The Spotlight: Movies to Watch After Oldboy
The Korean revenge masterpiece, Oldboy (2003) directed by Chan-Wook Park, is by far, in my top ten movies OF ALL TIME and I talk about it in many of my reviews. It’s a dark action movie about revenge with fairy tale qualities. A man wakes up in a room where he is held captive for years with TV and take out dumplings as his only companions (my own personal hell). Once he is released, he becomes obsessed with finding his captor for answers. Once I picked up my jaw from the floor, I’m left with this empty feeling after watching it. What’s next? I’m not looking forward to Spike Lee Americanizing it with Will Smith. Will there ever be a movie like it? It’s also hard to recommend movies based on other movies (much like books) because people like them for different reasons so I broke them down into two “Netflix-like” categories. First, I suggest trying the rest of the Park’s Revenge Trilogy: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance. Only thematically connected, they are two separate stories about revenge with dire consequences. Then, here are some worthwhile close seconds:
If you like dark revenge movies:
The Last House on the Left (1972. 84 minutes. Rated X.)
Two teens going to a concert are looking for some “fun” when they run into a family of murderers on the lam who torture them close to the teen’s home. When the criminals seek refuge from her parents after their car breaks down, the real fun begins. Once they realize they are harboring their daughter’s captors, the parents decide to dish out their own justice. The movie effectively intersperses mundane police playing chess with gruesome torture scenes leaving the viewer feeling helpless and angry. This is Wes Craven at his best.
I Saw the Devil (2010. 141 minutes. Rated NR.)
When his fiance winds up dead in the hands of a serial killer, special agent Soo-huyn decides to take the investigation into his own hands. This movie is fast paced, full of those moments when you want to turn away but you can’t. Both men have their compulsions that won’t let them stop, but when does someone become a monster?
Seven Days (2010. 105 minutes. Rated R.)
A surgeon’s daughter is brutally assaulted and killed. Before the suspect is tried in court, the doctor takes matters into his own hands as he brutally tortures the killer for a confession for 7 days. The sparse tense scenes leave the viewer wondering did he really do it?
Hard Candy (2005. 104 minutes. Rated R.)
A young girl meets an older man on the Internet. Just when you think you know where the movie is going, the sweet looking innocent girl drugs and tortures him to teach him a lesson. A wonderful reversal of the victim/captor relationship played by Juno star Ellen Page.
Martyrs (2008. 99 minutes. Rated R.)
Miraculously escaping her captors as a child, orphaned Lucie finally pays back her tormentors more than a decade later. While helping Lucie cover up her actions, her friend Anna stumbles upon something much more sinister than they bargained for. Midway through the movie, the entire plot shifts, leaving people with a love/hate feeling. The gross-out factor is high and the ending is very “French.” It is a worthy addition to the horror movie canon.
If you like dark fairy tales:
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006. 118 minutes. Rated R.)
In 1944, Ophelia, a young girl obsessed with fairy tales, travels with her pregnant mother to meet her new stephfather, a sadistic Spanish general. In order to escape the horrors of her surroundings in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, she is convinced by a fawn in the woods that her real father is king of the underworld. After completing three tasks in an abandoned labyrinth, she can reunite with him. A movie about choices, both in the Alice in Wonderland like fantasy world and in the reality of war. Horrific, beautiful, and visually arresting with lots of eyeballs. This is a fairy tale the Grimm brothers would appreciate.
Tale of Two Sisters (2003. 115 minutes. Rated R.)
Two sisters return from an extended stay at the hospital only to be at odds with their overbearing step-mother. A wonderful twist ending, much like Oldboy, will leave openings to rewatch for clues.
