Dark, stylish, engaging stuff that will appeal to modern audiences even if the lack of depth is a problem

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2006)

Having been collected in a drunken state from the police station by his friend, Oh Dae-su vanishes from the street and awakes in a locked room. Months later he knows nothing more about why he is imprisoned and is brought food. A year later he has been framed for the murder of his wife but still is none the wiser why he has been imprisoned or by whom. Fifteen years pass by and Dae-su has spent most of them driven by rage an a desire to get free from his prison. A month from breaking though the wall he is gassed and dumped on a roof garden inside a suitcase.
Being, in essence, a wuss, I took my time getting round to watching this film and braced myself when channel 4 trailed it with warnings for brutal violence, torture, sexual scenes and "a scene where a man eats a live octopus"  suffice to say I was ready that this film wasn't going to be Disney. That said there is a feel of graphic novel about this (I think this is where the material has come from) and for all its brutality there is a dark sense of humour running across it. The plot is engaging mainly due to the level of mystery in it and I was held unto the end. The conclusion is drawn out for a bit too long but it is still quite clever and satisfyingly downbeat. Viewers should brace themselves for a certain amount of lack of logic across the plot  this comes with the heavily stylised territory and doesn't damage the arch of the film that much.
It is of course violent; there is no disputing that, and I did have to look away from the screen on several occasions. The torture scenes and such are within a dark context though and I found it a lot less violent than some Hollywood films that draw pleasure from gore and death  here it is dark and unpleasant and rarely exciting. Park's direction is impressive and the film has a great fell to it with plenty of style and clever touches but not to the point where it dominates proceedings  the style is the polish, not the whole show. The cast work surprisingly well considering that the depth of the film and characters does rely heavily on the rather convoluted and unrealistic setup. Choi is a powerful heart to the film, starting as a flabby drunk, transforming with rage and hate to the point of looking totally different while also making other significant shifts. The film very much belongs to him but he is well supported throughout. With perhaps weaker characters to work with Kang is good as Mido while Yu turns in a compelling and sinister character without ever losing touch with what has been driving him all these years.
Overall then an impressively dark and compelling film. The violent scenes (and one intense scene of animal cruelty) will put many off, as will the fact that the film doesn't happen in a real world but regardless it is stylish, engaging and compelling.