Oldboy

Caution: This Might Contain Spoilers!

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This film is based off the second installment to the manga series Old Boy written by Nobuaki Minegishi. This film follows the story of Dae-su Oh. He was mysteriously taken and held captive in room for fifteen years. He is set free, and wakes up on roof. After telling his story to a stranger, he sets out for vengeance on the men who were hired to hold him captive, and on the man who paid to have him captured. He also meets Mi-do, and wonders if he can trust his feelings of love. 

"Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone." This Korean film is the second installment to The Vengeance Trilogy, and is the most successful. It is also the only film based off a mange series. This film was directed by Chan-wook Park. Now, okay I'm gonna be honest; this film has flaws with brilliance. A hard thing to accomplish. The film is meant to be a thriller. It uses dramatic tension, and simple fighting, to accomplish it thrills. This makes it different many other Hollywood made thrillers that rely mostly on action. The story is great-even if its a bit... strange and unsettling. What kills some of the story, mostly in the beginning, is the over the top acting and sometime cheesy cinematography. The over the top acting works great for the ending, but it ruined the opening sequence. The opening sequence was made to add some dark humour to the film, but really made the film just appear campy and strange. The cool thing is that the story focuses on what happens after revenge more than the act of revenge itself. Needless to say, this film is not intended for all audiences. Its more of a cult gathering kind of film. It also isn't for sensitive audiences. Now, this film used very limited computer animation. This proved to be a really good idea because it made the film appear more realistic. The small amount of fighting that was featured in the film was fairly well done. It fit with the story. The experimental camera angels for the fighting sequences gave a surreal element to the realism which worked really well. It is also amazing to see how many uses a hammer has. This film also borders on horror in its two major gross out sequences, and it very shocking ending. One of the sequences is the eating of a live squid (the actor really ate blessed squids for this film). (Surprising that animal activists didn't protest this.) The other has become moderately infamous; Dae-sun Oh cutting out his tongue. I think these two sequences, and the dramatic tension really gave horror and thriller audiences something to enjoy. 

The acting was over the top, but it managed to work for the film's ending. Min-sik Choi played the leading role of Dae-sun Oh. He really went over the top with his character. A lot of the time he looked like a creep old guy. However, the creepy old guy gave his character an unnerving feel. Hye-jeong Kang played the role of Mi-do. Okay, her voice was the usual high pitched voice of most animated asian cartoon girls, which does get annoying sometimes. Her character is kept moderately limited to being Dae-sun's... um lover. Ji-tae Yu played the role of Woo-jin Lee. He was a great villain in this film. He wasn't over the top at all. At first he appears as a sympathetic character who is strange, but during the ending shows how twisted he is. Dal-su Oh played the role of Park Cheol-woong. He was good in his limited role. He was the go-between villain so to speak. He was hired to hold Dae-sun captive for fifteen years. His character added some additional dark humour to the film.

Okay, I give this film a 4 out of 5. It began poorly, but it really pulled it together for the ending. The film carries audiences on an unnerving unpredictable ride. It's not for all audiences though.

Answer to last blog post: Actors Mads Mikkelsen, Ray Stevenson, and Til Schweiger were all featured in the film King Arthur, as well as The Three Musketeers in 2011.

Que: What other film is feature in The Vengeance Trilogy collection?

Anakiseuteu Anarchists
I Saw the Devil
Natural City
Lady Vengeance