Oldeuboi

English title: Oldboy

Genre: action drama

With: Choi Min-sik (Dae-su Oh), Yoo Ji-tae (Woo-jin Lee), Kang Hye-jeong (Mi-do), Kim Byeong-Ok (Mr. Han), Ji Dae-han (No Joo-hwan), Oh Dal-su (Park Cheol-woong), Seung-shin Lee (Yoo Hyung-ja), Jin-Seo Yoon (Lee Soo-ah)

Director: Park Chan-wook

Screenplay: Park Chan-wook, Joon-hyung Lim and Jo-yun Hwang (based on the manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi)

Release: 2003

Studio: Celsius, ShowEast and Egg Films

Rating: R

MBiS score: 8.6/10 

 

‟Laugh… and the world laughs with you. Weep… and you weep alone.” 

 

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Story-line: in 1988, a happily married man named Oh Dae-su is arrested for drunkenness on his daughter’s third birthday and annoys everyone at the police station with his disorderly conduct. Once released under the care of his friend No Joo-hwan, Dae-su stops to call his family from a phone booth and suddenly disappears… for reasons unknown.

Pluses: excellent acting by a fine cast and especially Choi Min-sik (one scene in which he sings and cries at the same time is simply amazing), fast-paced, masterful direction, a complex, twisted and surrealistic screenplay remarkable for its startling characters and catchy dialogues, consummate cinematography and fantastic editing, utterly effective production values and a varied, devilishly efficient musical score.

Minuses: don’t be confused by the rooftop sequence at the very beginning… it makes perfect sense once you reach the 20-minute mark. Some scenes may be painful to watch, especially for professionals in dentistry. 

Comments: the lively, awesome and ceaselessly creative OLDBOY nurtures a strong sense of mystery and delivers terrifying, edge-of-your-seat entertainment. Dae-su’s dark and dangerous quest for revenge, which was rewarded with the Grand Prize at Cannes and multiple awards internationally, is a must-see for all movie buffs. 

 

MBiS 

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 I Want to Live!

Genre: crime drama (in black and white)

With: Susan Hayward (Barbara Graham, a.k.a. Bonnie), Simon Oakland (Edward S. ‟Ed” Montgomery), Virginia Vincent (Peg), Theodore Bikel (Carl G.G. Palmberg), Wesley Lau (Henry Graham), Philip Coolidge (Emmett Perkins), Lou Krugman (John R. ‟Jack” Santo), James Philbrook (Bruce King), Bartlett Robinson (District Attorney Milton), Gage Clarke (Tibrow), Peter Breck (Ben Miranda), Marion Marshall (Rita), Joe De Santis (Matthews)

Director: Robert Wise

Screenplay: Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz (based on Ed Montgomery’s newspaper articles and Barbara Graham’s letters)

Release: 1958

Studio: MGM, Figaro Incorporated, Walter Wanger Productions

Rating: 14A

MBiS score: 8.4/10 

 

It All Comes Back to Haunt You

  

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Story-line: with her friend Peg at her side, good-time girl Barbara Graham lives an exciting, mischievous life soliciting johns, dodging the police, kiting cheques and committing perjury. It seems that even reasonable advice can’t pull her out of the spiral she’s fallen into. Will it ever stop?

Pluses: a remarkable and versatile performance by a dominant Susan Hayward (as the wisecracking, quarrelsome Barbara), an excellent supporting cast, lively, efficient direction, an interesting and intelligent screenplay memorable for its pungent dialogues, surprising twists and striking scenes, useful cinematography, fine production values and a superb musical score played by world-renowned jazzmen.

Minuses: none I can think of.

Comments: it takes a lot of gumption for an actress to play a troublemaking dame who also elicits admiration and Susan Hayward pulled it off so perfectly that she won an Oscar for her turn as a woman who left no man indifferent – even the cynical Montgomery who had seen just about everything as a journalist. I WANT TO LIVE! is an intriguing, true-to-life story about crime, friendship, rebelliousness, sensationalism and betrayal. Moreover, it is a sad spectacle about human behaviour and the concept of justice in our world.  

 

MBiS 

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