Lives up to the legend

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2007)

(Written December 2006)
So this is the revered Korean film Oldboy, the legendary underground film everyone talks about. I've heard some really bad reviews of this one recently, as I looked into it at IMDb. Saying it was violent, sexual, etc, and that it was just a sex/gore flick and nothing else. It turns out that this movie is very violent and very sexual, and like most underrated movies like this one...it is very good despite its content.
The plot is very intriguing---a man, Oh Dae-su (who's name means "Gets through the day"), kidnapped off the street and locked in a prison cell with a locked door and no windows for 15 years, and then finally released, given new clothes, a cell phone, and a wallet. His mission is to find out why he was imprisoned, and with newfound fighting skills gained in his 15 years of spare time, he plans to do exactly that. He meets a young woman named Mi-do, who is very attracted to him, and she ends up dragged into the twisted revenge plot. It all comes down to a shocking, violent conclusion.
I'd say this is about as good as all the good reviews make it seem. It's compelling, dark, twisted, and gory, carrying with it a strong lesson of what a lust for revenge will do to a man. Oh Dae-su was a sleazy, gossiping fool who let his mouth get the best of him, and it got him into a huge mess. He became a cold, bloodthirsty killing machine after 15 years in solitude, completely changed from the goofy young man he had been before. This is a film about revenge, showing us the consequences for lusting after 'justice' or 'revenge. A very brutal, stripped down view of human emotions. Oh Dae-su is driven by revenge, and as a result, ends up even worse off then he was inside his prison.
People always hate on movies like this for violence or sexual themes, two things of which this movie, Oldboy, has quite a lot of. They insist that said movie is a 'gorefest' or a 'porno' without really looking any deeper into it. This film has sex and violence, yes, but it incorporates those themes into the plot, instead of wrapping a thin plot around the sex or the fight scenes. The incest is a touchy subject, but it's used as a plot point, not for sick fetishes. If you judge the movie based on this then you're missing out. This movie does not glorify incest or the numerous acts of violence Oh Dae-su commits throughout the film's 2 hour duration. Oh Dae-su is a tormented character; this is especially seen in his line "After my revenge---will I be able to be Oh Dae-su again?" He's not evil and he's not enjoying the things he's doing---he wants to be his old self again! Not to mention the schizophrenic tendencies he gained in those 15 years alone. Oh Dae-su is not a hero, just a man who wants his peace of mind, and his revenge. You don't have to sympathize with him if you don't want to, that's not what the movie strives for. People who write this off as a gorefest or a sexfilm are not seeing the true essence of the film.
The acting is good all around, especially by Choi Min-sik, who played Oh Dae-su. Very emotive, very angry, and a very powerful and convincing actor. Marvellous. Kang Hye Jeong and Yu Ji-tae did very well as Mi-do and Lee Woo-jin respetively.
This movie is almost worth the price of admission for the great, driving, epic action scenes. That hallway scene...kickass...not to leave out the final, crushing fight between Dae-su and the silver haired bodyguard atop the tower. This isn't really an action movie, yet it has some pure action movies beat for real action. While far and between, the fight scenes here completely kill.
Now as to why I didn't give this great film a perfect 10. It's good, and the director is certainly amazing. But this movie could've been cut short...it runs on for a very long time and instead of plodding ahead at a slow pace, some scenes fly by you at rocket speed before you know what happened. It left me feeling very confused at some points. Namely the scene before Oh Dae-su enters the prisonhouse, after he left Mi-do behind at first...I had to rewind it to see what I had missed, but even that didn't help. Still a bit fuzzy. I find that the numerous amount of different scenes was a problem also, some of them lacked memorability. The ending, too---I couldn't help but feel let down at the reason why the whole revenge plot was enacted. It was...anti-climactic, to say the least...not a very powerful or cohesive ending to such an otherwise great film.
This movie is very good, despite any shortcomings, and I'll be checking out the director's other two movies very soon. Highly recommended to those who have strong stomachs and love a good mystery/thriller movie.