Ants In Pants

Rating: Null/10 (4 July 2008)

Visually stunning and stylishly executed, Chan-wook Park's 'Oldboy' is loosely based on 'Oedipus' and 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. On the technical front, it gets almost everything right. The background score is marvelous. The action sequences are well shot even though poorly choreographed. The cinematography and visuals are stunning. The CGI is fake at times (for example the ant crawling under the skin scene). The dialogues are wannabe symbolic and wannabe philosophical. The acting is over-the-top. I didn't see any point in the movie as a whole. Nor did 'Oldboy' entertain me neither did it enlighten. I fail to understand what puts this film on a World Cinema level and what is it that so many love about this movie? Was it the shock value with all the gruesome and gory scenes? It starts on an interesting note but then one finds out that it's a silly contrived revenge plot (not to mention the numerous plot holes). What was Park trying to imply? That it's okay for the brother to have sex with his sister and that Dae-Su's telling someone about it in confidence was the bigger crime? Or is it that the best revenge would be to make him have sex with his own daughter? Don't even get me started on the whole hypnosis-erasing-your-memory crap. In my humble opinion, 'Oldboy' is quite a stupid pretentious movie. It's executed quite well but has no substance. A waste of my time.