Oldboy

Have you ever watched a movie and thought to yourself, when it was over, that you'd just seen one of the strangest things you've ever seen and you're not really sure if you like it or not? Well, I just had that experience with the Japanese movie, Oldboy!



Oldboy is the story of Oh Dae-su, when we first meet him, he's just another drunk office man out annoying people in public. Oh Dae-su blacks out and when he regains consciousness, he finds that he's been imprisoned in a small room, but why? He remains a captive for fifteen years, without knowing why he's imprisoned or who's imprisoning him, then, as suddenly as he's found himself there, he's out! And, now, he's got five days to find out who imprisoned him and why. Oh Dae-su is now fed clues as to who did this to him and why, but just enough to keep him on the trail of his revenge. He meets and falls in love with a restaurant worker, Mi-do, and is told that anyone he falls in love with will be killed...for the rest of his life. This only strengthens Oh Dae-su's resolve to solve the mystery and have his revenge!

Oldboy is a mystery, within a mystery, within a mystery. But don't worry, all is revealed in the end, it's not a very savory resolution, but it's resolved nonetheless. While, ultimately, Oldboy is a tale of revenge, the question it asks is, is revenge worth it and to what lengths would you go for revenge? Oldboy is one of the strangest movies I've seen in ages, with stories within stories and twists and you don't see coming, and there's an incest plot thread that will blow your mind! Over all, I'm giving Oldboy three and a half out of four cigars,

because, while it's a good movie, it starts off a bit slowly and just felt a little bit long to me. The story is great, the look of the movie is fantastic and it's a beautifully told tale, but I think it might have been paced a bit faster. So, until next time, when I'll dig to the bottom of the DVD barrel once again, remember that the best movies are bad movies!