Unbelievable. Watch It NOW.

Rating: 10/10 (20 August 2004)

OldBoy is a film you shouldn't read about. It's a film you should somehow grab and watch. No research required.
The camera technique is fantastic and unique, with disturbingly eerie and suitable music to boot. The emotion of the storyline is perfectly acted out especially by the lead Choi Min-Sik, who personifies human vengeance with all negative human emotions and a touch of desperate dignified honour to the max. Although the characterisation is quite lacking, this film dosen't need it. Choi hasn't many words to build up sympathy and emotion for his character, yet he uses all the emotional energy he can muster and it shows. From his toes to this eyeballs, Choi plays a man with one thing in mind: Revenge. Yet unlike other revenge flicks, such an emotion is realistically portrayed with a depth I have never seen before from a single actor. Sadness, depression, loss, loneliness, pride, hopelessness, determination, irony, wrath. All with one word. One look. Only Choi could have pulled this off.
Director Park Chan-Wook has made a gem which should be remembered for the ages. The film moves along at full speed like a Tarantino flick, yet comparatively still seems slow and old-fashioned and dosen't feel like your watching a movie. The dialogue is cliched and metaphorical, yet it dosen't feel forced and over-philosophical like the Matrix films. There are many images in the film which will stay in your head for years.