"Brilliant Performance and Direction"

Rating: 9/10 (14 September 2005)

Old Boy Dae-Su Oh gets imprisoned for 15 years not knowing why, every so often music will play and gas will enter the room, knocking him out. Every time he awakens hair cut, shaved and the room have been cleaned. Upon his release he has 5 days to find out why in the first place and by whom his captors were.
This is the second film by Park in series of revenge films. After seeing this film, I am very eager to view Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and the upcoming third installment. Park shows his talent in this film as he shows us a beautifully choreographed corridor fight scene, with no cuts. The camera simply pans back and forth through the action and the fights scenes aren't those one guy takes on ten with high flying action, it's real, it's grounded and he still takes on ten guys.
Min-sik Choi gives one of the best performances I've seen in awhile and the bad guy, although not as dynamic as Choi, holds up well as well. The other supporting cast are able to portray real emotions and make the whole movie work and come all together in the performances. In the climax of the film, Choi gives not only a brilliant performance, but a weird one, that will have you either in tears of sorrow, or laughter. It's great seeing him try to adapt to the world, after being imprisoned for 15 years, like what he would do if he were to see a woman.
The film is violent, not in a killing way, because most of the deaths are taken place off-screen. The violence comes from torture scenes, you know, where a guy takes a hammer and takes out the guys teeth...ouch. There is a plot twist, and it is a big one. I was shocked and it stuck with me for ten or so minutes, the twist is controversial, which may put off a lot of American audiences, but I believe it makes the film what it is.
You feel sorrow for the main character, and even the bad guy, but can't really grasp this emotion until the climax of the film, a little late if you ask me, but the emotion that that scene brings out is in top form. It's a scene that goes down in history as disturbing, heart-wrenching, violent, suspenseful, funny, shocking...all in one.
So what can I say about this film, well, it's one to watch, maybe more then once, because it could be difficult for some to grasp at first, or even if you do, may be hard to actually "believe". Aside from that, this film is a treat for the eyes as one of the best revenge films to grace the screen.