Rare Quality

Rating: 8/10 (9 September 2005)

I don't believe there's many headline type words which can be used about this movie, since they all seem to already have been used. The reason is simple: Oldboy is a movie you either hate or love, although considering the subject and theme of the movie, love probably ain't the right word to use. Still, the movie seem to part it's audience and it's understandably, but unfortunately, it also reflects on it's reviews. Oldboy is a tough movie to be objective about, since you almost have to take a stance about it's story, and the problem here is, that if you like the movie, it couldn't indicate that you can also relate to what the protagonist is doing', and of course the same goes, if you don't like the movie. So what is the protagonist doing' ? he's searching for truth. It's as simple as that, but the truth about what ? On the surface its the truth about who did him wrong, but underneath, it's the truth about human nature: How dark are the dark side of homo sapience, when the fire which fuels us, has been brought to a boiling point, where we find ourselves falling' from the edge towards the darkness ? And is it possible to stop the fall by uncover the truth, or will the truth just reflect another dark aspect of human beings: That sometimes, we are so blinded by our own self-righteousness that we can't c', that it is that same self-righteousness, which pushed us over the edge to begin with. Simplistically the love/hate aspect of Oldboy can be put into a question: Is it cool to tell a friend about something you have witnessed, if you know that what you have witnessed, probably wasn't something you should have seen ? Some will say yes, some will say no - same with Oldboy: Same love it, some hate it, and for that rare quality, Oldboy is worth watching.