Podcasts
Breaking Taboos in Park Chan-wook’s ‘Oldboy’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Octopi and Incest.
After kicking things off in July with the girls of Stanford High School in The Slumber Party Massacre (listen) and a psychic Jennifer Connelly in Dario Argento’s Phenomena (listen), we’re checking in with a man and his octopus in Park Chan-wook‘s 2003 masterpiece Oldboy.
Oldboy sees a drunken Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) get kidnapped on the day of his daughter’s fourth birthday. Held in captivity for 15 years and living on a diet of dumplings. Dae-su is suddenly released without explanation. His captor (Yoo Ji-tae) gives him 5 days to figure out why he did this to him, but if he is unable to figure it out, then his captor will murder Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung) a young sushi chef that Dae-su has quickly fallen for.
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Episode 345: Oldboy (2003)
Swallow that octopus and run away from those ants because we’re discussing Park Chan-wook‘s 2003 masterpiece Oldboy!
Join us as we discuss the origins of Oldboy, from its manga source material to the changes Park applied to this adaptation, before going all in on this spider’s web of a revenge plot. It’s a film known for its big twist, but there’s so much more to appreciate here!
Plus: that hallway fight scene, Manic Pixie Sushi Dream Girls, questionable CGI, death by CD-ROM, hypnosis as a plot convenience (but who cares?) and debating whether or not this is a “film bro” movie.
Cross out Oldboy!
Coming Up Next: We’re venturing into the world of 1960s beach party movies with a look at the camp classic Psycho Beach Party (2000)!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 400 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 2 Episodes 7 and 8, Lurker, Together, Weapons and a brand new audio commentary on Wes Craven’s Red Eye for its 20th anniversary!
It’s been a busy month on Murder Made Fiction podcast. In addition to introducing a new co-host (Perfectly Good Moment‘s Amanda Jane Stern), we spent Pride Month tackling a wide variety of Leopold and Loeb fictional adaptations.
In 1924 Chicago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb plotted to commit the perfect murder when they abducted and killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks. As Amanda outlines in her primer on the case, the men were caught almost immediately and the media circus that followed was billed “the trial of the century”.
Listen to Leopold and Loeb mini primer.
The fallout has reverberated throughout the last century as countless books, plays, musicals, and films have drawn on the case for inspiration. Some are more faithful than others, such as Richard Fleischer‘s 1959 drama Compulsion, which stars a young Dean Stockwell as Leopold and Orson Welles as the boys’ lawyer, John Darrow (named Jonathan Wilk in the film).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Compulsion (1959).
Then there are the texts that use the idea of queer-coded killers as a jumping off point, but confuse (or flat-out disregard) the details of the real life case in favour of jumbled fiction. That’s what happens in Barbet Schroeder‘s Murder by Numbers, which awkwardly introduces a tortured backstory for lead actress (and executive producer) Sandra Bullock. The result is an uneven film that misunderstands which of its two competing storylines are actually interesting (hint: it’s the Leopold and Loeb stuff with Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Murder by Numbers (2002).
We ended up discussing other (often more successful) titles on Patreon, including 1992’s Swoon (a New Queer Cinema art-house take on the crime), Michael Haneke‘s 2007 Funny Games remake, and gay screenwriter Kevin Williamson‘s Scream, which proved to be a much more reverent and sly interpretation of L&L than we anticipated.
We wrapped up the month with a final summary episode about our favorite adaptations before chatting with author and archivist Erik Rebain, who literally wrote the book on Leopold (Arrested Adolescence) and maintains one of the foremost websites on the crime.
Watch our discussion on YouTube below (or listen here):
Next month: For July, we’re turning our attention to the Boston Strangler, with a look at films from 1964 and 1968, as well as the most contemporary version from 2023, starring Kiera Knightley and Carrie Coon.
Want even more true crime adaptations and Murder Made Fiction? Support the show on Patreon to listen to the aforementioned episodes, as well as a full-length primer on the case and 160+ hours of bonus content.
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