image system in Oldboy
Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2006) has an intricate image sys-tem that uses the repetition of shot compositions and sym-bolic imagery to add emotional depth to its story of obses-sion and revenge.
Oldboy tells the story of Oh Dae-su (ChoiMin-sik), a businessman who gets kidnapped and is thenimprisoned for fifteen years; during that time, he learns thathis kidnappers have killed his wife and framed him for hermurder. Without explanation, Dae-su is suddenly released,befriending a young woman named Mi-do (Kang Hye-jeong)after he passes out at the restaurant where she works. With her help, he finds out his daughter, an infant at the time of his kidnapping, was adopted by a family living in another country. He shortly receives a phone call from the man who imprisoned him, who challenges him to find out the reason behind his kidnapping, giving him a deadline of five days or else he will have Mi-do killed. If he succeeds, the stranger tells him he will kill himself instead.