Movie Night #60: Oldboy (2003)
Director: Chan-Wook Park
Cast: Min-Sik Choi, Ji-Tae Yu, Hye-Jeong Kang
Plot: Dae-Su Oh (Choi) has a wife and a little girl. However, while making a call from a public phone booth, he is kidnapped and imprisioned for 15 years. His only company is a television set - which informs him that his wife and daughter have been killed, and he's suspected to be the murderer. He is gased and rendered unconscious every few weeks, finding his hair cut and his nails trimmed when he awakens. He is fed fried dumplings every day for every meal. Eventually, he begins to train himself in combat and plot revenge on whoever put him in this prison. One day, when he is about to escape, he is gased and awakens in a suitcase on a rooftop. He has been released.

Now, Dae-Su Oh must find out who imprisioned him and why - and exact revenge for the death of his family, and the loss of 15 years of his life.

This has to be one of the sweetest revenge movies that I have ever seen, mixed up with the fact that the ending is not predictable (and is quite the jaw-dropping experience). The ultimate revenge all around, I'd say. It's also the happiest ending to any Korean movie that I've ever seen (without giving it away completely, the main character is hypnotised to forget the events of the movie).

Some of the events of the flick require a limited cultural knowledge, but most of the ideas and themes are pretty universal - love and loss. The entire movie you're asking yourself why this guy was locked up and by who, but those are entirely the wrong questions to be asking.

Also, there's nothing more satisfying than seeing a single guy with a hammer go against 30+ henchmen in a hallway...and even though he has a knife sticking out of his back, he still manages to beat the living crap out of every single person. And no cuts in that fight, either. Just a single pan along the hallway as the main character progresses through the horde of guys. Very awesome.

The thing that I think is most appealing to me about Korean movies is that they never pull any punches in the content or violence category. And this movie has both aplenty. The violence isn't necessarily always stylized and entertaining, but it is also very grotesque and hard to watch (as violence should be). This movie definately has some moments were the audience wants to turn away or forget what they have just seen - but you can't. And you shouldn't. Violence is one of those things that I've always wondered why it's entertaining in movies - and I think that one of the reasons is because no one is ever in pain in American action movies.

Obviously, the people writing these movies haven't gotten into a fight themselves. Getting hit in the face or shot in the leg hurts. A LOT.

In any case, this flick is absolutely awesome and you should watch it. It's part of a vengeance trilogy by this director (the other two movies are Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Lady Vengeance).

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