The destructive nature and eventual repercussions of revenge and the power of forgiveness

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2006)

There has been much criticism made about some of the apparent large plot holes and I just wanted to add some of my own thoughts and cultural perspective about it. I'm not trying to defend the film and I really enjoyed the film mainly because I did not anticipate the twist ending.
First off, the apparent age difference of 15 years between the two main leads. In case many of you haven't noticed, many Asians do age very gracefully without any effort, much more easily than Caucasians. If you had to guess the ages of a Caucasian and an Asian, more often than not, you would get the Asian's age wrong by a great deal.
Secondly, some feel the ending was a let-down. I would disagree on many counts. Put yourself in the place of the bad guy, how would you take revenge? You have lived with the pain and regret of losing your sister for almost 15 years, how do you replicate your revenge? How do you make your enemy regret his initial actions? How do you take revenge on a vengeful person? Be using his vengeful nature against himself. By leading him into performing another more heinous act of his own volition that he would regret even more and live with for the rest of his life.
Notice the incredibly difficult dilemma and choices Dae-Su faces at the end. His daughter is the only living and closest relative he has.
What would you do in his place? A)Break off the relationship, keep the secret, you break your daughter's heart and you never see your own daughter ever again and there's no way to explain to her without revealing the secret.
B)Keep the existing relationship, keep the secret, and you have to repeat the heinous act over and over again, each time you become even more guilt-ridden.
C)Reveal the secret and both father and daughter, albeit reunited, will lead an awkward and guilt-ridden co-existence for the rest of their lives.
In A), you bear the pain of incest all by yourself, but both will bear the pain of separation.
In B), you bear the pain of past incest all by yourself, and you have to bear even more pain of future incest all by yourself, and you are forced to hurt your child even more (incest) by not trying to hurt your child (by revealing the secret).
In C), both share the pain of past incest and will have to bear with it for the rest of their lives.
As a parent, you would not want your child to feel any pain, preferably to bear all the pain yourself, but that option would lead to even more pain.
Where does the regret part come in? When he decides to prioritize vengeance over reconciliation with his daughter. Oh Dae-Su is a vengeful character by nature, and he becomes even more so after the lengthy period of confinement. Had he decided to forgive and forget, had he decided to look for and reunite with his daughter first, he would not have committed the subsequent acts.
A vengeful person is for obvious reasons, a very unforgiving person. To punish a vengeful person, you get him to commit a very regretful act, since he finds it hard to forgive, he would find it hard to forgive himself. Had the bad guy attempted to use the same modus operandi on a more forgiving person, it would never have worked, reconciliation would have taken place before vengeance or the person would have forgiven himself more easily at the end.
Remember he had a choice, he made a decision.
Thirdly, the hypnosis part. Hypnosis works differently with many people, some are more susceptible and vulnerable to suggestion than others, ultimately there's still free will, which would also put any notions of diminished responsibility to rest.