Film Analysis Of The Film 'Oldboy'

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Recommended: Reflection on freuds theory of human nature

The basis of psychoanalysis is the discovery of the unconscious and the film, ‘Oldboy’, provides no dearth for elements to view it as a psychoanalytical interpretation despite the vast cultural disparity between the regions where the theory and the film originated from.
According to Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Structural Model of the Psyche, the mind can be divided into three: Id, Ego and Superego. The ‘Id’ operates on the principle of pleasure, which is the idea that every instinct should be immediately satisfied regardless of its consequence. It is the only component of human personality that is present from birth and consists of the basic human desires, wants, needs, impulses and sexual and aggressive drives. The ‘Ego’ aims to satisfy …show more content…

It is chaotic and unreasonable and lies in the ‘unconscious’ part of the mind, as per Freud’s theory of personality. This impulsive characteristic is exhibited by Oh Dae-su quite often in the movie. Because he was locked up for 15 years for an un known reason, the moment he gets out we see that he has taken on a rather reckless self, trying to gratify his doubts and …show more content…

After his release, he purposefully taunts a group of young people to get into a fight with him, because he wanted to know if he could fight off people with the skills he acquired during his captivity. He repeats this same stunt again, when he challenges more than a dozen people to a fight, in the movie’s acclaimed hallway scene, to know if he could fight off that many people. Fig 2.1 Hallway fight scene in the movie ‘Oldboy’

Another instance where the Id overpowered Dae-su is when he tries to sexually abuse Mi-do after their first meeting. He had countless fantasies of having sex with women and wanted to test his theory of forcefully subduing the frail, young Mi-do, which he fails to do so.
Id is also not concerned with societal norms or practicality. As soon as he is released, Oh Dae-su has an urge to eat ‘something alive’ and heads to the sushi store. When Mi-do the chef, offers to cut up the octopus he has chosen (as that is the tradition), he refuses it and proceeds to eat it alive, the way he wanted to. Fig 2.2 Oh Dae-su eating a live octopus

The Ego

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