Well that was different...

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2014)

Oldboy is a really interesting and messed up movie. You may need to be a right kind of person (or perhaps a wrong kind of person) to watch it. It is not going to be for everyone's tastes, which is all the more surprising just how well it has been received.
This film was really something else. Something I have not seen before.
The scenes in this movie catch you off guard, with your mental pants down. You think you are about to see something but then it surprises you ahead of time with a close up of something else. Your mind is hopelessly out-gunned. And there you sit, with your mouth open wondering what the next scene may bring next or what other camera angle they will invent. Just remember to breath in between the scenes. And it is awesome.
You may have seen graphic movies before, movies that pour gore and yelling all over you like a big electric saw. Oldboy is less like a saw and more like a scalpel or needle piercing the skin.
Having said that, Oldboy tries a bit too hard. It becomes obvious that it tries to shock you with a new image or thought or sick twist.
It goes a bit over the top in certain parts, sometimes breaking a mostly serious and realistic tone with a more extreme cartoony style, which is not surprising considering its manga roots.
Towards the end of the film, when some key things get revealed, the explanation is a bit contrived, deus-ex-machina-ish if you will. You have to buy into the movie wholly to buy what the story sells.
The music was very interesting and noticeable. There was a fight scene and you get a minimalistic track of a lonely trumpet and beats. And it totally works, making a scenes take on a wholly different tone than you would expect.
If you can stomach its style, Oldboy is a movie that needs to be seen once in a lifetime. It was a mind-bending experience.