Art Direction: The Movie OldBoy - Essay Example

Art Direction: The Movie OldBoyWhat clearly sets the movie OldBoy apart from the typical rabble of “foreign movies,” which are produced by Netflix is its pacing. The director, Park somehow carries the feeling of race against time to the audience. The plot is constantly moving hurling new plot scenes into the mix without letting up until the last camera roll. The production of the film did not require numerous locations however, the production designer, Seong-hie Ryu uses the available locations skilfully thus not making them mundane.

The production designer had to design a room where a man was to remain a captive for fifteen years with no reason and such task is taunting since it needs alto of creativity. The movie churns with such a fuming energy and by the time it ends, the audience is dazed, ecstatic and even fatigued. In the movie, several elements from the Greek tragedies have been incorporated: Franz Kafka’s writings, David Dan arts and Shakespeare’s plays. Furthermore, the ingenious aspect that comes in the movie is the lighting.

Lighting is considered one of the most significant elements in the production of any motion picture. As such, the producer of the film OldBoy is seen to have laid more emphasis on the lighting thus giving the movie a classic texture and as well an artistic appeal. When looked closely, the producer managed to incorporated dark, nightmarish, and hellish elements in a meticulous manner. The scene where Oh Dae-su clutches the necktie of man to avoid falling off the roof of a building is a perfect example of that shows how lighting is significant.

When holding on to the necktie, Oh Dae-su’s face masked in the darkness but his shabby hair can be seen because of the perfect contrast against the bright sun hat is behind him. As the camera continues to roll, bright colours such as purple, green and red are frequently noticed. On the other hand, camera movements and angles have been successfully been incorporated to make the movie inflicting. The audience’s feelings are highly inflicted in such a way that they are left with claustrophobia and paranoia.

His grimy, dirty as well as dingy cell is shot from all angles moreover; the darkness makes the cell to be even smaller. The darkness also makes the cell to appear cramped. A paramount feeling of craziness and madness is created in the mind of the viewers is developed, when the 360-degree camera rotation is based on Oh Dae-su’s imaginary ants, which he thinks are engulfing his body. The 360-degree rotation is also realised in the scene where the desperate Oh Dae-su meets Woo-jin and they are involved in a bloody embracing.

Afterwards, the camera slowly incorporates two characters, starting with Woo-jin and later turning to show a terrible anguish on Oh Dae-su’s face. Somewhere in the scene where there is an elevator, the starring, Oh Dae-su Positions himself in one of the corners his arms stretched out trying to claw on the elevator’s walls. Unexpectedly, the camera zooms out of the Oh Dae-su’s body and as such, the whole of his body appear to be distorted as well as surreal. Moreover, Oh Dae-su’s arms appear long and stretched that the viewer is left to wonder.

Additionally, many close up shots are also used in the film, more so when it comes to the shooting of the character’s faces. The close up shots does not only allow the audience to share a close or rather intimate relationship with the characters, but also provide room for numerous emotions to be displayed. Through such shots, emotions such madness, rage, pain, loneliness and anguish, which exorcises any genuine optimism from the movie are displayed.Tentatively, the music in the film helps to bring out the feelings of sinister passion and nocturnal pleasure.

All the songs in the movie can be categorized as classical movie since every piece of music evokes some depth of strong sense of energy, efficiency as well as eloquence. The music perfectly complements the movie. Accordingly, the music develops some grip of feelings and emotions on the audience to a certain degree. This is evident in the scenes where there is much gratuitous violence such as the scene where there is tooth pulling. During this scene, the viewers can hear staccato and rapid violin music playing from the background.

The Movie, OldBoy has such a reflective impact on the contemporary cinema since the environment and emotion in every scene spills right before the audience’s eyes.Works citedJeon, Joseph Jonghyun. "Residual Selves: Trauma and Forgetting in Park Chan-wook's Oldboy." positions 17.3 (2009): 713-740."Unsung Heroes: The Production Design Of 'Oldboy' - Blog - The Film Experience." Unsung Heroes: The Production Design Of 'Oldboy' - Blog - The Film Experience. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2014.