounds of the old days will still ache." The two just came back together.
That's what makes this movie so uncomfortable, because we can't imagine how a person would react in such a situation. The film exaggerates not those bloody and violent scenes, but the protagonist's extreme extremes. reaction. Because we can't foresee it, it's hard for us to accept it. Only in movies can we get a glimpse of ourselves in the dark.
Even though it is cruel and merciless like this, I still think this is a pure love film. Just like Kim Ki-deok's "Bad Boy", "Old Boy" did not go all the way on the road of "blackening". Different from the beginning, the ending of the film is grand and spectacular. The rising sun makes people feel that the haze has finally swept away. Violence is not the purpose, at least not in "Old Boy". Park Chan-wook gave up writing love with roses and red makeup, but thinking about it carefully, blood is another kind of intense, just like the clothes on Mei Dao's body in the last scene. Good things are not easy to come by, and sometimes they are hidden too deep, like a shimmering pearl plucked out of the sand.
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