An excellent movie!

Rating: 9/10 (25 April 2005)

I understand that most viewers hated this movie for its violence or harsh content (most of it implicit, though). However it is wrong to say that this movie is just 2 hours of gratuitous violence and that it's obscene and doesn't make any sense.
Oldboy is one of the very rare movies that I have seen recently that are totally original. At first, the plot may give you the impression that the movie is really stupid and lacks sense ("a guy is locked up for no reason for 15 years and now he's going to seek revenge"). Does this kind of plot, with an apparently dumb plot remind you of a famous highly acclaimed blockbuster? I'll give you a hint... KILL BILL !!!
OldBoy and Kill Bill are two very different movies, but they share a manga-like style, are quite shocking and start with a weird plot.
The main difference is that Kill Bill's plot gets worse and worse during the movie, ending with a phony love story, and that Oldboy gets better until the end, where you are overcome with one of the most powerful and original endings ever.
I think IMDb readers have a very naive sense of what is a good movie ending: they hate Oldboy (which has been acclaimed by most critics) and rate the ending of The Shawshank Redemption as one of the best of all time ?!? In fact The Shawshank Redemption is the most PREDICTABLE movie of all time..
Anyway, if you don't mind being a little troubled (not that much though) and like strong and ORIGINAL movies, take a look for yourself, Oldboy is one of the greatest non-poetic Asian Movies I have seen.