New Korean Cinema - Oldboy as the 'cult' film

(credit: A.K. Czinkota)

Alongside South Korea’s liberation from decades of hegemony came a liberation of the country’s cinema in the form of 'New Korean Cinema', the emergence of which Darcy Paquet describes as "the story of what happened when filmmakers finally escaped their confinement and became free not only to realise a politically and socially informed cinema, but to look beyond this to an era when films were no longer obligated to speak for their nation of people" (Paquet, 2003).

(Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2003)

Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2003) has since become an exemplary film in this notion; referencing decades of oppression via its narrative of a man once confined (protagonist Oh Dae-Su is abducted, imprisoned for 15 years and then released for reasons unbeknownst to him) while reveling in liberation within its artistic form. Oldboy is a film which has earned a celebrated cult status, often featuring on lists of the greatest cult films. Over the course of the last two blog posts, we’ve looked at how certain regional cinemas have developed cult status in different ways in the case of both Denmark's Dogme 95 movement and the Czech New Wave. This case study explores how and why Oldboy fulfills an understanding of ‘cult’.  

In the book 'The Cult Film Reader', editors Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik propose that a cult film is defined by a fulfillment of one or more of four elements. The first being "anatomy: the film itself – its features; content, style, format and generic modes" (Mathijs; Mendik, 2008). The anatomy of Oldboy in regards to content and style is one of cult appeal due to its desire to cross-establish boundaries within these elements.

Oldboy fulfills an understanding of what makes a cult film because of the way in which the film’s challenging of hegemony and cross-establishing of boundaries are intrinsically linked. The film’s depictions of confinement and torture (as well as its revenge narrative) are difficult to separate from the context of Korea’s history, while its ability to cross-establish boundaries pertaining to a level of style within these depictions reflects the country’s social and cinematic liberation. How Oldboy manages to cross-establish boundaries in terms of style is evident in the film’s ability to traverse art-house, mainstream, and typically cult pastures.  

Art-house sensibilities are evident in the film’s now infamous ‘corridor fight scene’, in which Park Chan-wook opts for a long, continuous, wide tracking shot that displays the violence in all its glory; as opposed to cutting between multiple shots and angles like most mainstream action fare. But for every art-house moment, there is an equally effective appropriation of the mainstream. In the very same scene, Oh Dae-su battles a score of opponents, which he subsequently overcomes, in a manner not too disparate from the likes of Iron Man ‘s fight against terrorists in his eponymous first film.   

Oldboy even indulges in some more typically cult flourishes. A scene in which the main character eats a live squid recalls the image of Divine eating dog feces in the closing moments of John Waters’ cult classic Pink Flamingos (1972). The cross-establishing of boundaries regarding style is a facet of cult cinema that Oldboy shares with Jan Svankmajer’s Alice, which cross-establishes the boundaries of form through a blend of animation and live-action. 

Essentially, Oldboy appeals to a subculture of film enthusiasts with an appetite for cinema outside of the Hollywood mainstream. While it may court more mainstream aesthetics at times, it does so within the context of a film that leans heavily on art-house sensibilities, with a healthy dose of the exploitation and gross-out elements that so often pervade cult cinema. No doubt its more transgressive content appeases those with a predilection for more extreme material, while its mainstream flourishes make it an appropriate gateway for film fans seeking out more cult and less conventional cinema.  

Works Cited:
Mathijs, E & Mendik, X. (2008). The Cult Film Reader. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press, p.1. 
Paquet, D. (2009). New Korean Cinema: Breaking the Waves. London: Wallflower Press, p3.