The modern Oedipus!

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2014)

There are few movies in my huge list that get a straight 10/10. This is certainly one of them. I can't stop watching my Blu-Ray, it's the kind of movie that makes you wonder for days and days! Chan-wook Park here directs the masterpiece of his career.
Beautifully shot, amazingly directed, clever, plotwise, has fantastic acting, it's different from everything you saw before. Some people might find it sick to watch, but it's like a train wreck, once you start watching, you just can't stop, no matter how much you want to turn your head. Yeah, it's that addicting. It gives you mixed feelings. You can think the protagonist as a sick twisted bastard but at the same time you root for him because of his confinement, what he came through, the things he lost in life.
This story, if you really stop for a moment to think of it, it's the modern take on the Oedipus tale. The kind of guy who apparently did nothing wrong but he comes to find out that his actions had a huger outcome than he initially thought. The kind of guy who thought he tricked his destiny, that he can take control of his destiny, but he was double-tricked first by a greater force of nature and in the end he becomes exactly what he mostly despised.
It's really deep. It's very wrong, yet very enjoyable, very twisted yet very delightful. And what makes it delightful is mainly the cast of characters here. Min-sik Choi shows himself an unbelievable actor here, having the ability to navigate from serious to cheesy, from hero to villain, from "normal" (whatever) to nutjob before you even think of blinking. Everything has a meaning, every action, every plot solution, even if you find it meaningless at first in the movie, leads to something and it'll keep you on the edge of your seat until the final showdown, and after that, your first action will be go back to the beginning and watch it again so you can pick up the fragments of the movie you thought it was something at first and re-watch them under a new light.
It's such a great experience with epic proportions that I strongly recommend every movie lover like me to take! Once you get on this train you won't want to leave!