Way Over-hyped

Rating: 6/10 (20 April 2007)

I thought this was possibly one of the stupidest, most melodramatic, over hyped movies ever recommended to me. First of all, I'll admit that I don't like the movie Se7en. If you DO like Se7en, then you may like Oldboy. However, I DO like David Fincher. In particular I like his use of still imagery, high contrasting colors, etc. This director borrowed a lot from that. I also like the scenes where the main character is stuck inside a prison for 15 years without explanation. However, when I learned at the end that he was put into the prison because an arch-rival of his wanted to go to an excruciating extent to seek revenge on him for what I thought was the most ridiculous reason, I was so ticked off. First of all, his arch rival dropped his sister off the bridge, okay? She could've lived, but he was being such a drama queen and decided to drop her off the bridge because she was being such a drama queen. And why was she being such a drama queen? Because the main character started a rumor that she slept with his arch-rival (that is, they had incest). So his arch rival killed his sister because he was being a drama queen because she was being a drama queen. And after he did that, he apparently thought it was worth sticking the main character into prison for 15 years and tricking him into sleeping with his daughter. How does the main character react when he finds this out? He apologizes in the most melodramatic way and proceeds to cut his tongue out. Uhmmm... he already slept with his daughter, I don't know why he felt it was worth getting his arch rival's apology so bad that he felt he had to cut his tongue out to get it. Also, they connect the main character eating a live squid with his arch rivals very well thought out plan to get him to sleep with his daughter. That was such a stupid attempt at trying to make everything have meaning within this movie. Why couldn't he have just felt like eating a live squid? I would've liked that better. I felt like the director just wanted to throw a lot of things that he felt were cool all together even though the main storyline is SO STUPID!!! And apparently people liked this SO MUCH that they're making a remake of this movie for the U.S. RARRRR!!! Well, now that I'm done venting my frustrations, I did like everything with the movie until they actually tried to make a pathetic excuse for a plot out of it. I wish there could've been a much better story as to why he was in prison for 15 years because that part was cool. But I just think the director was trying to do things because they were cool, not because it would actually be good when it was all put together. Editing is good. Production is good. Acting is good. I can't remember the music, lol. But I'm not interested in watching it again to critique it. Directing was good. Cinematography was good. But come up with a better plot please. For these reasons I think it deserves a 6/10. I think a less produced movie with more thought put into the storyline would've been WAY better. I'm already used to seeing Hollywood churn out overproduced movies. These things don't impress me.