It might not always be fair to judge a remake by simply comparing it to the original. But that’s hard not to do when a filmmaker copies it so closely instead of making the story their own. It’s even more difficult when the original was close to perfect, while the remake is inferior in every way. Such is the case with Oldboy, the dark, twisted South Korean gem from director Park Chan-wook. An American remake has been talked about for years, but upon finally hitting the screen in a crowded Thanksgiving weekend, the Spike Lee-directed movie has received little notice.
The film follows Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin), a drunken lowlife who wakes up after a bender to find himself inexplicably locked in a room. No windows, no phone, and no contact with the outside world. He’s given meals through a trough in the door, and knocked out with sleeping gas periodically so he can be groomed by his captors. His only company is a television, from which he learns his wife was murdered and he’s the prime suspect. After 20 years in captivity, he’s just as suddenly released, and sets out to find out who kidnapped him, as well as track down his surviving daughter.
It was 15 years in Park’s film, one of several small changes in the movie. It’s also Americanized, meaning not only are the look and setting different, but some of the too-extreme-for-Hollywood sequences have been excised, with only a few hinting references remaining. And the reasons for the villainous plot against the protagonist have changed a bit, as has the scheme's complexity. But mostly, the film follows the original’s storyline pretty closely. Same sequence of events, same jarring plot twist, even the same extended hallway battle (although here it seems rather cartoonish, instead of revealing about the character’s atrophied human feeling and iron determination for vengeance). What’s different is how it’s done.
The screen time of Brolin’s captivity is increased, with some new creepy touches as his sanity unravels and further ways his captors torment him. The lead-up to his abduction, as he drunkenly wanders streets as empty and misty as only horror movies get, conjures up some unsettling dread. Lee also expands on the backstory, with a longer pre-captivity introduction that shows just how much of an unlikeable loser the lead character is. It almost makes us not want to root for him at first, but after he’s released from his prison, he seems set up for redemption, at least as much as he can get in the depraved web in which he’s caught.
But whatever potential that's there evaporates quickly. Once he’s freed, he goes into stoic Death Wish mode, committing acts of violence almost mechanically and showing no emotion. Well, some emotion, but it all seems forced. His romance with a young nurse who cares for him (Elizabeth Olsen) is like an unwelcome romantic subplot forcibly shoved into an action thriller, not a sickly tender meeting of unlikely kindred spirits like the original film.
That’s the biggest, most affecting difference between Park’s film and Lee’s: emotion. For all the depravity of the original, Park instilled within it a powerful, shattering emotional depth. Even the villain’s heinous plot turned out to be an act from the bottom of his heart. Here, the villain (Sharlto Copley) is just an insane caricature, and the tone is that of a revenge thriller with touches of the torture porn genre. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact that it’s not a very effective thriller is. It’s very straightforward and standard, dragging along to the end and offering very little tension.
The final results might not completely be the fault of the filmmakers, though. Apparently, studio interference resulted in significant cuts against the wishes of cast and crew. We need not wait and hope for an uncut DVD to see the optimal version of Oldboy, however. That film already exists in the form of Park’s original.
The film follows Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin), a drunken lowlife who wakes up after a bender to find himself inexplicably locked in a room. No windows, no phone, and no contact with the outside world. He’s given meals through a trough in the door, and knocked out with sleeping gas periodically so he can be groomed by his captors. His only company is a television, from which he learns his wife was murdered and he’s the prime suspect. After 20 years in captivity, he’s just as suddenly released, and sets out to find out who kidnapped him, as well as track down his surviving daughter.
It was 15 years in Park’s film, one of several small changes in the movie. It’s also Americanized, meaning not only are the look and setting different, but some of the too-extreme-for-Hollywood sequences have been excised, with only a few hinting references remaining. And the reasons for the villainous plot against the protagonist have changed a bit, as has the scheme's complexity. But mostly, the film follows the original’s storyline pretty closely. Same sequence of events, same jarring plot twist, even the same extended hallway battle (although here it seems rather cartoonish, instead of revealing about the character’s atrophied human feeling and iron determination for vengeance). What’s different is how it’s done.
The screen time of Brolin’s captivity is increased, with some new creepy touches as his sanity unravels and further ways his captors torment him. The lead-up to his abduction, as he drunkenly wanders streets as empty and misty as only horror movies get, conjures up some unsettling dread. Lee also expands on the backstory, with a longer pre-captivity introduction that shows just how much of an unlikeable loser the lead character is. It almost makes us not want to root for him at first, but after he’s released from his prison, he seems set up for redemption, at least as much as he can get in the depraved web in which he’s caught.
But whatever potential that's there evaporates quickly. Once he’s freed, he goes into stoic Death Wish mode, committing acts of violence almost mechanically and showing no emotion. Well, some emotion, but it all seems forced. His romance with a young nurse who cares for him (Elizabeth Olsen) is like an unwelcome romantic subplot forcibly shoved into an action thriller, not a sickly tender meeting of unlikely kindred spirits like the original film.
That’s the biggest, most affecting difference between Park’s film and Lee’s: emotion. For all the depravity of the original, Park instilled within it a powerful, shattering emotional depth. Even the villain’s heinous plot turned out to be an act from the bottom of his heart. Here, the villain (Sharlto Copley) is just an insane caricature, and the tone is that of a revenge thriller with touches of the torture porn genre. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact that it’s not a very effective thriller is. It’s very straightforward and standard, dragging along to the end and offering very little tension.
The final results might not completely be the fault of the filmmakers, though. Apparently, studio interference resulted in significant cuts against the wishes of cast and crew. We need not wait and hope for an uncut DVD to see the optimal version of Oldboy, however. That film already exists in the form of Park’s original.
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