Impressive and Violent Kafkanian Tale of Revenge

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2006)

On the day of his daughter's birthday, Ho Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) gets completely drunk and is arrested. His best friend No Joo-hwan (Dae-han Ji) releases him from the police station, and while calling home from a phone booth, Dae-su vanishes. Indeed he has been abducted and imprisoned in a room for fifteen years. One day, he is suddenly released, receives clothes, money and a cellular and meets the Japanese chef Mido (Hye-jeong Kang), and they feel a great attraction for each other. However, Dae-su seeks for his captor and the reason of his long imprisonment. While looking for revenge and explanation, Dae-su discloses deep secrets from the past.
"Oldboy" is really a very impressive and violent Kafkanian tale of revenge. With a stunning direction and supported by an excellent screenplay, where there is explanation for every apparently weird situation, "Oldboy" is also very unpleasant, with the hero being indeed an anti-hero. The theme incest is very strong and almost forbidden for us, westerns, but when I worked in South Korea, I learned that this theme is simply unconceivable for Korean people. Further, a man be called a "dog" is very offensive and a great humiliation. Therefore, I believe that this movie is tougher and more offensive for Korean people, and explains the reaction of Dae-Su when the final secret is disclosed. Based on some unfair bad reviews, I believe this movie is not recommended for certain audiences that need (and has problem) to read subtitles and has difficulties to understand other cultures. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Oldboy"
Obs: Why are there so many users with only one review writing about this movie? It is very usual to find people writing only one standard favorable review to promote awful movies in IMDb, probably hired by the production of the film. But with "Oldboy", we can find also many bad reviews written by persons with only one review issued in IMDb. Sounds very weird and fake for me this type of "inspiration"! Further,what is the meaning of "That user does not exist" in the message board profile of these users? Is this message correct? How can a user that "does not exist" write reviews (and certainly vote)?