Oldboy Reviews

An Excellent Movie

Posted : 2 months ago on 19 April 2013 07:14

When I think of a list of some of the best films that I've ever seen, Chan-wook Park's masterpiece is one that always comes popping into my head. It is quite possibly the greatest revenge tale ever put to screen, and it has one of the most awesome and over-the-top fights of all time. Choi gives us one of the best performances of all time in which he is not only bad-ass but also pathetic and you find yourself feeling sympathy for him by the end. On the subject of the ending, this one has one of the best twist endings of all time. It is so well-done and not so in-your-face/Sixth Sense style twist; it is more cerebral. I would have NEVER seen anything coming, I mean what kind of perverted sicko/genius dreams these things up? Furthermore, it is based on a comic book which surprised me a lot, and that makes it my all-time favorite comic book film. The screenplay and direction are all incredible and Park made a true, modern masterpiece that is one of the finest ever made.

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Oldboy review

Posted : 1 year ago on 16 June 2012 01:01

Beautiful film, has my favorite fight scene ever, and Choi Min-Sik was perfect for this role. However, I don't think it was the best film that displayed the revenge theme here--for that, I think Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance did a better job.

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Oldboy review

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 7 November 2011 05:44

This movie tries hard to make an impact without any emotional strenght. It´s imaginery it´s not as impacting or brutal as it tries to be, the characters are just random cliches gone to the extremes and the acting is bland. I couldnt care less for the story or the main character drama.

It tries to trick you into thinking that you are watching something brutal and visceral but it´s not. I found it somewhat childlish the way it tries to go over frontiers and extremes that aren´t so.

Movies shouldnt be made to be cult movies they just should happen to be.

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Oldboy review

Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 6 February 2011 10:38

Whatever you say is just if someone has not seen the same film. Or shocking scenes of brutal representation, or the dazzling beauty. The camera moves supernatural and manages to focus in the right places. Montage fast and upbeat, and the photo adds something extra. In the lead found in Min-sik Choi in a stunning interpretation. Closely followed and Ji-tae Yu. The music may be based on a repeating pattern, but is worth the accompanying main course and will haunt a lot after the show. The film sweeps awards in Korean, which shocked Cannes wins the grand prize Direction and loses the Golden Palm for just two votes, and many injustices (including Quentin Tarantino, who sought to promote it in any way).
What makes it stand out Oldboy? The original ideas and fresh Asian shocking, but they have cause to add more to world cinema. The direction of Chan-wook Park that leaves no room to deviate from the target. Scenes such as the anthology piece battle scene with the camera on the side to bring a videogame. The composition of adventure, violence and evidence that no one has thought and certainly not wait to watch the big screen with incredible paranoid twists and shocking surprises. Strictly inappropriate for minors and people with sensitivities, but the season's absolute must for anyone who wants to argue that he saw something different from the trivial and boring. In the room immediately!


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A great movie

Posted : 2 years, 8 months ago on 30 September 2010 10:42

I was so blown away by this flick. I usually don't like twist but the one developped in this movie didn't bother me. The reason why is that the story, the directing, the acting,... are just so fascinating. It is a great schocking movie and alreay a classic. Definitely worth a look.

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Laugh and the world laughs with you.

Posted : 3 years, 6 months ago on 22 November 2009 06:59

''Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone.''

After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in 5 days.

Min-sik Choi: Dae-su Oh

Ji-tae Yu: Woo-jin Lee

Oldboy(2003); Now this is the ultimate mind-fucks of revenge stories. You can honestly see that director Chan-wook Park outshines Quentin Tarantino when creating the most violent revenge scenes. The film itself a witty revision and re-mix of Alexandre Demas's The Count of Monte Cristo, Takashi Miike sadism and the David Lynch imaginings/dream surrealism.



Compelling, dark, twisted, and gory, carrying with it a strong lesson of what imprisonment and revenge will do to a man. Dae-su was a sleazy, gossiping fool who let his mouth get the best of him, resulting in a huge mess. He became a cold, bloodthirsty killing machine after 15 years of being locked up alone in a solitary room, completely changing from the verbally clumsily young man he had been before. Oldboy is about the effects and limitations of revenge, showing us the consequences for lusting after justice or revenge. A very brutal, stripped down view of human emotions.
Oldboy is overly violent, hallucinogenic and drenched in bloody revenge.

Whats more compelling than a man trapped within a room for 15 years, slowly eaten up by madness and seething for vengeance? Well, the answer is simple: Seeing the man attempt to carry out the task, and Oldboy affords us this luxury.
Oldboy has some intricate, slick cool music which is a mix of modern and classical to set the mood and tone.
It all adds up to a fascinating study, and evolution of a character who after this ordeal is let go by his captors after nearly escaping, then plots to find his kidnappers.
The acting is good all around, especially by Choi Min-sik, who played Oh Dae-su. Very emotive, very angry, and a very powerful and convincing actor. Marvellous. Kang Hye Jeong and Yu Ji-tae did very well as Mi-do and Lee Woo-jin respetively.

Highly surreal director Chen Wook Park Oldboy is epic and vast. The two men behind the Oldboy material: Garon Tsuchiya(story) Nobuaki Minegishi(comic).
There's something ethereal and dreamlike to proceedings that the screenplay writers hit on the head with their cleverly constructed scripting.
Jo-yun Hwang, Chun-hyeong Lim and Director Chan-wook Park were behind the screenplay while Joon-hyung Lim the writer.
As a consequence fight scenes, shootouts roar with energy and power. One of the most famously recognized scenes being of the corridor brawl showing us Dae-su against a great number of henchmen. What makes the scene so impressive is the fact it feels reminiscent of a 2D platformer and uses a unique way of using cinematography and camera techniques.

The effects also featured some very imaginative ideas; Ants being creatures of groups that lonely people see to deflect the former feeling of being alone. It all results in being highly engaging viewing especially when you throw in some mind bending dialogue which makes one ponder and reflect with it's deeper analogies. Who was to thank for the effects? Jeon-hyeong Lee was the man behind the visual effects and he did a grand job.
There is a love for storytelling at it's beating adrenaline pumping heart; Oldboy is ironically as hypnotic as it's subject matter and upon first viewing may not be fully understood by it's audience. Repeated viewings give a taste of the details, intricacies and heavily drenched psychological warfare which isn't just restricted to being physical.

Original Music by Hyun-jung Shim with classical modern resonance, Cinematography by
Chung-hoon Chung with power, originality and style, lastly Direction from the clever, talented Chan-wook Park.
This film has sex and violence, incorporating those themes into the plot, instead of constricting them to the plot alone. The incest is a touchy subject, but it's used as a plot point, not playing against personal sick delusions witht the audience. If you judge the movie based on this then you're missing out.
This movie does not glorify incest or the numerous acts of violence Oh Dae-su commits throughout the film's 2 hour duration. Oh Dae-su is a tormented character; this is especially seen in his line "After my revenge...will I be able to be Oh Dae-su again?" He's not evil and he's not enjoying the things he's doing; he wants to be his oldboy self again! Not to mention the schizophrenic tendencies he gained in those 15 years alone. Oh Dae-su is not a hero, just a man who wants his peace of mind, and his revenge. You don't have to sympathize with him if you don't want to, that's not what the movie strives for. What it does strive for is answering and indeed raising questions regarding revenge, emotions and the ripple effect of one's actions; Not to mention fleshing out it's respective characters hand in hand.

Question is, what will Dae-su do when he finds his kidnapper? Will his enemy kill himself as promised or is there more to this than meets the eye? Oldboy will set tongues wagging.

''Even though I'm no more than a monster - don't I, too, have the right to live? ''


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Not Very Young At Heart

Posted : 3 years, 9 months ago on 11 September 2009 12:46

A hard-bitten, no-holds barred tale of revenge that bites hard & holds no bars. And while I know that sentence is doublely redundant, it seems to fit the situation as far the level of emotional ravishing that this story leads it's characters up to. Brutal it may be, it's a film that depicts it story in an operatic level & with a refreshing energy to give the film a distinct life that widely separates it from the standard vengeance theme of traditional Hollywood-fare. IMO, a great flick that is armed with a in-your-face type of plot twist & proves that the medium of the graphic novel & comicbook is a world full of potentially good cinema, if one is willing to shuffle passed the mainstream same old same old.





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Quality Korean cinema!

Posted : 4 years, 10 months ago on 11 August 2008 10:42

"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."

Chan-wook Park's Oldboy is an intense, gut-wrenching Korean thriller. The film has received continuous accolades since its initial release in 2003 and its more global release in 2005.
Oldboy is perhaps best remembered due to its heavy content: the violence, torture and themes are unflinching and far more uncompromisingly pungent than any American thriller. Instead of the customary over-the-top martial arts, the filmmakers opt for far more brutality. Witness a five-minute shot depicting the central character confronting a gang of thugs in a corridor. This is a nasty, vicious conflict without any fancy Jackie Chan-style choreography: this is dirty street fighting as men assault each other, sometimes falling, sometimes missing. Objects are utilised as men are stabbed or beaten. People bleed and show vulnerability as well as weakness. The punches sound like actual punches...men get tired, men lose energy and collapse after growing out of breath. It's this impressive edge that elevates Oldboy higher than most Asian productions.

Personally, I've never had a fondness for Asian cinema. Films such as Hero come across as convoluted and confusing but with beauty in the visuals. These visuals, however, generally seem over-the-top and suspending disbelief is too difficult. Oldboy is far more down to earth and believable. The visuals are impeccably constructed: each shot engages an audience with its panache and elegance. The grimy streets, filthy characters and engrossing scenarios are more effective. Below its face value the film is a deep, thematic character study regarding a heart-stopping journey of one man's quest for vengeance.

Oldboy opens with a bang. As engaging music absorbs the viewer, the visuals depict a wild-haired man dangling another man off the edge of a building by his tie. This wild-haired man is Oh Dae-su (Min-sik). In a flashback his story is revealed: Dae-su is a regular man with a loving family. Under perplexing circumstances, he is kidnapped and incarcerated in a secure hotel room for a total of 15 years. Over the course of these 15 years, he has had nothing but dumplings to eat and his only window to the outside is a TV. He learns that his wife has died, and he has been framed for the murder. From this point forward he vows to escape and acquire his revenge. His captors eventually free Dae-su. He is given a wad of cash and a cell-phone. The mastermind behind his capture challenges Dae-su to find him within 5 days...if Dae-su does this, he will learn the reason why.

This is the mystery that drives Oldboy so effectively: it isn't long before the villain is revealed, but the ambiguity clouding the "why" is what fuels the proceedings. This builds to the film's shocking climax. This final confrontation presents an audience with a succession of astonishing twists.

The production values are first-rate considering the genre and origin. The torture scenes feel so realistic that one will be squirming in their seat. And the action scenes...are phenomenal! On top of this the director's style is enough to keep one engaged for the dialogue and the action. The cast competently tackle their characters as this established realism is further retained. The highlight of the film is undeniably its music. The main theme is haunting and evocative. This theme is repetitive and is used constantly. The music simply cannot be faulted. The tone is continually established with each new segment of music.
However, there is one lethal flaw: the film is very difficult to follow and keep up simply due to the appalling distinguishing of key plot points. From the film's beginning I struggled to find a coherent succession of scenes. Only with repeated viewings can one entirely understand the movie. This flaw is present in virtually every piece of Asian cinema I've seen so far. Oldboy is just superior because with its stylish visuals and brutal tone, we're compelled to be swept along with the proceedings.

Overall, Oldboy is a stunning Korean film that has earned an enormous fan base since its initial release. The film is a visceral cinematic experience created by a masterful group of filmmakers who excel at their art. It's hard to follow at times, but still mighty entertaining and extremely violent!

7.85/10

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Bloody Brilliant

Posted : 5 years, 2 months ago on 10 April 2008 12:54

Brilliant and disgustingly so. Min-sik Choi did a wonderful performance with his character. The transformation from drunken lout to tormented soul was excellent then add into that moments of insanity. I'm sure playing a man who has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for 15 years was hard but I felt he pulled it off enough to make it believable.
The story line was great and had me just staring like a slack jawed idiot at times with scenes like when he gets to the office building and the teeth then afterwards (that's as much as I can mention without giving anything away) but the ending was was what made the movie. Not only finding out why he was imprisoned but that little extra bit of torment was what made it disgustingly brilliant. I'd highly recommend it but not if you're squeamish. Not that it's overly violent, blood thirsty (seen worse) or that you actually get to see the acts of violence but it's the knowing that makes you cringe.

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Cinematic masterpiece

Posted : 5 years, 10 months ago on 29 July 2007 03:58

This film was just amazing. I loved it from the very first viewing. The extremely charistmatic Oh Dae-Su is kidnapped and imprissoned in a hotel room for 15 years without explanation or reprieve. During his imprisonment he is framed for the murder of his wife (all of which he sees on TV) and turns himself from a drunken ne'er do well into something of a fighting machine.

Released later on, he vows vengeance on his captor and seeks to illicit suffering on as many of his associates along the way. Add some amazingly raw fights and some gory torture scenes and you've got a staple of asian vengeance cinema. Steeped in black humour thoroughout, this is just a fantastic film.

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