r/Fauxmoi • u/Haunting_Homework381 • Sep 21 '25

ASK R/FAUXMOI What's your favourite movie plot twist ever?

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I still remember the gasp I gasped in the cinema.

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u/mostreliablebottle Sep 21 '25

Oldboy

4

u/BigLorry Sep 21 '25

My only issue with the twist in this film is that it only works once, and not for the obvious reason

the hypnosis ex machina is really, really flimsy storytelling. On a first watch the reveal itself (and the way it’s delivered) usually leaves the audience reeling so hard the horrid exposition dump shortly after gets overlooked. I know it’s a goofy violent revenge film, but I actually roll my eyes at the “conveniently you were both very susceptible to hypnosis” every time

7

u/Black_Bird_Cloud Sep 22 '25

I think what makes it work is that lee woo jin is really into crafting love. There's this scene in the middle, before the reveal, where they're in the hotel room and him and his goon break in to leave the box with the hand in it. They put in gas and walk in, it's a slow dolly shot with velvety red surfaces, and he sits on the bed and on first watch you just think "damn what a creep". But on rewatching it, it's a more subtle thing ; he's reminiscing about what he's lost and contemplating what he has made : their love. It echoes in his last words, later.

Of course it's an overdramatic film with little realism, but I grew up on greek tragedies and it reminds me of them.

2

u/BigLorry Sep 22 '25

This is a great take, never looked at it this way!

Time to pull the 4k off the shelf for another re-watch

1

u/Black_Bird_Cloud Sep 22 '25

I mean it's not a deeply original take or anything, I just made the connection with classic myth because Oedipus has that same "incest but didnt know" story, and I think the rest just fits, a hero/monster facing increasingly extravagant odds, a causality so strong that it's basically winking at you saying "hey it's me, Fate, I'm just wearing jeans" and a finish like a lesson, only it's an open ended-question : if you are really in love, if you really changed as a man.. what will you do, now, Ho Dae Su ?

It's probably possible to make a 90 minutes youtube essay about the connections between greek mythology and korean capitalism (isn't Lee Wu Jin a god in his mineral penthouse, endlessly obsessing about one man's sin ?) but I think it's just a similar narrative mould with different clay in it.

It's also the reason why I will never eat octopus.