I had mixed feelings on this one.

Rating: 5/10 (14 April 2010)

First off, I'm going to confess to seeing the dubbed version and advise anyone wanting to see this movie to try and see the subtitled version. That version wasn't available to me at the time, and I think I would've liked this movie a lot more if it had been, because as it stands, I wasn't that impressed, and I struggled to get through it all. Which is a shame, because it looked like some of the performances were really good. I don't even know why they dub movies these days. It should be against the law or something. I digress.
This movie is definitely different, and the benefit of foreign films is that you're almost always going to get something stylistically that's a little different from American films. And from that angle, this was an interesting movie. It's also very cringe inducing and not necessarily meant for the squeamish, but the violence is there for a reason and not entirely unjustified, which is good.
The story follows a middle aged guy named Oh-dae-su. Oh-dae-su isn't a bad guy, but he has a knack for trouble and does things like getting drunk and missing his daughter's birthday, so he's not an admirable fellow either, but that's kinda what makes him interesting. Unexpectedly, he gets kidnapped and held prisoner in what looks like a hotel room, except there is an iron door locking him in, and in this room he stays for 15 years until one day he is unexpectedly released. He comes out a changed man, and the rest of the film deals with him seeking revenge on his captors and finding out why he was imprisoned.
I was somewhat disappointed, because in the beginning of the film, I was expecting something along the lines of an introspective look at the human condition, and it turned into more of a regular action thriller with choreographed fight sequences and a diabolical plot that aims pretty close to the heart, but is completely far fetched. And contrary to some reviews I've read on this film, I actually found the ending to be slightly predictable. I just couldn't entirely buy into the story.
Overall it's pretty well directed but at times in-cohesive with scene changes that give little explanation as to where we are or what's even going on. Perhaps it was intentional to allow the viewer to relate more to the main character's bizarre set of circumstances, but the way the shots are assembled, it feels like the movie was either rushed or uncompleted.
And despite good performances all around, some of the casting decisions made no sense to me. For example, one of the major characters is played by an actor who looks about 15 or 20 years too young for his particular role, based on the information we're given about his character. Not a major gripe, but it irritated me throughout the film, and made the movie slightly harder to follow, but not in an intended way.
Again, I know I would've liked it more with subtitles, and I may go back and watch the subtitled version at some point for a re-evaluation, but the movie didn't really leave enough of an impression on me to do it any time soon.