Old Boy Volume 1 (Old Boy) 
asked by jbritt on November 1, 2006 2:46 PM
Ten years ago, they took him. He doesn't know who. For ten years he has been confined in a private prison. He doesn't know why. For ten years his only contact with the outside world has been a television set and the voice of his jailers. In time, he lost himself... changed... transformed himself into something else... something hard... something lethal. Suddenly one day, his incarceration ends, again without explanation. He is sedated, stuffed inside a trunk, and dumped in a park. When he awakes, he is free to reclaim what's left of his life... and what's left is revenge.
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Nothing about this gets bogged down. The noble loner knight protagonist has no past personal attachments to shift the story off track, his eager girfriend appears just as low maintainence, while the background baddies are satisfied to simply hold back and observe, the big mystery hanging like a pinata awaiting the first strike. Some not so small details do go begging: Why allow anyone other than prison personel to see the mystery floor?; Why wasn't the capsule inserted through a tiny incision?; and Who asks for a condom in the middle of the act?
Most mysterious character: the chilling headshot in the very first panel, a guy neither explained nor seen again.
Most mysterious character: the chilling headshot in the very first panel, a guy neither explained nor seen again.
reviewed by fazer on November 2, 2006 6:06 AM
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When I saw the movie, Oldboy, I was completely blown away. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfect. The huge twist near the end -still- has me shaking my head whenever I think about it or type it out like I did just now. That tale of revenge is as brutal as you could possibly get. The characters, pacing, locations, everything was flawless. And yet, I had no clue it was based off the comic of the same name, and didn't know that it was of Japanese origin. So when I learned of the Oldboy comics being released in the States recently, I bought the first volume the second I saw it in stores. I breezed through it in less than 40 minutes, and am mad that I have to wait for the second volume already. The comic is amazing, but much different from the movie so far. Of course, I won't mention the huge changes, and especially won't reveal the huge twist ending when it comes to it, but what are normally "minor" changes had me torn between wanting to see the movie parts in it, and wishing the parts that the movie left out had been included. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, the movie and book both have their own fair shares of exclusive material, and so far, neither is better than the other, though I'm sure my stance on that will change as I read further into the books.
Imagine being thrown into a sort of hotel room-prison for 10 years without any explanation of why you did this, or who did it to you. You're thrown into a very small, cramped room with nothing but a bed, tv and a small bathroom. You're served lunch and dinner every day, a beautician comes in once a month to cut your hair while you're handcuffed and blindfolded, and you have nothing else to do, and no one to talk to. One day, you're released without reason yet again, and left out in the real world with just about one hundred dollars. This is what one man had to endure, and he did not break. This man has no birth name as of this volume, but goes by "Mister" and another alias he made for a construction job. He can't contact his family or friends for personal reasons, and knows the news would be all over it in an instant. The first thing he does is eats real food, having had nothing but take-out Chinese for 10 years. Spending most of his money, he gives the rest to a homeless man sleeping on the street. This right here, would be enough to leave anyone on the verge of suicide, but this man has plans. While he was in that room, he watched tv as if his life depended on it, seeing it as a window onto the world, gathering as much info about things he's personally missed out on. He also could only do one thing- exercise. He has worked his body to pretty much physical perfection, and wants to try it out. Some young punks are nearby once he leaves the restaurant, and he acts drunk to attract their attention, knowing what kids like them do at that hour. They attack, and it gets them nowhere except a few knocked out friends and a few hundred Yen short. Yeah, this man's ready to get his revenge. But not without some help- a young waitress has offered him a place to stay, seeing that he probably has nowhere else to go. He tells her his story about being locked up for all those years, and his crafty plan involving how he's going to track the person or persons responsible for the 10 year gap in his life. But those responsible are watching his every move as well from a distance. This won't be a pretty journey.
This is probably the most vague I've been regarding a plot summary, but Oldboy is so special, that I'd hate to ruin it for anyone. Though at the same time, this first volume is only setting things up. While I've only seen the movie, I know that things don't turn out well at all, and know that this is going to be a very rough travel. Here though, I'll mention that the changes from book to movie have thrown me off a bit. In the movie, the main character was very in-shape after working out for 10 years, but when released, you have to admit that he looked like a bum. Here, he looks fairly clean-cut, and resembles an older Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue, band-aid and all. He's also much more confident than his movie self, but not to the point where he seems arrogant. He's just determined, and that's good to see about someone who's in a situation like this. Also, obviously since this book has been translated from Japanese, the characters don't have Korean names like in the movie, and aren't in Korea. While I liked being able to call the main character Oh Dae-Su, I got used to his new alias, which surely has some meaning to be revealed. The man who threw him into the prison seems different from his movie-self as well, and again, I'll get used to it. I'm sorry for bringing up the movie so much, but surely, if you're reading this review, you've seen the movie and are wondering how its original source material fares. Just think, if these books had come out first, it'd be much different. I still can't help but worry though, about the ending. Again, when you've seen the movie and how huge of an impact the ending has on you, it's hard to be excited about how the books end. I really hope things are a little different here, just so I don't end up being disappointed. Then again, anything less than what the movie had, will disappoint me, I'm sure. But trust in me when I say that the book has so far held up to my expectations, though some scenes the movie had are missing, and some new ones are here to keep you going, "oh hey, that wasn't in the movie! Cool, new Oldboy stuff!". Well, maybe not exactly like that, but you know what I mean.
Dark Horse continues with the original right to left reading like most of its modern translation releases. Unfortunately, they're doing something new that I haven't seen in other books they've translated that I read. Sound effects appear in katakana in the panels, but have small English text above or below the same panel with a translation of what the sound effect means, or what it's regarding. It got a bit annoying seeing tiny print for a lot of panels, and ended up making me get annoyed that there were so many sound effects for silly things like people looking around eagerly. It's a small price to pay though. The art style here is great as well, a much different style from what I normally see. The characters have a somewhat classic look to them, looking like a fusion of Osamu Tezuka's work and Makoto Kobayashi's as well. It looks good. And I'm glad that things aren't typical like other more popular series (Naruto, One Piece, etc.).
The only gripe I has is that you'll breeze through this book in no time because of how good it is. So maybe, take your time reading it. But it's just so good that you'll turn the page wanting more! And when it's over, knowing that you have to wait for the next few volumes, well, that's just a shame. Seeing that the next volume comes out in a few weeks is nice though, since Dark Horse is notorious for long release dates. Just look at Berserk, and how we're only on volume 12, while Japan's up to I think 27 or later. Oh, and if you're not one of the people who've seen Oldboy in movie form, you really should do so, though I'm not sure now, considering the books are coming out at a fairly steady rate. Whatever it takes, just be sure to see the story through to the end! You -won't- be sorry.
Imagine being thrown into a sort of hotel room-prison for 10 years without any explanation of why you did this, or who did it to you. You're thrown into a very small, cramped room with nothing but a bed, tv and a small bathroom. You're served lunch and dinner every day, a beautician comes in once a month to cut your hair while you're handcuffed and blindfolded, and you have nothing else to do, and no one to talk to. One day, you're released without reason yet again, and left out in the real world with just about one hundred dollars. This is what one man had to endure, and he did not break. This man has no birth name as of this volume, but goes by "Mister" and another alias he made for a construction job. He can't contact his family or friends for personal reasons, and knows the news would be all over it in an instant. The first thing he does is eats real food, having had nothing but take-out Chinese for 10 years. Spending most of his money, he gives the rest to a homeless man sleeping on the street. This right here, would be enough to leave anyone on the verge of suicide, but this man has plans. While he was in that room, he watched tv as if his life depended on it, seeing it as a window onto the world, gathering as much info about things he's personally missed out on. He also could only do one thing- exercise. He has worked his body to pretty much physical perfection, and wants to try it out. Some young punks are nearby once he leaves the restaurant, and he acts drunk to attract their attention, knowing what kids like them do at that hour. They attack, and it gets them nowhere except a few knocked out friends and a few hundred Yen short. Yeah, this man's ready to get his revenge. But not without some help- a young waitress has offered him a place to stay, seeing that he probably has nowhere else to go. He tells her his story about being locked up for all those years, and his crafty plan involving how he's going to track the person or persons responsible for the 10 year gap in his life. But those responsible are watching his every move as well from a distance. This won't be a pretty journey.
This is probably the most vague I've been regarding a plot summary, but Oldboy is so special, that I'd hate to ruin it for anyone. Though at the same time, this first volume is only setting things up. While I've only seen the movie, I know that things don't turn out well at all, and know that this is going to be a very rough travel. Here though, I'll mention that the changes from book to movie have thrown me off a bit. In the movie, the main character was very in-shape after working out for 10 years, but when released, you have to admit that he looked like a bum. Here, he looks fairly clean-cut, and resembles an older Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue, band-aid and all. He's also much more confident than his movie self, but not to the point where he seems arrogant. He's just determined, and that's good to see about someone who's in a situation like this. Also, obviously since this book has been translated from Japanese, the characters don't have Korean names like in the movie, and aren't in Korea. While I liked being able to call the main character Oh Dae-Su, I got used to his new alias, which surely has some meaning to be revealed. The man who threw him into the prison seems different from his movie-self as well, and again, I'll get used to it. I'm sorry for bringing up the movie so much, but surely, if you're reading this review, you've seen the movie and are wondering how its original source material fares. Just think, if these books had come out first, it'd be much different. I still can't help but worry though, about the ending. Again, when you've seen the movie and how huge of an impact the ending has on you, it's hard to be excited about how the books end. I really hope things are a little different here, just so I don't end up being disappointed. Then again, anything less than what the movie had, will disappoint me, I'm sure. But trust in me when I say that the book has so far held up to my expectations, though some scenes the movie had are missing, and some new ones are here to keep you going, "oh hey, that wasn't in the movie! Cool, new Oldboy stuff!". Well, maybe not exactly like that, but you know what I mean.
Dark Horse continues with the original right to left reading like most of its modern translation releases. Unfortunately, they're doing something new that I haven't seen in other books they've translated that I read. Sound effects appear in katakana in the panels, but have small English text above or below the same panel with a translation of what the sound effect means, or what it's regarding. It got a bit annoying seeing tiny print for a lot of panels, and ended up making me get annoyed that there were so many sound effects for silly things like people looking around eagerly. It's a small price to pay though. The art style here is great as well, a much different style from what I normally see. The characters have a somewhat classic look to them, looking like a fusion of Osamu Tezuka's work and Makoto Kobayashi's as well. It looks good. And I'm glad that things aren't typical like other more popular series (Naruto, One Piece, etc.).
The only gripe I has is that you'll breeze through this book in no time because of how good it is. So maybe, take your time reading it. But it's just so good that you'll turn the page wanting more! And when it's over, knowing that you have to wait for the next few volumes, well, that's just a shame. Seeing that the next volume comes out in a few weeks is nice though, since Dark Horse is notorious for long release dates. Just look at Berserk, and how we're only on volume 12, while Japan's up to I think 27 or later. Oh, and if you're not one of the people who've seen Oldboy in movie form, you really should do so, though I'm not sure now, considering the books are coming out at a fairly steady rate. Whatever it takes, just be sure to see the story through to the end! You -won't- be sorry.
reviewed by runaway on November 19, 2006 12:07 PM