Review of Oldboy (2003) by Curtis L — 22 Sep 2018

I watched this movie with an open mind and fully immersed myself into the extraordinary work of the director. Oh Boy was I blown away, no pun intended. Overall the film made me rethink a lot about life and humanity, limitations, breaking points. Can you really teach old dog new tricks? the answer is yes.

The pace of the film was spot on always keeping you guessing and trying to fill the bigger picture based on the theme of greek tragedy, When you ultimately invest that much emotion and attention to the film the amount of time he spent in the hotel prison, one cannot deny that every aspect of the trauma had been covered to only realize that it has been a long time coming in the antagonist's plot for vengeance.

I loved how sophisticated the main antagonist is in his elaborate plan to emotionally break a human being down and put him in the exact spot as his incest relationship with the sister. What do you do? When you feel helpless and lost, being at the short end of the rope? You can only beg for mercy or as poetic as it might have been that Oh Dae Su talked too much and his final act was to slice off his own tongue, Bravo to the director on implying and taking us one full circle.

The moment when he was having the alleged last phone call to his daughter I literally was in tears and even more so for the antagonist of which a regular audience would just label him as insane, but did you stop to realize it is actually out of pure genius that is why he became so successful and smart, to the extent of breaking the wall of incest and fell madly in love with his sister. To make things worst she also felt a sense of pride and power over their forbidden love. Because back in earlier times incest was a common thing, just look at Game oF Thrones.

The fight scene was so beautifully choreographed that by filming it in one scene literally made me hold my breath for him as you see everyone in the scene slowly wear down with fatigue; Pure Film making artistry right there. Point of view angles make you feel like you are in the situation undertaking the holistic approach to the enactment of the scene.

In all honesty, I would not even bother watching the US version remake of this masterpiece because I know that they would just spoil the movie and what it stood for.

So there you go, me writing was not of pure coincidence but fate. If you watch the show properly you would understand what I meant. Just like how Oh Dae Su met Mido, calculating every response and actions that were to follow. So with that I leave it in your hands to appreciate this work of pure art.

Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.