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Reviewed by Michael Aronson “Ten years ago, they took him. He doesn’t know who. For ten years, he was confined in a private prison. He doesn’t know why. For ten years his only contact with the outside world was a television set and the voices of his jailers. In time, he lost himself . . . changed . . . transformed himself into something else . . . something hard . . . something lethal. Now, suddenly and without any explanation, his incarceration ends. He is sedated, stuffed inside a trunk, and dumped in a park. When he wakes, he will try to reclaimed what’s left of his life . . . and what’s left is revenge.” Let’s face it: this manga probably wouldn’t have been brought to the west for a while, if at all, if not for the critical success of Old Boy the movie. And fans of the movie are really the only ones who need bother be interested with the manga, as the uninitiated absolutely MUST go see the movie first. Seeing the movie may spoil the ending of the manga (so I assume, anyway), but as fans of Akira and Battle Royale know, there’s an added reward to following the multiple volumes that expand on an hour-and-a-half-long movie. Old Boy the Japanese manga came before Old Boy the Korean film, and I’m not sure if it’s been announced how many volumes are in the series, but the beginning starts things off on a different foot than the movie. First of all, the protagonist doesn’t really have a name, and the way he acquires one is much different than in the movie. His encounter with one of the key characters develops much too rapidly and lacks a lot of the buildup and significance the movie crafted. The scenes of his jailing are adequate and frequent enough to drill in how mentally and emotionally starved he became, but his inner rage and passion for vengeance is surprisingly played down. There are a few interesting twists that deviate from the movie, but like most of the events in this volume, their importance to the plot is given the short shrift. Ultimately, the first volume of Old Boy is an incredibly quick and largely unsatisfying read made worse by Dark Horse’s insistence on charging more for their books than their competitors without any extra bells or whistles. If the source material remains as strong in subsequent volumes as its film adaptation, things should pick up soon, but for now it’s an uninspiring start. Comment on this review of Old Boy v1 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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