Missing the point

Rating: 8/10 (14 July 2005)

I'm posting a review of this dark, complex film in response to some of the comments made by other viewers, as I feel there's a very pertinent point keeping them from enjoying the movie. The main gripe people seem to have is the lack of a sympathetic character to root for, but being a huge movie fan who has seen 1000's of movies (some repeatedly 100's of times), I for one am sick of being told by a film who the hero is, who the villain is, and why their cause is right/wrong. This movie takes great pains to blur every line between hero and villain, which is why some of Oh Dae Su's actions are so extreme and jarring for the viewer, especially early on, and why the 'villain' has only two scenes where he does something remotely villain-like, (ironically one of these instances is done to save Oh Dae So's life.) As for a sympathetic character, how about Mido? She's been an unwitting pawn in the corruption of Oh Dae Su her whole life, beginning with her mother's murder, and ends up with a man who chooses to lie to her and be her lover rather than tell her he her father. And during the movie she's sexually assaulted by a room fool of goons, engages in painful sex with a psychotic and if thats not enough she has to traipse around south Korea looking for a specific restaurant. (man, there must be millions!) While i too was initially disappointed that the Oldboy didn't come out of that room an avenging kick ass angel of death laying kung fu waste to all who stood in his path, By the end of the film I felt confused and somehow hurt, and simply HAD to watch it again.
Which is when you realise how many layers there are to this seemingly horrid, violent pointless movie.
Watch Oldboy if you want to make up your own mind about a character's motivation.
There have been a lot of comments on the coincidental and unlikely nature of some of the events in the film, especially the villains plan. Couldn't you make the same accusation of any movie? Forgetting stuff like Se7en or (the terrible) Arlington Road, you could even level this argument at the Godfather or Star Wars. For me a movie is not meant to exist in reality and should be taken at face value, thats why its a movie. Every movie inhabits its OWN universe (Uma can run along railings in Kil Bill, no-one says a thing, but apparently its unlikely that someone could be locked up for 15 years...) As long as a movie doesn't blatantly break the rules of its own universe then I don't see the point in dissecting it as some other posters have done. (case in point, Training Day spent 75% of the movie depicting a realistic cop drama and then ruined it with a typical Hollywood fist fight at the end where Ethan Hawke is beaten to a bloody pulp, THEN jumps onto a car, and THEN manages to get up, and subdue Denzel. For me that ruined the movie, but I can still enjoy the first 75%. I just turn off after Eva Mendes' beaver shot) As far as I'm concerned, Oldboy is a dark, ambiguous, funny tragic, COMIC BOOK thriller and never once besmirches it's universe.
I'm not trying to convince anyone here to like it, as I never will, I just wanted to say that disliking a movie because you find it unlikely is or you don't sympathise with the characters has always been a moot point to me, but hey, thats what opinions are for.