Line #21 Film/Oldboy2013


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3	''Oldboy'' is a 2013 thriller film directed by Creator/SpikeLee, and a remake of the famed [[Film/{{Oldboy 2003}} South Korean film]] from 2003, itself loosely based on the [[Manga/{{Oldboy}} Japanese manga series]] of the same name. The film stars Creator/JoshBrolin, Creator/ElizabethOlsen, Creator/SharltoCopley, Creator/MichaelImperioli, Creator/SamuelLJackson, Creator/PomKlementieff, and Creator/RamiMalek.
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5	It follows alcoholic advertising executive Joe Doucett (Brolin) as he is kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years in solitary confinement. When he is inexplicably released, Joe embarks upon an obsessive mission to discover who orchestrated his punishment.
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7	The trailer can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z02k8Zac-so here (NSFW)]].
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10	!!Tropes featured in this film:
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12	* AdaptationalComicRelief: Downplayed. Chaney has many of the same threatening and sleazy traits as his 2003 counterpart Mr. Park, but Samuel L. Jackson takes the character in a more deliberately comedic direction.
13	* AdaptationalHeroism: The protagonist of the 2003 film is very much a vengeance-driven AntiHero with more than a few questionable actions under his belt, with his most moral actions revolving around his MoralityPet Mi-do. The protagonist here, while still very brutal, is driven by the need to protect his daughter instead of just personal revenge, though inversely he was also [[AdaptationalJerkass far more of an asshole in the past.]]
14	* AdaptationalJerkass: Young Joe is an obnoxious, alcoholic and sexist prankster, while Dae-su in the original is only seen embarrassing himself while staggering drunk on a bender.
15	* AdaptationalLocationChange: As with the original 2003 film, the remake moves the setting from Japan to the United States.
16	* AdaptationalVillainy: {{Downplayed\|Trope}} with the BigBad. The lengths both Woo-jin and Adrian go to in order to hurt the protagonist are largely the same, but the difference in motivations make Adrian less sympathetic. The men are both angry at [[spoiler:the protagonist gossiping about their sister]], but Oh Dae-su simply witnessed something that creeped him out whilst Joe witnessed a horrible criminal act ([[spoiler:Adrian's father having sex with his own daughter]]). Neither man is justified in what they did, but Woo-jin [[spoiler:avenging his innocent sister's suicide]] adds a sympathetic dimension to him while Adrian's motive is partially to avenge [[spoiler:his father, who killed his family and molested both his children]], which just further shows how twisted he is.
17	* AdaptationalWimp:
18	** In the original, the protagonist's confrontation with the villain's bodyguard ends with the bodyguard about to kill the protagonist, only for the villain to kill the bodyguard. In this film, the protagonist kills the bodyguard himself after a fairly brief fight.
19	** Adrian is less unstoppable than Woo-jin. In this film, Joe punches and manhandles Adrian in the climax. In the original, Dae-su never lays a finger on Woo-jin, who spends much of his revenge simply laughing at Dae-su.
20	* AgeGapRomance: There's a noticeable age difference between Joe and Marie (their actors have a 20-year age difference), which is lampshaded by Marie's co-worker when he gives Joe a IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer speech. In short, he's old enough to be Marie's father. [[spoiler:And he is.]]
21	* BerserkButton: Never call Adrian's sister a "whore" in front of him, as [[spoiler:Chucky]] learns the ''very'' hard way.
22	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Adrian succeeds in his plan to make Joe unknowingly have sex with his own daughter Marie, and a horrified Joe writes Marie a letter saying they can never see each other again, which Joe ensures by using some of the diamonds Adrian gave him to pay Chaney to return him to the captivity of the hotel room, allowing Chaney to continue his kidnapping scheme untouched. On the other hand, Adrian is dead and his rampage has finally stopped, and Joe and Marie not seeing each other again is presented as the best thing to do for the situation, especially for her so as to allow her to live a normal life, plus Joe actually leaves most of the diamonds to her]]. This is in stark contrast with how in the original [[spoiler:Oh Dae-su got himself hypnotized to erase the truth of Mi-do being his daughter from his memory so that he can continue having a romantic relationship with her, and even then the final shot of that film implied that the memory wipe actually didn't work.]]
23	* BreakTheHaughty: What is done to Joe by film's end.
24	* BloodierAndGorier: Than the Korean movie, with {{Gorn}} being favored over GoryDiscretionShot. For example, the implied and [[BlackComedy humorous]] hammer kill from the original has been replaced with a hammer-claw to the face.
25	* BodyguardBabes: Adrian's bodyguard is an attractive woman. He seems to be aware of it, too, as it's implied that they are in a relationship.
26	* CurbStompBattle: Joe against the students on the football field.
27	* DarkActionGirl: Adrian's bodyguard is a woman.
28	* DarkAndTroubledPast: Marie apparently had one of these, having lived in foster homes, and drug use was also involved. [[spoiler:Adrian claims to have had a hand in this when revealing to Joe that she's Joe's daughter, but he doesn't specify how.]]
29	* DarkerAndEdgier: The original film had several moments of BlackComedy and downright surreal sequences, while this film treats things much more seriously and feels more like a thriller. Subverted with the ending, which gives the film a somewhat happier and less ambiguous outcome.
30	* DragonLady: Adrian's bodyguard is a tall, powerful woman wearing a Chinese gown.
31	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Adrian ends up committing suicide after completing his plan.]]
32	* EvilIsHammy: Adrian wouldn't be out of place in a ''Film/JamesBond'' movie.
33	* EnigmaticMinion: Adrian's bodyguard is an silent, emotionless Asian woman who constantly dresses in black colors.
34	* {{Fanservice}}: [[spoiler:Joe and Marie have sex in a hotel, and the viewer gets a good look at Elizabeth Olsen's boobs.]]
35	** Pom Klementieff in barely there lingerie in a scene with Adrian.
36	* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Joe goes through a bit of this following his release.
37	* ForeignRemake: An American film of the original Korean.
38	* FrameUp: Joe is framed for the murder of his wife by a mysterious party. [[spoiler:It turns that the one responsible for the murder was Adrian.]]
39	* GambitRoulette: Perhaps even more so than in the original film. [[spoiler:Like Woo-jin, Adrian's plan depends entirely on the protagonist having a relationship with a specific woman, who turns out to be his own daughter, whom he hasn't seen since she was a baby. However, in the 2003 film, Woo-jin actually used hypnotism to ensure that Oh Dae-su and Mi-do (the Joe and Marie analogues in that film) would fall in love. No such thing is present on this film, meaning that Adrian more or less bet that Joe and Marie would have sex ''somehow''.]]
40	* GenderFlip: The bodyguard of Adrian's counterpart in the original Korean film was a man; here, she's a woman.
41	* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Joe, when he finds out that [[spoiler:Marie is his daughter]]. He lets out an anguished scream and is left a blubbering and incoherent mess.
42	* HeroicBSOD: When Joe realizes he's [[spoiler:been manipulated into sleeping with his own daughter]], he has one of these.
43	* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer: Marie's co-worker gives Joe one of these, noting Marie's DarkAndTroubledPast and saying that she doesn't need more misery on her life.
44	* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Joe tortures Chaney by flaying his neck with a Stanley knife to obtain information about the "Stranger" who arranged for his kidnapping.
45	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Joe is a sexist alcoholic schmuck, but as we see over the course of the plot most of his misdeeds stem from thoughtlessness, not evil and he ''does'' have a line he won't cross.
46	* KarmaHoudini: Chaney keeps his business, receives a big cash bribe for sparing Joe, and gets a fortune in diamonds from Joe in the end.
47	* KickTheDog: At one point during his captivity, Joe catches and befriends a mouse. Later, after the mouse has given birth to a litter, it is killed and served to Joe as a meal.
48	* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Adrian is very wealthy and has high-class tastes.
49	* MeaningfulName: Joe Doucett strikes the ear in much the same way as Oh Dae-su. Sadly, such a direct translation removes any potential for the double-meaning that Oh Dae-su's name held. [[spoiler:Namely, that Oh Dae-su was named after Oedipus, the mythical character who unknowingly slept with his own mother, except here, Joe Doucett/Oh Dae-su unknowingly slept with his own daughter.]]
50	* ModestyTowel: Marie wears one when she and Joe hole up in a hotel. [[spoiler:Not that it stays on her for long, as she lets it slip before having sex with Joe]].
51	* MookChivalry: When Joe fights his way out of the abandoned factory after interrogating Chaney. Unlike the original, the fight does not take place in a narrow hallway.
52	* MythologyGag:
53	** When Joe Doucett goes into a Chinese restaurant, trying to find the source of the dumplings he ate for 20 years, the camera lingers on an octopus in a fish tank. This is a nod to the original and the famous scene where Oh Dae-su eats a live octopus.
54	** Joe interacts with a woman wearing angel wings. This is a reference to Oh Dae-su's first scene, where he drunkenly puts on angel wings he bought for his daughter.
55	** The severed tongue is a reference to Oh Dae-su cutting off his tongue.
56	* TheOner: The "hallway" fight is again mostly filmed in one take, though it's less two-dimensional this time.
57	* PaperTiger: Adrian's bodyguard gives off a tough demeanor and a confrontation with Joe is built-up through the film. When they finally face off in the climax, [[spoiler:she only manages to get a couple of licks on Joe before he slashes her throat and kills her]].
58	* PaterFamilicide: Part of [[spoiler:Adrian]]'s backstory is that he is a survivor of this.
59	* PetTheDog: Joe befriends a mouse he finds in his bathroom and makes a pet of it, growing quite attached to it, showing that while he was/is an odious and thoughtless person, he is not truly evil.
60	* PrisonsAreGymnasiums: Joe stops drinking alcohol (though not really of his own volition), exercises and practices fighting while being held captive. He's in much better shape 20 years later.
61	* ProductPlacement: There are several shots of iPhones and [=MacBooks=], Chucky teaches Joe how to use Google, and Marie uses Shazam to identify a ringtone.
62	* PsychopathicManchild: Adrian definitely comes off as this, even more so than his counterpart in the Korean film, as noted by his freakout [[spoiler:when killing Chucky]] after Chucky called his sister a whore.
63	* RageAgainstTheReflection: [[spoiler:Subverted. Joe smashes the mirror because he wants to cut his wrists with the broken glass of it during his 20 years of solitude in captivity]].
64	* ShoutOut: Spike Lee's brother Cinqué Lee plays a bellboy in this movie just as he did in the Jim Jarmusch film ''Film/MysteryTrain''.
65	* SinsOfOurFathers: [[spoiler:Marie gets orphaned, her mother is murdered, and she's unknowingly manipulated into an incestuous relationship with her presumed-dead father... all for a gossipy comment her father made when he was a teenager.]]
66	* SlashedThroat: [[spoiler:In the climax, Joe disposes Adrian's bodyguard by slashing her throat.]]
67	* SurpriseIncest: [[spoiler:Marie and Joe end up having sex in a hotel -- before Adrian eventually reveals to Joe that Marie is actually Mia, Joe's ''daughter'', and not just an unrelated woman who he happened to meet.]]
68	* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Joe sometimes does this, such as the scene where he gets drunk and shouts, "I'm drunk!"
69	* TokenRomance: {{Subverted\|Trope}} in the case of Joe and Marie; their attraction (and subsequent sex scene) comes off as particularly shoehorned, but as it turns out [[spoiler:it's part of the villain's revenge scheme]].
70	* TookALevelInBadass: Joe gets much tougher after training himself over 20 years in the hotel room.
71	* WhamShot:
72	** While not played up as one, the reveal that Chaney [[spoiler:has got ''a dozen other people'' imprisoned in the same overly elaborate fashion]] is going to hit some people.
73	** After Adrian reveals that [[spoiler:the "Mia" Joe has seen through the film was actually an actress at his employ, he shows Joe how the actual Mia grew up, and as the pictures progress and she ages up, they reveal that the grown-up Mia is actually Marie, the woman Joe ended up sleeping with.]]
74	* YankTheDogsChain: After droppin' a hundred punks and ''finally getting that knife out of his back'', Joe barely stumbles out of Chaney's place... and is immediately picked up by Adrian's people.

Context Film / Oldboy2013