A fest of excesses- certainly not for everyone

Rating: 7/10 (5 April 2008)

Where to begin...? I place myself neither with the 1 & 2 star raters, or the 9 & 10s on this. I personally didn't much enjoy Oldboy as a 2-hour experience, but that said, I can see where those who praise this film are coming from. It's a truly mesmerising film in places, mainly because you can't believe what's happening on the screen, and those who love melodrama and totally unexpected (even if ridiculous) plot lines will love this movie.
Oldboy is, put simply, an absolute fest of excesses, and the violence, sex, extreme plot twists, and overacting like nothing else you'll see make it a truly unique bit of Asian cinema. There's everything from live-octopus eating and dental torture, to deliberate- and then oblivious- incest!
I'm a big fan of Chinese, Japanese and Thai cinema, but admittedly I'm quite inexperienced in S.Korean. The only other Korean movie I've seen is Brotherhood (Taegukgi)- which greatly impressed me- but sadly I can't say the same about Oldboy.
The base plot really attracted me to this movie (along with the IMDb rating). The idea of a normal man being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, and then released without warning to discover the truth seemed like it would make a gripping movie. But I found myself drifting out of the plot as it progressed into more and more unusual and far-fetched directions towards the end.
You will no doubt notice that this film is very highly rated on the IMDb, and has made it a fair way up the top-250 list. If I'm honest though, I don't have the slightest idea whether it should be there or not! I think a reasonable conclusion about Oldboy would be that it isn't to be approached as another piece of Asian cinema, or even as a westernised one, but as a modern experiment in cinematic extremes. It will affect you strongly one way or the other, and you'll have to watch it to find out!