Monday, November 15, 2010

OLDBOY (Korean) (2003)

A man is imprisoned for 15 years without any explanation and released without any explanation. He must find his kidnapper within five days. It’s a film which kept hiding ‘Why’ so tactfully and convincingly to give it a ‘cult’ status. Its action, drama and a psychological thriller that takes us to oedipal taboos, blind destiny, and hypnotism all coiled into a larger than life revenge material that brought the Korean cinema to take serious notice.

Despite the screen filled with gross torture and brutally violent images it serves innovative action sequences, camera work and packs vengeance mystery like never before. Min-Sik-Choi performed extraordinarily as hapless victim Dae-Su, a man turned into monster who vows to take revenge and later desperately begging like a dog. There are scenes which punctured your brain like eating live squid, pulling teeth, a man fighting goons with stabbed back all with stylistic knockdown.

After winning the Grand Prize of Jury at Cannes Film Festival in 2004, Director Park Chan-Wook stunned the audience by thanking the cast and crew and then thanking the four squids who gave up their lives for the vivid sushi bar scene.

Ratings-8.5/10

1 comment:

Luv said...

one of the most stylish movies. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

I even liked Zinda for that matter.