A Film that Shows Perpatratiors as Victims and Vice Versa

Rating: 10/10 (24 January 2006)

Oldboy easily one of the three best movie I have seen in 2005. Although it was made two years earlier, this is when it made a theatrical run in my area and I'm glad I was able to even see it theatrically. Easily one of the best foreign films to come in sometime and could only have been made in a foreign land due to the themes and twists involved in the feature.
The plot is already listed so no need to go over that. As far as the film goes, it takes a fresh angle on revenge where those commit crimes are also victims and as the movie goes on both the protagonist and antagonist are developed so while we still root for the hero, we sympathize with the villain just enough to keep him a bad guy. It's use of violence in the rawest form gives it a realistic undertone and shows how consumed a man is by vengeance he doesn't stop with even a knife is his back. In one of many memorable scenes, the hero takes on a room of fifteen guys with nothing but a hammer and it plays out almost as real as it could get.
As for the twists, which I will speak little of, all there is to say is they are red herrings that are very hard to figure out but aren't just meant to make you go "wow!" There is meaning to it and is part of a the story's flow. It's hard to find movie that use that kind of tactic when surprising the audience anymore.
The performances are spot on and the direction uses style for substance and not once is a neat effect use just for looking cool, it all adds up to something. So overall, an awesome film to come out of the Asian market that isn't martial arts or an epic drama set in the past, but one that takes place in present time in the vicious city where good and bad people roam the streets just like USA and Europe. And the violence is almost poetic in getting it's point across. The director's revenge trilogy takes the age old formula of vengeance and puts it a new spin on it creating modern classics that should give anyone with an open mind a visual pleasure.