Revenge is a really classical and mythological story topic. So is incest.
As a result of I’d already handled the division of the Korean peninsula in “Joint Safety Space (JSA)” and sophistication battle inside South Korea in “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” I didn’t wish to deal with yet one more well timed social challenge in my subsequent work. I needed to inform a narrative that was extra foundational, primordial, and common. And I needed to go romanticist, relatively than reasonable. I needed to inform a narrative about destiny.
You started collaborating with screenwriter Chung Website positioning-kyung after “Oldboy,” and you’ve got continued working collectively for 20 years. How has it felt to revisit “Oldboy,” which was made earlier than that collaboration, and did Chung have any impact on the restoration and remaster?
After making “JSA,” “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” and “Oldboy” back-to-back, I started to repent, having solely created tales that pushed girls to the periphery. She was who I recruited because of this. As you might be conscious, the movies and sequence I’ve made since are all centered round girls. Even the works that she isn’t concerned in. That’s how a lot of an affect she has had on me. Nevertheless, as a result of “Oldboy” is a pre-Chung work, she didn’t take part within the remastering.
One of the vital enduring traces of dialogue in “Oldboy” comes from Lee Woo-jin, who says, “You possibly can’t discover the precise reply in case you ask the improper questions.” This concept is essential in lots of your movies, and so I needed to shut this interview by asking in regards to the affect “Oldboy” has had on you as a filmmaker. How has it influenced the questions that you just want to ask via your filmmaking, or led you towards sure solutions?
That’s right — that line of dialogue is the important thing. If anybody have been to treat “Oldboy” as holding some essential place within the historical past of thriller tales, it’d be due to that line. This was not a thriller that might be solved by obsessing over the query, “Why was I imprisoned?” It’s solely whenever you change the query to, “Why was I launched once I might have been imprisoned for all times?” which you could attain the thought, “Then, why was I launched after precisely 15 years?” and, “What takes 15 years to realize?” earlier than in the end coming to the conclusion that’s how lengthy it takes for Mi-do, [played by Kang Hye-jung,] to develop into an grownup.
Life is similar. What number of enigmas keep unsolved as a result of we’re asking the improper query? When the reply is tough to determine, allow us to attempt altering the query and asking anew.
“Oldboy” returns to theaters in a brand new 4K restoration and remaster, by way of Neon, on August 16.