In 2003, South Korean master Park Chan-wook
made the trippy story of a vengeful man Oldboy into an award-winning film.
But it was based on a Japanese manga of the same name, written by
Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya, and released in eight volumes in the mid 90s.
And then it was remade by Spike Lee in 2013.
Buy here's the thing, I want to talk about that one.
So without further ado and no restraint on spoilers on Klink Age and
I'm Michael Truth.
And some to ask, what's the difference Oldboy?
If you watched our episode of movie lists about adaptations you'll know that we're
big fans of this one.
Oldboy is an interesting adaptation in that many of the mechanics of the plot
are still there, but the repercussions are very different and most characters
are essentially the same, but their motivations are wildly different.
Both mediums feature a complicated mystery of who locked up the protagonist and why?
There's an enigmatic rich guy who's tormenting him,
an old friend from his past helping out, a young lover he meets at a restaurant, and
a fair amount of post-hypnotic suggestion.
All of which play out in very similar ways in both the film and the manga.
So starting with the main character in the manga we follow, Goto.
An average, work-a-day, salary man in Tokyo.
One day out of nowhere he's kidnapped and held in a room for
ten years with nothing but a TV to keep him company.
As the story progresses,
we find out always went out of his way to keep to himself.
In fact, he never felt very at home around people.
Like there was something lurking under his surface he didn't want anybody
else to see.
The fact that he didn't interact with too many people made the concept of
somebody hating him so much they'd lock him up for 10 years almost unfathomable.
In the film we have who's in the bizarre solitary confinement in South Korea for
15 years as opposed to 10.
The first time we meet him is at a police station, drunk and combative.
And further into the story we'll find out that he was also a womanizer who slept
with countless married woman.
For Di Soo, the issue is not how could somebody hate me this much, it's man,
it could have been anybody that hates me this much.
But in both the book and the movie with zero explanation,
the protagonist is drugged and released back into the world
in the standard way prisoners are released Inside of a suit case.
In Godu's case it's in the middle of a scenic park where
he immediately feels a sense of freedom that he'd been missing.
Desu meanwhile in the film, is on the grassy top of a building
where he immediately meets this dude with a dog who's about to kill himself.
And this is where the film really starts to deviate from the manga.
Feels freedom, relief from being cooped up for so long.
There's even a tinge of excitement in this mood because now
he gets to do the thing he's been dreaming.
Dreaming about for so long.
Kill the mother fucker that locked him up.
Die Sue, meanwhile, is desperate for human contact.
After 15 years of total solitude, even this guy who is about to pitch himself and
his dog off a roof seems like good company, but
it's clear Die Sue went crazy while locked up.
He saw some real weird shit in there.
Gotu, however, seems to have hung onto his sanity.
While Di Tsu went nuts punching walls and hardening himself for
the day he was released, Gotu was much more focused in his training.
He made the decision after only a few months,
that this experience would not defeat him.
Gradually and even to his surprise, the dude got ripped.
(Sound) Becoming hyper focused on revenge very early on in his stay on
floor seven and a half allowed Goden to stay sane and
as a result he is less of a wild animal upon his release than Desu.
But, who locked him up in the first place?
In the film it's Lee Wu Jin,
a slick rich industrialist who is clearly bored with his accumulated wealth.
He's also got a pace maker he claims he can turn off himself just in case Dai Su
decides to try and torture him.
Which is a cool little addition his manga counterpart does not have.
The mangas villain is Takake Makanuma an equally rich and
disinterested businessman who is just as enigmatic but with fewer pacemakers.
Both Wu Jin and Takake's methods are similar.
After releasing his captive, he toys with him relentlessly.
Getting him untraceable cell phones to communicate with them
in small clues to aid him in the sadistic game he set up.
The games themselves are also slightly different.
In the manga, Takaaki's challenge is to the death.
If Goto can figure out who Takaaki is and
why he imprisoned him, then Takaaki will kill himself.
If Goto can't figure it out, Takaaki will kill Goto.
The timeline of this game is sort of open-ended for most of the story.
In fact, a deadline isn't even introduced until the eighth volume.
Right, the manga is crazy long.
It's eight volumes span over 1,600 pages worth of trying to figure it all out.
There are huge swaths of the manga that don't even get hinted at in the film.
We get to meet Goto's old flame,
the broker who made the deal to lock Goto up in the first place.
He gets a job working construction for a little while.
And then there are three or
four entire volumes worth of a storyline where Goto teams up with his elementary
teacher who is now a crime novelist living under a new name.
And the two of them work together, because Takaaki is kind of after both of them.
And also this super weird old lady costume gets involved.
Frankly it's very weird.
(Cough) >> But meanwhile in the film.
Woojen doesn't hide his identity at all.
But instead challenges Die Su, only to figure out the why.
The stakes of the game are, if Daisu figures out why Wu Jhin locked him up for
15 years he will fill himself.
But if he can't figure it out Wu Jhin will kill Medo,
the young woman falls in love with almost immediately upon being released.
In the manga the young woman Godu meets is named Aery, like the movie they meet at
a restaurant, but unlike the movie they sleep together that very night.
(Music)
Remember Desu is, well, he's a crazy animal at this point,
but (Sound) Here's where we get very different.
Like we said earlier,
post-hypnotic suggestion plays a big role in both mediums.
Desu and Nito in the film, like Goto and Arie in the Manga are hypnotized so
that their meetings and eventual falling in love was orchestrated by the villan.
But the reasons for it are crazy different.
In the film s eventually reminded that sister developed a scandalous reputation.
One that he assumed eventually led to her suicide.
Remembers that it was he who unintentionally started that rumor,
after witnessing her and having sex.
Claims she was so broken hearted by the rumors,
that her brain convinced her body that it was pregnant.
Which seems like a crazy person denial for actually knocking up your sister.
Either way, Wu Jin blames Di Tsu for her death.
And where Mito fits in, well, I know we said no restraint on spoilers up top,
but seriously, get out now if you haven't seen Old Boy.
Okay? Okay.
Mi-do is Dae-su's daughter.
Woo-jin's entire plan was to trick Dae-su into having sex with his
own daughter to avenge the loss of Woo-jin's own incestual relationship.
The manga, meanwhile, is much more oblique.
Goto discovers that he witnessed Takaaki auditioning for
the school choir as a child.
And found himself actually moved to tears.
Takaki was humiliated that somebody understood his loneliness and
he just couldn't handle it.
Knowing that Gotu knew just how sad he was on the inside,
Takaki couldn't be successful without also doubting himself.
So, you know, just your standard embarrass as kid, pay 300 million yen to lock
a guy up for ten years, only to toy with him until he rediscovers your motives and
you have to kill yourself because he beat you at a sadistic game you made.
In the film Woo-Jin also kills himself after all is said and done.
However, it's more because he's gotten his revenge and there's nothing left for
him to do.
His plan has reduced Dae-Su to a mumbling shell of a man,
who had sex with his own daughter and subsequently He cut his own tongue out.
He clearly won and was clearly enjoying it.
But the sadness of why he did it in the first place is still there.
Meanwhile, in the mangas epilogue, we find Goto and
Eri living as a regular as hell couple.
Ari is pregnant and Guto was a salary man again just doing a job for a paycheck.
But a package is delivered that triggers yet another post hypnotic suggestion
in Ari as she throws herself off the roof but hah, jk it was a dream.
The manga ends with Gotu realizing he'll never be truly free of Takaki Meanwhile in
the film we last see Dae-su in a snowy forest talking with a hypnotist
attempting to bury the experience deep in his subconscious.
Mi-do also arrives and seems to be willing to move on
although the strange atmosphere of the scene setting seems like the whole
thing might be the result of hypnotic suggestion and not any way real.
Either way whatever part of Dae-su we're watching He seems happy enough.
So after all of that, the manga is a story about a perverse taste of freedom.
Gotu always feared his true self was a monster caged up by the salaryman life.
Ironically, it was ten years of actually being caged up that gave Gotu
a taste of freedom, only to be tormented by the same ho hum work day life Again.
>> The film, meanwhile, with history of womanizing, is about the excrutiating
process of paying for your sins, no matter how big or small they are.
The captivity he endured, followed by the torture at the hands of taken from
a complete lack of human connection to the most emotionally manipulative,
destructive interactions a vengeance obsessed madman, Can concoct.
Well that's going to do it for this episode.
Make sure to check out our top five adaptations of all time and
subscribe to Cinefix for more What's the Difference?
(Music)