RSS Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 It's murder, imprisonment, and revenge this week as Darryll treats Desmond to some Oldboy therapy. Desmond is sure to need therapy after a viewing of the weird true-crime documentary Bazaar Bizarre. Then he cleanses the palette with the revenge flick Grim. All this, plus feedback, another DVD giveaway contest, and announcements about the future of the podcast. The following terror tunes are waiting to take their aggression out on you: "Revenge" by Tom Araya, "Ten Ton Hammer" by Machine Head, "The Prisoner" by Suicidal Tendencies, "Grim Facts" by Alice Cooper, and "Revenge" by Ministry. Listen is what you're gonna do, or this podcast will go 1-8-7 on you! [ 1:42:32 || 47.1 MB ] The above is from: http://www.earth-2.net/podcasts/dreadmedia/episodes/dreadmedia_187.mp3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 Now to see how much Des and I disagree on Oldboy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 Knowing this review was coming up, I watched Oldboy via Netflix streaming, and I was underwhelmed. That said, the only audio option they allow is the English dub, which, besides the narrator, was terrible! So I'm going to actually rent the disc to watch it with the subtitles. Hopefully it'll live up to the hype that way. At the end of the day, though, I think the villain's plot was way too intricate; it relied too heavily on knowing Dae-su Oh's every move. Yet he couldn't have predicted what the man would do, because Dae-su Oh was locked in a room for 15 years. He needed to see Dae-su Oh in the real world to know how he'd react to certain situations. Maybe you could say it was the hypnotism, but that only takes you so far. The movie, I believe, even says this. So, yeah, I'm nitpicking an impossible situation, but when we're asked to believe in said situation, it has to be watertight for it to work for me. A question about the dub: Was the narrator / Dae-su Oh voiced by Jeffrey "The Question" Combs? It sure sounded like him to me, but I can't find the credits for the English cast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 D-Man and I started watching and the dub was automatically set. We freaked out and changed it right away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Man Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 Luckily, we changed it before our ears began bleeding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuaveStar Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 Knowing this review was coming up, I watched Oldboy via Netflix streaming, and I was underwhelmed. That said, the only audio option they allow is the English dub, which, besides the narrator, was terrible! So I'm going to actually rent the disc to watch it with the subtitles. Hopefully it'll live up to the hype that way. At the end of the day, though, I think the villain's plot was way too intricate; it relied too heavily on knowing Dae-su Oh's every move. Yet he couldn't have predicted what the man would do, because Dae-su Oh was locked in a room for 15 years. He needed to see Dae-su Oh in the real world to know how he'd react to certain situations. Maybe you could say it was the hypnotism, but that only takes you so far. The movie, I believe, even says this. So, yeah, I'm nitpicking an impossible situation, but when we're asked to believe in said situation, it has to be watertight for it to work for me. To me, I think the main thing you were supposed to take away from it was the ending, and it just traumatising the shit out of you, making everything else secondary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 To me, I think the main thing you were supposed to take away from it was the ending, and it just traumatising the shit out of you, making everything else secondary. No. I think the main thing you were supposed to take away was the struggle between the thirst for revenge and truth. Both main male characters were obsessed with that dichotomy. That was pretty clear to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuaveStar Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 (edited) To me, I think the main thing you were supposed to take away from it was the ending, and it just traumatising the shit out of you, making everything else secondary. No. I think the main thing you were supposed to take away was the struggle between the thirst for revenge and truth. Both main male characters were obsessed with that dichotomy. That was pretty clear to me. Yes, that as well. Edit: What I meant by my comment was, in my opinion, with the shocking ending, the film is trying to mask the points that Mike brought up, by throwing something at the viewer that is just disturbing, and you wouldn't be able to truly think about how odd the planning process may have been. The film would hope that you are not thinking about how stupid this whole plot is, but rather how far people will go to get revenge. However, you can counteract that with the batman comments, that the villain had fifteen years to work out exactly how everything would go down, and how every little detail would be accomplished, right down to the girl working at that one restaurant he would go to. Which is, how Batman is supposed to be in the comics right now. With Grant Morrison writing a Batman thought where it is revealed that Bruce spends days working out how to get out of every single trap that his enemies could think up, have thought up, and will ever come up with. And since the villain of the picture had Dae-su Oh in a room for fifteen years, he was like a subject rat, that he could at the end of that time mark his watch around how he would react to certain things. He has very clearly became obsessed with ruining Dae-su Oh's life, just as he had done to him when they were younger. Edited March 28, 2011 by SuaveStar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Man Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 I don't know. For me, the ending, rather than masking, actually punctuates the shear "Holy Fuck!" factor of the whole film. When you finally comprehend the Machiavellian scope of the revenge and witness the devastating effect it has on our hero it's just a hammer blow to the heart. It shattered me. As I mentioned in the review, it's that final phone conversation that kills me. It really demonstrates how far he's come and how fucked he is. That we can even consider the final hypnosis session a happy ending (or, as close to a happy ending as we could hope for) just leaves me breathless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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