Bluntly beautiful

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2007)

This contains light spoilers, maybe no more than a synopsis
Beforethis movie, my contact with Asian cinema had been minimal, not to say nonexistent. After all the comments about it, which, at the time, I judged overrated, I decided to watch it. What i got was the certainty that it was not overrated at all.
Oldboy serves the viewer with scenes that are like punches to the stomach but gives plenty of pauses to recompose. Both these moments are always beautiful in some way, and never irrelevant.
The characters are quite believable and easy to love, although the story itself has a taste of fantasy to it. Oh Dae Su's drama, due to excellent acting, becomes very tangible, making it hard to remain unaltered throughout the film.
The plot begins introducing what the main character was, the old Oh Dae Su and how he came to be what we see in screen most of the time. After being kidnapped, Dae Su spends 15 years of captivity with only a television as companion. During this time, he learns that his wife was murdered and he was the only suspect in the case. Being released without any clue as to why was he captured in the first place, he starts a hunt for the one who caught him and killed his wife.
Oldboy is a masterpiece that speaks of the two stronger human feelings, love and hatred. Being part of the Revenge Trilogy that was expectable but Oldboy does it so well and without repeating its counterparts, that makes it unique among films of the same genre and theme. If you like cinema to feel and think, then Oldboy is mostly recommended.