Oldboy
“Oldboy” is a beautiful movie that makes you think of the film’s meaning. There are many plot twists and the plot is incredibly suspenseful. The music, the images, and the frames are artistically wonderful. Many scenes have burned into my mind. Hence, it is no wonder that “Oldboy” is at the very top of my ranking. I gave it a 9.7 out of 10. Be aware that this review contains spoilers. I advise you to watch the film first.
I watched the movie many times to develop an interesting theory. I hope my ideas make sense and my perspective gives you new insight into the movie. Feel free to comment at the bottom and share your perspective about “Oldboy”.
Control
The protagonist, Dae-su, is blackout drunk at a police station. He has no self-control, is impudent and finally gets cuffed to a bench. Finally, his friend picks him up and gets him out. Still, Dae-su misses the birthday of his daughter. This first scene foreshadows that the protagonist has little control over his life.
The drunk Dae-su gets kidnapped after he briefly talks to his daughter over the phone. He gets put in a small cell, where he will spend the next 15 years of his life. During that time, he wrongfully gets accused of having killed his own wife. The protagonist loses his freedom – He loses all control over his life and his name (reputation).
The first thing Dae-su does after his release is to take control where he can. He interrupts a man’s suicide and forces that man to listen to him. The being with the least control of the situation is the man’s little dog, which illustrates a hierarchy of control. Also, he meets some crooks on the street, challenges them and is in ultimate control over the situation when he dominantly beats them. What is more, he tries to forcefully take control over the women that lets him stay at her house (his daughter, Mi-do) by raping her. In this case, Mi-do does not give up the control over her own body easily. To sum it up, Dae-su life was controlled by someone else for the last 15 years and now seeks out to do the same to other, weaker subjects.
The person who controls Dae-su is his captor and the antagonist, Woo-jin. The dynamic of control becomes extremely apparent when Dae-su tries to kill Woo-jin after he is released. The protagonist wants to finally get in a position of power and take revenge. Still, he cannot kill his captor as he wants to know why he was imprisoned. Not to forget, Woo-jin also threatens to take his own life before Dae-su could even touch him. The antagonist stays in control because Dae-su believes this.
What is more, the antagonist bugs Dae-su to have continued control (via supervision) over him. When the bugging devices are removed, Woo-jin spies on Dae-su and controls the narrative by killing his childhood friend. Moreover, he hypnotizes Dae-su to make him fall in love with his own daughter, Mi-do. In one scene, Woo-jin even breaks into the room, where Dae-su and Mi-do just made love, and lays down next to them. This illustrates the absolute level of control Woo-jin desires and has.
Everything Dae-su does, is accounted for and part of Woo-jin’s plan. To me it is obvious, that the antagonist’s desire to dominate and control falls under sadism according to psychoanalysis.
Sadism
The word sadism derives from Marquis de Sade’s fictional characters that pleasure themselves by inflicting pain on others. Lacan developed a schema to describe the structure of Sade’s phantasm, which informs about sadism in general (The schema of sadistic desire):
The sadist is an instrument for the pleasure of someone else. The willingness to torment [V] is directed by this introjected other in whose name the sadist tortures and who presents a godlike duty or imperative for him. The sadist is thus not the subject but becomes the object a within his own phantasma. All this, however, is hidden to and denied by the sadist.
Furthermore, the sadist cannot accept his own deficiency and thus locates it in his victim. He rips apart the victim’s subject into its natural entity and into the suffering and humiliation - The sadist does what cannot be endured. The ruptured subject [$] represents and essentially is shame. The sadist believes that it is more important for him to feel the fear of the victim than to inflict pain and shame. This apparent desire, however, clouds the true meaning of the sadist as an instrument for his introjected god that wants to shame the victim.
The end point of the schema captures the fantastically unreal, mended subject [S]. This subject cannot be hurt or harmed, no matter the inflicted pain. Hence, it is the raw subject of lust and a mystical creature for pleasure in the phantasma of the sadist. The mended subject appears in Sade’s stories when the tormented victims appear radiantly beautiful the next day. Consequently, the victim is not only meant to be tortured and split but also represents an unbreakable subject of lust to the sadist. Although, the mended subject can never be attained (is a utopia) and the ripped yet closed subject is what is actually left behind. It follows Lacan’s logic of the “vel of alienation”.
Lastly, the sadist becomes the object a within his own phantasma. This object a is sadist’s voice of conscience, which is strangely disconnected but flows through him and is finally incorporated. In other words, it suffices for the sadist to become one single point which sends the voice of conscience, like a radio. This might explain why the sadist is cold and motionless towards the victim (Man Ray Sade's imaginary portrait) as well as apathetic towards the pain and suffering he inflicts. Moreover, the sadist’s deficiency is reflected in this object a (the voice of conscience).
The characteristics of a sadist according to Lacan clearly show in Woo-jin. First and most obviously, Woo-jin is driven by an introjected god. The antagonist acts on behalf and in the name of his lost sister Lee Soo-ah, that killed herself because of Dae-su. I would argue that the dead sister represents Woo-jin’s will to torment and torture Dae-su [V] and makes him into the sadist he is. Also, it seem that he is not aware of his imperative and thinks that he punishes Dae-su out of his own will.
Woo-jin was and still is in love with his dead sister. His incestuous love thus presents his deficiency and he cannot accept it. Dae-su was just the catalysator but the incestuous affair is the fundamental reason for Lee Soo-ah’s suicide – Woo-jin cannot accept that he played an even bigger role than his victim in the killing of his own sister. Consequently, Woo-jin locates his deficiency within Dae-su.
Accordingly, the sadist Woo-jin brings the victim Dae-su to also commit incest with his daughter, Mi-do. Woo-jin does to the protagonist what cannot be endured and thus rips apart Dae-su’s subject. In the end, Dae-su seeks out the hypnotizer and quite literally splits into himself and the monster (he tears apart into the natural entity of his subject and the suffering/humiliation). The ruptured subject [$] that is left behind is essentially shame, which expresses itself in Dae-su’s horrifying smile at the end that looks profoundly ashamed.
What is more, Woo-jin’s sadistic mission to create shame within his victim Dae-su and in the name of his introjected god Lee Soo-ah is not apparent to him. It becomes apparent in the movie, that the antagonist believes that he only desires the fear of his victim. When Dae-su realizes what he has done in the penthouse, is overcome with fear, begs his captor not to tell Mi-do and for the first time truly afraid, Woo-jin cannot conceal his pleasure (he hides his satisfied chuckle behind a cloth). Woo-jin is ignorant to the fact that he actually desires more than just to scare his victim.
The end point of the schema or the mended subject [S] is the most difficult to locate. On the one hand, this perfect subject could be Lee Soo-ah, Woo-jin’s dead sister. Woo-jin’s sadistic phantasm contrasts Dae-su imperfection and the godlike image of Lee Soo-ah. On the other hand, the mended subject emerges at the end of the movie. Like in Sade’s stories, Mi-do appears radiantly beautiful and unknowing the next day, even though what has happened. She is evidently unhurt from Woo-jin’s phantasm, which is obviously fantastically unreal in the story. All in all, it needs to be considered that the full subject [S] can never be attained. Hence, this position may as well be left imaginary in the movie.
Finally, Woo-jin becomes the object a within his own sadistic phantasm. After his work is done, Woo-jin kills himself and what is left from his action is merely the radio playing the recording of Dae-su’s incest with Mi-do. Woo-jin plays the most insignificant role in his game and it suffices for him to become one single point that send the voice of conscience. The radio purely and simply reflects the deficiency of incest that Woo-jin cannot accept and thus locates within Dae-su. Lastly, Woo-jin is extremely apathic and motionless towards Dae-su’s suffering. One example can be found in the penthouse when the antagonist stands motionless above Dae-su, who cuts off his tongue and is then begging on his knees. The sadist Woo-jin almost perfectly incapsulates Man Ray Sade’s imaginary portrait of the figure of stone.
Death
Before I start, one could say that Dae-su did not kill himself to protect Mi-do, but I think that’s wrong. I believe Woo-jin would have left Mi-do alone if Dae-su were to kill himself. Woo-jin was after Dae-su and only ever threatened Mi-do to get to Dae-su. He watched over her when she grew up. I believe she is the necessary pure and innocent that comes from the situation. Maybe Woo-jin even saw her in a similar light as he saw his own sister, as she is also pure and the target of incestuous love. In the penthouse, Dae-su had nothing holding him back from taking his own life.
Furthermore, I believe Dae-su could only have taken back control by killing himself. He could have broken the phantasm of Woo-jin’s sadistic desire by not giving him the satisfaction of fear (probably the best ways to take revenge). Then, Dae-su would have become the master of his own fate and break free of Woo-jin’s control.
On the contrary, Dae-su is ultimately afraid of death and rather lives with a deep, hidden shame. In the penthouse, Dae-su is devastatingly destroyed and seemingly unable to escape the domination by Woo-jin. Throughout the movie, he follows Woo-jin’s game and is always predictable to the antagonist. Woo-jin always stays in control and ridicules Dae-su with the remote (apparent control over Woo-jin).
Dae-su could have exited the game, become unpredictable and die in honor if he would have committed suicide. Rather, he chooses the path of fear and lives the rest of his life in shame. He cannot accept his own death and is forever bound to Woo-jin’s control.
The antagonist, on the other hand, chooses to kill himself after he completed his sadistic masterpiece. After the phantasm of sadism is completed and Dae-su the trapped victim, the antagonist shoots himself in the head. Woo-jin accepts his own death and his pursuit becomes, in a way, honorable. Woo-jin becomes Dae-su’s true master because he is brave enough to kill himself when the coward Dae-su chooses to live.
All in all, Woo-jin forever has a position of power and control over Dae-su. In the last moments of Woo-jin’s life, Dae-su plays dog for him, cuts off his own tongue and lays at his feet like a servant. He is degrading himself and filled with fear instead of escaping the hierarchy of control through suicide. Dae-su willingly (but maybe not knowingly) takes on the role of the servant that can never break free of the control by Woo-jin. Dae-su’s horrifying smile at the very end and Woo-jin’s restrained chuckle of pleasure could very well capture that dynamic.
