Review of Oldboy (2003) by Sam C — 27 Nov 2013

Chan-wook Park's Oldboy is without a doubt the best foreign film I have seen and is also one of the best films I have ever seen. Everything in this movie is just incredible; from the writing to the directing to the acting, it's all just wonderfully done.

One of the things that I loved about this movie is that it's a phenomenal character study on a man that is hell bent on revenge and determined to find the truth of why he was imprisoned for fifteen years.

Throughout the story you see the character Oh Dae-su go through so much and because of these events he goes through some tremendous changes. This character goes from being a drunk to something else entirely other the course of fifteen years and it is just incredible to watch.

I also really loved how original the story was because it is like nothing I have ever seen before. The story is so dark and disturbing, but I was so riveted by it. There is only one movie that I could say is similar to this film just because of the ending, but I'd rather not say it just to avoid spoilers.

Like I was saying, the story for this movie is just fantastic because it takes you on a journey. I never knew what was going to happen next and I loved that; I didn't even see the big twist coming which really shocked me.

Director Chan-wook Park does a extraordinary job directing this film. The way he set up his shots just amazed me, especially the hallway scene that everyone talks about after seeing this movie. This film is also beautifully shot, edited, and scored.

As far as acting goes, I can't tell if foreign actors are giving a good performance because I don't speak their language so I cant tell if their dialogue delivery is good, but from what I could see everyone gave a great performance.

The two standouts here are Min-sik Choi and Ji-tae Yu. Choi does an excellent job at portraying the many changes of the main character, Oh Dae-suh, and Yu gives a terrific performance as the film's villain.

In the end, Oldboy is not a film for everyone but is a film that I fell in love with because of well made it was. If your into foreign movies or revenge stories then definitely check this one out.