Unsung Heroes: The Production Design of 'Oldboy'
Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 12:36PM Michael C from Serious Film here. I watched the subject of today's column again recently for maybe the third or fourth time and it simply demanded to be written about.
What is it about Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy (2003) that makes it so difficult to shake?
My thoughts kept returning to it for months after seeing it for the first time. I certainly admired it for its wickedly clever plotting and for the actors' fearlessly committed performances. Yet there are lots of movies I admire that don’t haunt me like this one did.
I think I find my way back to Oldboy so often because it feels unlike every other movie out there. The world of Oldboy is presented as a version of reality (nothing takes place without an explanation, however over-the-top) but the more I think about it, the more I realize Oldboy is as much a fantasy as Star Wars or Blade Runner. Only instead of being set in the future or on a different planet, it takes the world we know and edges it into the stuff of nightmares. A place where seemingly normal locations such as a schoolyard or a computer lab are warped and foreboding in ways we can’t always put our finger on.
And that is just what the production designer Seong-hie Ryu does with the mundane locations. The script of Oldboy calls for a few places where there is no precedent to draw from. The task of designing a room where a man has to remain imprisoned for fifteen years for no apparent reason is a daunting one. That horrible little room is the emotional core of the whole story. It needs to make an impression. Ryu responds with a masterpiece of art direction, and he does it with some cheap motel furniture, a sickening color scheme and above all else that hellish “inspirational” painting on the wall.
But as unforgettable as that room is, the real tour de force of production design is the apartment of the story’s villain Woo-jin Lee. Just as challenging as crafting a cell worthy of the film's riveting opening sequence, is the creation of a stage suitable for the operatic tragedy of Oldboy’s climax.
So many of the details are so perfectly chosen, from that pond with its narrow walkways to the ominous littering about of antique cameras. My favorite detail is that amazing giant cube that opens up into a closet. It serves the multiple purposes of 1) being objectively fascinating to look at. I’ve never seen one of those before. 2) Fleshing out the character of Woo-jin Lee. Be wary of any man with a closet like that. 3) Being just the right amount of creepy and portentous, and 4) Being a great subtle symbol for the hidden secrets that are about to reveal themselves. Not bad for one piece of furniture.
That apartment, along with that prison where Oh Dae-su spends those fifteen years, goes on a list alongside Jack Rabbit Slim’s in Pulp Fiction and the lair of the Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth. Movie locations I will not soon forget
Art Direction, Chang-wook Park, Oldboy, Unsung Heroes
Reader Comments (13)
I remember when Nathaniel put this in his bottom 10 list of the year and called it 'so in love with itself it should have gotten a room' - and there really couldn't be a more perfect way to describe this film.
You say self-indulgence, I say audacity. Toma-to, toma-toh.
i love this film.
that ending had me going to back to it months after as well.
even if it is indulgent (and i think it is) it's so unique in its own way, i can forgive its problems.
Nat knows I say this with DEEP ABIDING LOVE in my heart but it seems a little bonkers to smack around Oldboy for being self-indulgent with one hand while gently, sweetly caressing the psychotic narcissistic mental breakdown that is Moulin Rouge with the other.... just one example... :)
Anyway I love this series so much, Michael. You always manage to find some aspect of a film that I adore that I haven't given enough thought to, which is obviously the point, but these keep being movies I love and you keep pinpointing things I've not really given enough credit to, and it's awesome while at the same time making me feel woefully inadequate in my critical assessments of things.
JA - Thanks!
Also, I like the phrase "psychotic, narcissistic, mental breakdown" in and of itself
I first saw this movie when I was 12 and I was way to young and really shocked obviously. It's great movie and I like that not everything gets spelled out for you like in most movies. I think I should see it again, just for the design.
yes yes yes! One of my all time favs! The sets are so detailed and beautiful, you never doubt they aren't real, no matter how strange they get.
I remember when it was on the bottom 10. That really shocked me for numerous reasons. I just couldn't understand it. I wonder if time has changed anything....
what i said originallly. ha.
i get why people dig this film. I really do. But i loathe it. It's just one of those things. we can't all love everything. But nice piece. Production Design is so regularly undervalued it's ridiculous.
I love this film, but anyone who didn't go for it the first time definitely doesn't need to see it a second time. Any movie with a teeth pulling with the claw hammer scene is going be divisive and that's that. Repeat viewings are only going to reinforce the initial view. I like it better the more I watch it.
One movie I LOATHE: Superman Returns. Boring, boring, boring. Routh was NOT the problem. I blame 3 things: Awful pacing (seriously: the movie could have been a half hour shorter and still been pretty much the same, yet, also, a bit better), the movie turning Lex Luthor into Max Bialystock and Kate freaking Bosworth.
Volvagia - Yep. It was boring beyond words.
Loved this film. Sick as heck, but also really interesting. It kept me intrigued
Loathing this movie makes no sense to me. I'm loling at the idea! But to each there own. Movie confession: I HATE the Princess Bride. It feels good to say that. At anytime, no matter whose in the room.