Oldboy's success rides firmly on the back of its balls-out commitment to being sick and depraved. It is a tale of vengeance marked by the utterly grotesque and the downright viscerally affecting and the ending twist creeps up on you like a sledgehammer. In a sudden turn of events that could not have been foreseen, the film's lead Dae-su realises he went to school with his tormenter Woo-jin, and witnessed an incestuous relationship between Woo-jin and Woo-jin's sister. Dae-su had revealed this information before relocating, unaware the two were siblings and Woo-jin's sister committed suicide as a result. The cherry on top of the entire scenario is the fact that Woo-jin reveals that Mi-do - the woman he has been enjoying a romantic relationship with since his release - is actually Dae-su's daughter, who was four at the time of Dae-su's abduction and imprisonment. Wishing for Dae-su to feel the same torture he felt when his sister died, Woo-jin plans on revealing the truth to Mi-do in hopes that she takes her own life as well. In order to keep the truth hidden from Mi-do, Dae-su cuts off his own tongue as an act of atonement, which Woo-jin accepts before taking his life as promised. The act of atonement is one that is fitting as Mr. Park, the warden of the prison, had initially informed Woo-jin that he was imprisoned for "talking too much." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7N_Ko9e3pQ
Tommy Bobby Watanabe is an aspiring American novelist, stage actor, playwright, former LGBT rights activist, and has three years of independent professional wrestling experience and has been a big fan since 1998. An avid horror movie buff and comic book aficionado, TBW is honored to be featured on WhatCulture with some of the Internet's most talented writers and looks to spread his own knowledge and wit to WhatCulture's loyal readers.
