First of all, why the 2008-scheduled remake? Why?!

Rating: 7/10 (30 November 2006)

I try not to hate the idea of remaking films, especially since it does not detract anything from the legacy of the original film  but remaking 'Oldboy' strikes me as a puzzling move by Hollywood. The film is not good enough to merit a rehash and it is not bad enough to merit 'let's do better than this' jabs.
Chan-wook Park's notoriously violent revenge-movie proved a polarizing force upon release. On the one hand, it received the Palme D'or in Cannes 2004 and was crowned 'best movie of the year' by many teenage boys while on the other hand, audiences panned it for its weak pay-off. I am hesitant to join either camp, although I must say there are many things about Oldboy that jump out and grab you: the squid-eating scene, the pensive flashbacks, the gruesome torture scenes and the twist ending.
Yet the story is Oldboy's primary export and its mysterious unfolding keeps you on the edge of your seat. Ladiesman Dae-su Oh (Min-sik Choi) is suddenly kidnapped one day and jailed in a seedy hotel-room like compartment  for fifteen years. There is a bed, a desk, a bathroom cubicle and a TV, the latter acting as the only refuge for Dae-su. Here the film offers an unflinching look at how insanity sweeps across the tiny cell and into the lonely mind of our protagonist, who screams, beats his fists bloody into the wall and watches yet more TV. His narration to us keeps him sane, and keeps us up to date on how his thoughts are racing. Does someone have it in for him? Is this an elaborate experiment? Is revenge more important than the truth? All questions and no answers. "You can't find the right answer," his jailer tells him when the spell of isolation is broken, "...if you ask the wrong questions."
When one day Dae-su Oh is inexplicably released by his unknown jailers, he naturally pends between anguish, rage and befuddlement with violent fits. Oldboy plunges into thoughts of vengeance that snap and crackle like kindling in a fireplace and director Chan-wook Park becomes ambitious, steering his film onto different paths. He uses a broad spectrum of emotion, action, mystery and suspense to accompany the dizzying story and also blends in some dark humour with deft, creative writing strokes. In other words, Oldboy cannot quite decide what it wants to be. With a seemingly extra-template love storyline courtesy of the young girl Mi-do who takes the maladapted Dae-su Oh in, it boldly defies categorization, tipping over into romance territory. Mi-do inhabits a crucial role in the story of 'Oldboy', but this only becomes apparent in the end and in the rest of the film she feels like a redundant, one-dimensional and stereotypical love interest inclusion. Apparently Hollywood is not alone in crafting characters like this.
Nevertheless, I like the look of the film and I like the grainy image it projects. The vast majority of Oldboy is filtered through a grayish kaleidoscope but its marginal fantasy segments and flashbacks are splashed with warm colours and dreamy cinematography, which creates an attention-grabbing juxtaposition. Yet it needs to be said that these segments, clearly aimed to offer insight into the clouded past of our protagonist, are counterproductive. In fact they shed little light and instead befuddle you further by branching out into new story lines, raising new questionsLost style. When they final pay-off is revealed, having sewn the segments together, you just want to stop the film and rewind it, hoping to catch some of the promising mystery it built up only to puncture by an absurd story in the end. It's 'The Village' of Asian cinema but luckily some detours, diversions, twists and turns prove interesting as it progresses.
An interesting and absorbing film it is, but a #122 position in the IMDb top 250 it does not deserve. Violence-buffs will find great stimuli in the gruesome torture scenes and overall Oldboy is bathed in a gritty atmosphere, laden with unflinching violence and stylized martial arts showdowns. Couple this with the patience with which it crafts its story up until the culmination and you have a revenge-film that is not only watchable, but genuinely entertaining.
7 out of 10