Nikki (Unit 26) - Oldboy (2013) Notes

Genre Analysis:

Thriller: There is a scene towards the beginning of the movie that shows a shower being turned on, this leads Joe Doucett to believe that he has slept with someone that night, but there is nobody in the shower.

Thriller: There are a lot of gruseome scenes throughout the film, including the scene where Joe Doucett slices a character’s next open and pours salt into the wound.

Thriller: This film follows the typical ‘good guy vs villain’ trope that is often used in thrillers.

Thriller: There are many scenes that infer and threaten sexual violence, this makes the audience uncomfortable and is often used in the thriller genre.

Thriller: As is common in thrillers, Oldboy uses a lot of close ups on the characters faces to show their emotions.

Differences between the two films:

The film is shot in a way that feels more ‘hollywood’ and uses fancy techniques.

The language and slang that is used is a lot more americanised.

The main difference is that hypnotism is not involved, instead the characters are tricked.

There is a lot more use of americanised technology, like iPhones throughout this version.

There are also a lot more recognisable actors, for example, Samuel L Jackson and Elizabeth Olsen.

Psychoanalysis:

Uncanny: An example of the Uncanny in this version of Oldboy would be the use of the umbrella. It is the same umbrella that we saw when Joe Doucett was first taken and then it shows up countless times throughout the film to signify that the bad guys are around and that perhaps something is going to happen.

Uncanny: When a man is shown sitting on the bed, it is unclear whether this is real or it is a hallucination of Joe Doucett’s. The man also seems familiar to the audience and it becomes clear that he is the man from the poster.

Surrealism: Joe Doucett befriends a family of mice and at first it is unclear if the family are real or not but then a plate comes through the door and the mice, who had gone missing, are cooked on the plate. This is without context and will unsettle the Western audience perhaps more than an Eastern audience because it is a delicacy in their countries.

Surrealism: There is also a scene that shows Joe Doucett knocked out on the bed, from the gas that they released into the room, people come in and start to collect DNA samples from Joe, but this is without context and confuses the audience.

Freud: There is a lot of display of the id throughout many of the characters but it is mostly apparent in Adrian. There are many scenes that show his sexual nature taking over and his obsession with lust points to the animalistic instincts of the id.