akingSandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal pre-teaser brought to us a Ranbir Kapoor in a bloodied kurta, single-handedly fighting off scores of masked men in a dimly lit corridor. Many were quick to point out the similarities to the iconic corridor fight in Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003), which has influenced the choreography of number of cinematic fight scenes over the last two decades, from John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) to Guardians of The Galaxy, Vol. 3 (2023). Something about the tight, dingy space of a corridor, and how it compounds on the urgency of the odds (overwhelmingly) stacked against the protagonist, makes for a compelling viewing experience.
As Oldboy turns twenty today, we think it’s the perfect opportunity to look back at some of our favourite corridor action sequences.
1. Oh Dae-su, One-Man Army: Oldboy (2003)
Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) has just found out that he has been kept in a private prison for fifteen years. The only thing that stands between him and escape is a corridor full of weapon-wielding guards. In the corridor fight scene to rule them all, our protagonist makes his way through the hallway with only a hammer in hand, slashing through his opponents one-by-one. Reminiscent of a wounded animal, his feral aggression taking the guards by shock. A kick, a stab, a chokehold, Dae-su employs every trick in the book to take them down. At one point, he is overwhelmed and on the ground, a dozen guards raining blows on him. With a roar, he gets to his feet and pushes every single one of them off him, going right back on the offensive. All this while, the camera moves gently along the corridor, a wistful score accompanying the action. The guards finally get one up on Dae-su, as he collapses to the ground with a knife in his back. Just when they think he’s dead, he jumps to his feet, still fighting. Now weary, Dae-su takes a defensive stance, but the guards hesitate to even approach him.
After defeating the last of them, Dae-su, who is now on the other side of the corridor, smiles wryly when the elevator doors open to reveal another batch of armed guards. In the very next shot, the same elevator door opens and the guards spill out, incapacitated. Dae-su steps over their bodies and makes his way towards freedom. The corridor fight, which was shot in one continuous take, reportedly took three days to film. The messy, imperfect and chaotic nature of the action belies the precise choreography and consideration behind it.
