Interesting mix of influence and new cinema

Rating: 10/10 (2 December 2005)

After a night of drinking, a man is imprisoned by some unknown people and left there for 15 years until he's let out. After a while trying to readjust to society and figure out what's happened, he is given 5 days to wreak vengeance upon whoever took his life away from him. Unfortunately, the progress is being watched by a less than benevolent spectator.
What's interesting about this film is it's influences. It's based loosely around The Count of Monte Cristo, takes a lot of Shakespearian and Biblical elements, throws in typical Asian kung fu, and then puts it into a very modern stylistic context in terms of cinema. The best part about this movie's style is that it never actually feels overdone and it actually seems to make sense... a shot isn't canted just to be weird, it's more subtle than that, even if the tone itself bleeds the idea of style.
Honestly, I was taken simply by a single shot, a long take where the camera tracks along a hallway as the main character fights off a large group of people. It straddles the line between realism and romance and creates a destructive ballet of choreography and motion that is downright beautiful in a somewhat horrible way. Then setting it into the context it has to a rather well done and structured story really helps this movie have a profound effect on the viewer. Just don't expect to be coming out of this feeling very happy, as it gets a bit disturbing at the end.
It may have overdone the ending, but I don't care. The weird mix of hypnosis and not-hypnosis kind of constricted the story. It is interesting to note that this film is of a new group of films out there that a few people call Asian Extreme Cinema, and I've seen two other films from this neo-genre that involve heavy use of violence and hypnosis themes (and men cutting their own tongues out). Why do these images seem to tie this genre together? What is it about hypnosis, specifically, that creates an anxious desire in these filmmakers for broken vigilantes? --PolarisDiB