A film about revenge and more

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 2004)

More or less summarizing what others have written and giving my own two cents. Minor ***SPOILERS*** therein.
If there ever was a movie about revenge, this is it. Forget about Kill Bill, which was partially released the same year. Kill Bill is a celebration of Tarantino's knowledge of martial arts and bullet ballet movies. It only depicts one form of revenge, which is extremely cold and over drawn. I liked Tarantino's two-part film, but I could never take it serious. This film here, Oldboy, on the other hand uses the complete spectra of revenge available and treats the subject presented and the characters with a lot of seriousness and therefore I can take this movie serious in turn.
A man gets locked away for 15 years for no apparent reason. What will he do after his release? Any resemblance of his former life is gone, only one thing keeps him going, revenge. This is where he story really starts and we will leave it at that. You will just have to watch the movie.
However, from the point of release on we get introduced and intimate with all sorts and forms of revenge, it is impossible not to get personally involved in this movie. Every cinematic style and tool is used to perfection to achieve this, to confront the viewer with the reality of living and breathing retaliation. The acting is admirable and believable; the main actors play their emotions well. Their motivations make sense and the red line and story pans out in a way, which makes the movie scarily realistic.
This brings me to the scary part of the movie. There are certain movies that I personally find quite fearsome as they provoke thoughts and considerations that can cost you a sleepless night. Oldboy is one of those movies, quite disturbing. The thoughts provoked haunted me for several days and revealing the consequences I arrived at, might spoil the watching and thinking fun (you are not watching the usual, keep the brain switched on during the movie!), so I leave everyone to come up with their own thoughts.
Overall Oldboy achieves something interesting, it combines the action and pace of your typical Hollywood blockbuster with the thoughtfulness of a European art house movie, which is why I can recommend this movie to nearly everyone. You will enjoy it, be entertained or at least have a lot to talk about. If you are squeamish you might consider watching some other movie, as this one here will disturb you without using some of the overly graphic imagery that other movies depict. However the violence used is quite realistic in terms of its application and effects, which might also disturb you slightly.
8.5 out of 10
Comparable movies and how I rate them: Payback 7.5 Kill Bill 8 Point Blank 7.5 Amadeus 8.5 Count of Monte Cristo 7