Saturday, March 3, 2007

Follow up to Baseless Speculation

My explanation of the anime appeal in Pierce's "Dark Angel" was incomplete. After completing my article, I came across a forum poster who explained that "Dark Angel" captured the first blushes of of a girl's visceral attraction. I did not file the reference, but I agree with the woman's insight.

Colors in the "Old Boy" Movie

Warning: Spoilers abound. This article is based on gut instinct. My knowledge of East Asian Society is fairly spotty.

Color traditional symbolism is usually dicey at best. In traditional Chinese society, white was used at funerals, but also became associated with wedding after encountering Western. Nevertheless, Park Chanwoo makes it explicit in "Old Boy" that he is assigning some meaning to the predominant colors in some scenes

When the protagonist Oh Dae-Su awakens on the green roof, the light is the sun overpowering a man who has emerged from darkness. The quality of the light recalls the idea of renewal and birth or an Eden-like grace. A Chinese expression for childhood friends translates to "green plums, bamboo horses". The Japanese describe adolescence as the blue-green years. There are a variety of themes that suit Dae-Su after being released from fifteen years of solitary confinement: joy, rage, confusion, or fear. When Lee Woojin reveals his plot, I claim that the awakening on the rooftop refers to his innocence to his plot. Woojin taunts his enemy "The question you should be asking is not why Oh Dae-Su was imprisoned, but why he was released." Joy is not what the director conveys, not when Dae-Su appears as the black phantom over the desperate jumper. The lighting of that scene does not lend itself to the negative emotions.

Also, Dae-Su meets the young woman Mi-do in a sushi bar, a Japanese style establishment. I would be curious if Mi-do is a reference to the Japanese "midori" or green. "Old Boy" was originally a Japanese noir manga.

Another major color is the white at the end, which matches the white of wings. A pair of posters at the Color Matters website board [1] write that white is the color of death and birth. Oh Dae-Su bought the white wings for his little girl. In that ending, the audience is left to decide which monster lived. The monster with or without the knowledge of Dae-Su's horrific crime against Mi-do. I dispute the Wiki that the decision is entirely up to the audience. I think that the tie-breaker lies in the desolate mountains that reflect the wings. The barren feel of the mountains and the static embrace show stagnation and hopelessness, not any sort of future. This wintry scene is in sharp contrast with the grass that Dae-Su hatches upon. From innocence, Dae-Su's eyes are open to his crime of apathy, which offended the preening, perhaps narcistic, Lee Woojin.

Lee Soo-ah demonstrated self pre-occupation with the mirror during her lovemaking with Woojin. She also ordered Dae-Su to make her laugh when they met; she was selfish. The fact that they chose each other could also be construed as narcism. [2]

A third color is the purple of the packages. Lee Woojin packages were used to reveal the truth to Dae-Su and conceal the truth from Mi-do.

references:
[1] http://www.colormatters.com/bubdarc8-global.html#Anchor-JIyoun-28968
[2] pointed out by my good friend causeiambetta
[3] ibid

general references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldboy
http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2005/03/25/oldboy/index.html?pn=1