Review of Oldboy (2003) by Ahmedaiman9999 — 28 Aug 2018

Amélie's quirkiness, Tarantino's violence and gore, interesting characters, intriguing plot, profound philosophical questions, and insanely cool action sequences made this gut-wrenching revenge tale the most gripping, entertaining, and enthralling movie of its kind, except it's actually one of a kind!

Amid the gruesome scenes, and the brutal fight sequences, Oldboy has a very emotionally devastating story. Chan-wook Park could have easily leaned on nothing but the action and the gore to grab the viewers' attention from the beginning. Instead, he knew that if there is anything that can attract the attention of the audience, and make them invested in the protagonist as fast as possible, it would be a thoughtful moral philosophy mingled with a sentimental story. That's how Chan-wook Park captivated the viewers from the opening scene until he evoked a catharsis in the audience at the traumatic third act.

Flawless is a very weak, and unsatisfying word to describe the third act. It's simply look like nothing you've seen before, or even you'll see. With its twist reveal, to the outrageous and shocking visceral images, the third act is provocative, distressful, and utterly maddening. But nothing would have worked in it, and in the entire movie as a whole without Min-sik Choi's kinetic multi-layered performance.

The fact that this movie didn't get a single Oscar nod, at least for Min-sik Choi's incredible performance, is as infuriating as the movie itself. For me, Min-sik Choi delivered one of the best performances in the past decade. Yes, I would easily put his performance alongside Adrien Brody's in The Pianist, Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator, Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, and Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. But all that thanks to Chan-wook Park who allowed Min-sik Choi to show all his talent challenging him, and his pathetic, Dae-su Oh.

What is truly impressive is how Chan-wook Park put us in Dae-su Oh's shoes by changing the tone, so gracefully, to resemble how the protagonist feels. The movie starts off with flashes of dark humor matching how mazed and lost the character feels. Then, when things become more clearer and clearer the tone becomes darker and darker till the climax when the movie became acutely distressing and dreary.

Nevertheless, these tonal changes didn't work very well at the second act. Not because the tonal shift wasn't smooth, nor it came abruptly, but because that was the time when our protagonist, as well as us, discovering clues, and collecting pieces to get the whole picture. The whole act was very convoluted, for better or worse, but the thing is that the pacing was madly rushed resembling Dae-su Oh's confusion and ignorance. Not to mention, there were some sequences where we get to know about some very important characters, and some specifics related to them. Adding insult to injury, some of these details could be passed up, because they are simply not that important. The result is that the movie almost lost me a couple of times. I mean that I really lose track of some small details.

Oldeuboi is a very powerful, thought-provoking, and visceral film, and that's because what it implies more than what it depicts. I think it's the first Korean film I watch, and it definitely won't be the last. Just help me with some recommendations, if you wouldn't mind! :).

(8.