Twisted film on revenge

Rating: 7/10 (22 September 2006)

Old Boy Director Chan-wook Park
The man Dae Su was kidnapped randomly when he was drunk in the beginning of the movie while he was on his way home to give his daughter her birthday present, angel wings. He was put into a locked room never to leave for 15 years. He went crazy while being detained and trained himself to seek revenge on the man who put him in there. While watching the news he finds out that his wife was killed and since he's missing they figure it was him. He was released and began the search for Lee Joo-Win, the man, who framed him, killed his wife, and locked him up. He met and fell in love with a girl while chasing Lee Joo-Win. Having caught him and having several confrontations with him and his men he found out he was hypnotized almost as an experiment, as was the woman he met, who turned out to be his daughter. The movie came to a climax at the ending and Lee Joo-Win killed himself. The whole thing is a humbling ride while rooting for Dae Su to stop Lee Joo-Win's disturbed ways. The acting was well done, other than the typically lame voice-overs, cause it was filmed in Korean, or whatever. The sound track was suiting and dynamic as well as the diagetic sound effects. Everything else was done typical and to a professional level, but nothing especially special like cinematography, lighting, and editing. Overall though, I would say that the characters of the protagonist and the antagonist really stuck out as being well written. Dae Su, as the protagonist, was written well, cause I could really feel for him and understand his feelings of going crazy and wanting revenge. I entered the story through him and was on his side of the plot. Lee Joo-Win, as the antagonist, was your typical opposition and suited it well. In my mind, he was pathetically evil and yet at times he was human as well. The scenes in the movie were written well and didn't lag on but got to the point and continued to the next, overall the flow of the movie was smooth and quick. I would give Park a 7-8 out of 10.