Flawed, but worth seeing

Rating: 6/10 (9 July 2006)

I think the heaps of otherworldly praise this movie gets is going to skew it for the first-time watcher. It did for me. The movie did affect me. It was very gripping and well-done. The acting and direction were all really good. The plot is original and keeps you intrigued. But overall, I have to agree with what a lot of other naysayers on this board have said. 'Oldboy' really doesn't mean much. The whole revenge plot was just a really contrived, over-the-top, completely unrealistic idea hatched by a psychotic. I think one of the big problems is that the movie doesn't delve into the main perpetrator's character. I mean I know why he did it, but why is he so psychotic. What made him first want to sleep with his sister and then punish a man so brutally for her suicide, which he only indirectly caused. And why did he have so much money? He wouldn't have been able to pull off this job without heaps and heaps of money. It would have been nice to have that back story. That's only one of a couple plot holes here. Plus, there are a lot of elements in this movie that just don't make much sense...they are only in there for shock value. Such as the scene where the main protagonist eats a live octopus. What was the point? Then in the beginning there was the guy who was about to kill himself. The protagonist would not let him jump off the building until he told his story. Then he kills himself. What was the point of making the man suicidal? And what does the one line repeated over again mean: 'Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone." It really doesn't have any relevance to a movie which is basically about a kooky revenge scheme concocted by perverted Bill Gates-like tycoon. Overall, this movie has great style, but is too violent and has no real thematic point.