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Oldboy by Park Chan-Wook serves as a fundamental film in the new Korean cinema era. It reflects Park Chan-Wook’s auteurs style through its use of thematic violence, unique editing, and focus on grief. The film is known for its stylized violence and story that many critics call unnecessarily vulgar. However, violence in the film is a central component of the film’s exploration of grief and violence. This paper asks how Oldboy uses violence as a cinematic language to represent grief, and what this representation suggests about the relationship between grief and violence in contemporary Korean society. Instead of functioning for aesthetics, violence reflects the Korean cultural concept of Han – an accumulation of unresolved trauma and grief. This paper argues that Oldboy presents violence as a physical manifestation of unresolved grief that is repeated in cycles. The film’s usage of brutal imagery and unique storytelling reflects Korean society where words have lost their meaning – leaving violence and suffering to exist solely.
The concept of Han is essential to understanding the deep-seated emotions of the Korean people expressed in film. Han is unique to Korean citizens and is “often described as running in the blood of all Koreans, and the quality of Korean sorrow as being different from anything Westerners have experienced or can understand” (Boman,2020). Korean cinema portrays this sentiment through grief and the unresolved resentment attached to it. It encompasses the collective experience of suffering and pain, and how society reflects their past. Instead of being tied to a single tragic event, Han has developed through repeated experiences of loss, tragedy, and suppression. Korean cinema reflects this concept through violence as a means to communicate immense grief instead of dialogue. In Oldboy, grief drives the characters to commit extreme acts of violence as if there were no other choice. The despair that consumes the characters’ minds and motivates their actions reflects Han and its ever-present nature. Park Chan-Wook’s directorial style relays the message that grief is something that lingers within people and a society – it is “active in its capacity in the here and now to re-present the singularity of a past event” (Chloe, 2009). Just as Oh Dae-su’s past continues to haunt him throughout the film – causing those around him to suffer as well.
Violence serves as a primary form of communication in Oldboy, rather than resolution. Throughout the film, characters rarely express their grief through emotions or dialogue, instead physical brutality is used to communicate the intense sorrowful feelings of the characters. Oh Dae-su’s 15-year imprisonment, self-harm, and inclination to fight are representations of how grief internalizes into the body. These acts of violence are impulsive and result from the suffering Oh Dae-su has experienced. Furthermore, Oh Dae-Su’s lack of proper communication due to his isolation is tied with how he relies on fighting to resolve his trauma, instead of words. What makes this violence function as a form of cinematic language is how it’s portrayed. Park Chan-Wook employs a variety of filmic techniques to force the audience to see the violence fully without any interruption of dialogue. In doing so, violence is not romanticized or made logical; it is vulgar and senseless because words are not needed in a society consumed by grief. Park Chan-Wook states that he is “more interested in the human causes of violence and its effects: how violence brutalizes the perpetrator (Spencer, 2003). This statement is reflective of Oh Dae-Su and the burden he carries throughout the story. His acts of violence do not empower him or solve anything– they tear away his humanity and dignity, reducing him to animalistic qualities, acting with instinct alone. Park Chan-wook illustrates violence as a regression rather than empowerment.
Violence does not serve to resolve things in Oldboy, it acts as a repeating cycle that reinforces suffering. Acts of brutality are paralleled throughout the film; it shows that violence reproduces the grief that it tries to escape from. Oh-Dae-su’s long imprisonment and acts of brutality he does are reflective of the inescapable cycle of violence and grief. Through this cycle, Oh Dae-su transforms from the victim to the perpetrator. One specific instance of this in the film is how Oh Dae-su enacts revenge on the building owner whose room he was captive in. For every year that he was held captive, he violently used a hammer to pluck out the man’s teeth and said, “I’m going to pay you back for all 15 years of my life” to the man. This scene reflects the inner turmoil of Oh Dae-su’s mind, immediately equating his time spent suffering to the amount of pain he can inflict on this man. Park Chan-wook utilizes this scene to emphasize the repetitiveness of violence, showing that it operates perpetually. The concept of revenge in Oldboy is reminiscent of Nietzsche’s belief of good and evil in slave morality. He states, “you are evil; I am the opposite of what you are; therefore, I am good” (Genealogy of Morals, 1887). This idea is reflected throughout the film as Oh Dae-su seeks revenge. Although Oh Dae-su does not act for virtuous reasons, this concept is relevant because he believes in himself to be innocent and wrongfully imprisoned, which motivates his pursuit of revenge. Oldboy presents the idea that once grief has consumed a person, they are compelled to enact suffering on those who caused their misery.
The hallway fight sequence is one of the most prominent portrayals of violence as grief in Oldboy. The scene is a long-take tracking shot that takes away any visual interruptions from the audience. Park Chan-Wook frames the scene in this manner because it forces the audience to experience violence for what it truly is – grueling, exhausting, and repetitive. Oh Dae-su and his opponents continuously wear themselves out throughout the fight, each side progressively slowing down and stumbling over one another, just to get back up and continue fighting. The confined hallway and constant violence suggest that Oh Dae-su cannot escape from the cycle for violence and torment. Furthermore, the scene serves as a visual representation of the film’s central idea that violence functions as a language shaped by grief. The removal of dialogue and narrative interruption allows physical exhaustion and repetition to work in place. The raw emotions and behavior that are displayed in the scene reinforces the idea that grief traps individuals in the cycle of violence and pain. Violence acts as a form of expression that is produced by grief – this is portrayed through Oh Dae-su, as he smiles after the fight sequence. The smile acts reveal his acceptance of grief and the violence that comes with it, suggesting that suffering is normal to him. Park Chan-Wook emphasizes that violence becomes self-sustaining for people unable to express their grief. Oh Dae-su’s unstable emotional state reveals the deep integration of grief in the mind, and how it shapes people’s actions.
In Oldboy, Park Chan-wook portrays violence as not just a stylistic choice or narrative technique; it functions as a cinematic language in which grief acts as communication when emotional expression is not allowed. The film portrays violence, as exhausting, repetitive, and brutal to expose how grief enables actions, and continues the cycle of suffering, rather than resolve it. Oh Dae-su’s transformation from the victim to the perpetrator is a perfect example of how grief reshapes behavior, forcing people to mirror the suffering they had suffered. The film’s emphasis on silence and reputation highlights the Korean cultural concept of Han – where grief, repression and violence exist in a mode that continues perpetually. Oldboy suggests that communication is limited in a society overcome with grief, so violence acts in its place, revealing the continuity of suffering and emotional trauma in a society.
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