No one would listen, so he did not speak. There once was a lone keeper. Keeping was his job but what he kept nobody knew. To know would require one …
No One Would Listen
No One Would Listen
Tag: writing
Oldboy: Viennese Waltz and the Greek Tragedy
[SPOILER ALERT]
It all started when a friend of mine posted a waltz by Dmitri Shostakovich. I thought it sounded oddly familiar. It reminded me of this track from Oldboy (2003).
I knew that Oldboy used a lot of waltz music for their original soundtrack but it never quite occurred to me why. To understand, we’ll need a little bit more context.
For starters, Oldboy is adapted from a manga for the big screen but it’s also adapted from a greek tragedy called Oedipus Rex. In the story, a king causes a chain of events in the past that regrettably ends up with him fulfilling a prophecy of murdering his father and sleeping with his mother.
We can see direct parallels from this to Oldboy’s story. Oh Dae-su sees Woo-Jin enacting incest with his own sister and that causes a spiraling of events. A cause and effect that was indicative of greek tragedies at the time. Because Oh Dae-su saw them, Woo-Jin’s sister committed suicide. Because of this suicide, Woo-Jin seeks revenge on Oh Dae-su which leads to him being imprisoned for 15 years.
Oh Dae-su is unaware of his captors and in the beginning racks his brain as to who may have imprisoned him and who seeks to do him harm. Woo-Jin warps Oh Dae-su’s mind and when he is released, be it no accident, he searches high and low for his family but he can’t find them. By no accident he meets Mi-Do, who happens to be none other than his daughter (unbeknownst to him). He ends up falling in love and sleeping with her, fulfilling an elaborate plan or a “prophecy” concocted by Woo-Jin.
This is where the part about the waltz comes in. The waltz is a form of traditional classical music that traditionally was meant to be danced to. Later other forms would be birthed but waltz literally means “to turn” in German. Back to the subject of the greek tragedy, it’s almost like Oh Dae-su is dancing with fate. Fate being a common theme in Greek plays.
Waltz music was big during the romantic era and was primarily a couples dance. It was a forbidden dance in the 1800s and was only danced by the few, the bold and the brave in the beginning.
The dance Oh Dae-su is dancing with Mi-Do, his daughter, is incest. Therefore it’s a forbidden dance much like the waltz was in its early days.
Greek tragedies have another theme of “show, don’t tell” and other good directors know this rule is crucial for any good drama. In Oldboy, this is employed a lot.
Some scenes in Oldboy are reminiscent of programme music (a form of classical music popular in the romantic era) in the sense that a lot of scenes are carried simply by the music. Programme music was a derivative of classical music where the pieces told of a story or an event. The emotion of the music and the grandiosity of it all was the dialogue. No script needed!
At the end of Oldboy, Oh Dae-su has cut off his own tongue as repentance. He is the only one who knows the secret and has tried a myriad of hypnosis treatments to forget what he has done. Not much is said in this scene and it’s the perfect example of how to do drama right. In the end, nothing is said besides “I love you” as they embrace each other and the track “The Last Waltz” plays tying the whole theme together.
Magic
Magic… does it truly exist in this world? We see magic in the movies, on TV, we might even feel magical when we listen to certain kinds of music. We have holidays and parties where we dress up and pretend to be something we’re not. I think many people have a longing to escape.
For two hours I am watching a movie so captivating, so colorful, so whimsical and delightful that for that time I am transported into that world. I’m escaping for that little bit of time. The glare of the television screen acts as a window. A portal of sorts.
I connect with the characters. I feel for them. I feel the music deep within my bones. I get chills up my spine.
Afterwards it’s over and I’m left wanting more. Why can’t life be more like this, I wonder. Why can’t magic be real? Why can’t we go on adventures everyday?
The thing is… magic is real. Depending on your definition. The ability to suck me into a fictitious world and tie me to events happening in this world is a form of magic. When the right song comes on at the right time is a form of magic for me. The “magic” I’m talking about extends even farther than that. Miracles happen everyday. Ones we are blind too.
This is a frame of mind I’d like to keep as we go through these troubling times. I hope all of you stay safe out there but most of all, stay positive.
Blood, Sweat, but Mostly Tears
Let me paint you a picture.
A young man is troubled with growing pains.
When he was younger, everything was simpler. Everybody played together and less thought was given to what clique you were a part of or how you looked for that matter.
He found that when he got to high school, he felt invisible. Some “better looking” and more “suitable” guy stole the girl of his dreams.
He graduates high school and is looking for his place in the world. He suffers from interminable loneliness. All he knows is that he loves art. He sees artists in the media attracting lots of attention and he thinks “I can do that. Why should they get all the praise?”
So he locks himself away in his room. Working on his craft day and night. Determined to prove himself.
He starts to see some success and is getting more attention. Suddenly, people want to be around him. He forms a group of so-called friends who supposedly are there to secure his rise to the top. Then he finds that the industry is shady and he loses a lot of friends because of it. Some even stabbing him in the back.
He grows even colder. “Now I really won’t let anyone in. I’ll become the biggest artist in the world and all the fame and glory will be for me and me alone.”
So he becomes a chart topping success almost overnight. Now many women want to be with him but one stands out in particular.
This woman is very beautiful and she is also very popular so he thinks it would be a good look for him. The two date but he finds they have nothing in common. She only wants to talk about shallow things. At night he lies with her but it’s like lying next to a stranger.
Finally he makes enough money to be able to afford a big mansion in the hills. He moves the woman in with him and they have children.
One day he is sitting by himself and he thinks: “Why did I have children with this woman I don’t even love? Now I have everything I ever wanted. The fame. The money. The house on the hills and the trophy wife. But I still feel as empty as I did when I first started… I don’t want any of this anymore.”
So the boy, now a man plans his escape but it seems there’s nowhere for him to disappear to except a place you can’t come back from.
“So long world, you were never fair to me.”
And so… ends his long and arduous tale.
Life
Life is… sadness. It’s pain. But most importantly, it’s joy… happiness. It’s glee. It can be gloomy. It can be shadowy. It can be depressing. It can make you apathetic, it can make you jaded. It can make you care less. It can make you hateful, spiteful but it can also teach you how to love. It can be inspirational. Life is torment, instability, ambiguity… yet full of light, full of beauty, full of opportunity and full of beautiful people.
Life is all these things.
Artistic Apathy 