Feel Good Movie of 2003

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2016)

Sometimes a film leaves you with that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. It's a feeling of fulfillment and completion. A feeling that everything will work out and everyone is okay Oldboy is NOT one of those films.
Drunken buffoon Dae-su (Choi) is mysteriously kidnapped and inexplicably held prisoner for fifteen years by men he never sees. He is left only to watch the same television and eat the same dumplings every day. When he is just as inexplicably released back into a world that is now completely alien to him, his only mission becomes finding the man who imprisoned him, by any means necessary.
The twists and turns Dae-su's journey takes him down are jaw- droppingly outside the box, leaving the audience only to wonder whether Park is a thematic genius or completely insane nihilist. Based on an equally messed up graphic novel by Nobuaki Minegishi, Oldboy has become one of the best thrillers of all time, capped by one of the best blindsides that has ever been thrown at unsuspecting viewers.
Spike Lee attempted an American remake in 2013 starring Josh Brolin, which isn't entirely terrible in and of itself, but it's hard to match the intensity put forward by Park. If you haven't seen this film, don't ruin it by reading into it too much. Just turn the lights down, turn the flick on and begin to feel incredibly uncomfortable by the fact that at any moment someone out there could be plotting to absolutely destroy your life for no reason.