Taboos, taboos, and more taboos

Rating: 5/10 (6 May 2020)

I was not impressed by Oldboy, despite having high expectations, given its rave reviews and numerous rewards. I suppose that the fact that Tarantino loved it should have been a red flag. I mean, I like Tarantino´s Pulp Fiction, but some of his stuff is just gratuitous violence to a pornographic degree.
To my mind, the erotic part of Oldboy evoked memories of Haruki Murakami´s 1Q84, which I forced myself to read (also based on rave reviews) but found rather perverse and distasteful. Speaking of distasteful, I am not at all clear as to what the eating of a live octopus contributed to Oldboy beyond shock appeal.
There are many other surprises in Oldboy, mostly (as far as I can tell) shock for shock´s sake, but it is especially unexpected and odd--and frankly irrational--that the protagonist should cut out his own tongue, when the real criminal is the fellow who imprisoned him for fifteen years. Doesn´t make sense at all--nor does the manifest disparity in ages of the two main characters, I might add.
Who should be feeling guilty in this story, really? Certainly not the victim, but of course psychopaths never experience guilt. Some viewers may forgive the convoluted plot on grounds of artistic license, poetic justice, or whatever, but even though some of the scenes display admirable cinematography, the rest of this production does not add up. So count me among those who disagree with the top rating bestowed on this work by both critics and amateurs of film, including many reviewers at imdb. It´s just not my bucket of blood, and I do not believe that watching it again would deepen my understanding, for the basic premise is simply ill conceived.