Oldboy

"15 Years of Imprisonment ... 5 Days of Vengeance". That was the movie's sales tag, and it's all anyone needs to know before watching Chanwook Park's Oldboy, the second (2003) feature in his so-called "Vengeance Trilogy".

This movie version of a manga "comic" book is a horror epic and its synopsis is mind-blowingly complex. In typical Park fashion, it's also shot through with scenes of outrageously noir humour. The Korean director's black artistry is as polished as ever, gleaming like evil gems adorning sets that are exquisitely composed, framed and lit.

The two lead actors perform their bizarre roles well, as old boys of the same co-ed Catholic school. One, drunken buffoonish Daesu Oh (Min-sik Choi) is kidnapped when his daughter' three years old. For 15 years, he's held prisoner and then allowed to go free, given five days to find out why he'd been confined and seek his revenge. He's introduced to a young female sushi chef, eats a live octopus at her counter, faints and moves into her apartment and love-life.

The other schoolboy, Woo-jin (Ji-tae Yu), is eventually revealed. The scheming millionaire brother of a girl who died at their school, he too is seeking revenge, in ways even Macchiavelli might spurn.

Now, spoilers are spilt. The brother and sister loved each other, perhaps incestuously, and the ex-prisoner is the father of the girl, whom he'd been accused of killing. Double incest is an unusual basis for a melodrama, horror film and fantasy, and I cannot imagine how - or why - an American version of this movie is in production.

The original plotline could never get a green light in the USA. A dozen key, gruesome and gory plot details will have to vanish. Another dozen red herrings, macabre footnotes and mood enhancers won't survive the film's first American production conference. On second thoughts, one cannot wait to see what happens to this scenario in its American reincarnation.

The multi-award-winning Korean movie earned the Cannes Jury Grand Prize and is admirable. So, some people think, is sado-masochism.