2003 dramaRating: 10/20
Plot: Dae-su Oh, a married father of one, is minding his own drunken business one night when he is kidnapped and imprisoned. After fifteen excruciating years, he's freed. He meets a girl in a sushi restaurant, and together, they try to solve the mystery of who imprisoned him and why. Things are uncovered shockingly, and the protagonist shows off his carpentry skills.
Stupid and almost mind-numbingly dull, Oldboy ends up being one of those style-but-no-substance movies. I couldn't buy anything that was going on, didn't even care about the mystery, and found it nearly impossible to become emotionally invested. There's a twist of Crying Game proportions, but I was able to see the twist coming from 1/4 of a mile away and by then didn't care anyway. This nearly nudges against innovative at times, but then it takes its silly flashbacks, cardboard character types, the thumping techno soundtrack, and lame attempts at art-house surrealism and retreats back into cliche. It's all too bad. I was intrigued up until the point when he stuck a live octopus in his mouth. After that, the stupid grabbed hold.
Here I am wondering if I should see any more movies from Korea:
Note: I knew Roger Ebert had given this a four-star review because I saw it on the front of the dvd box. Seeing now that the imdb rating of 8.3 ranks this as the 114th best movie ever made, that it finished second behind that Fahrenheit 9/11 for the top prize at Cannes, and that it has an 82% at rottentomatoes makes me scratch my head. What the hell did I miss?
man, i thought this was pretty good, though i've given up numbers, including decimals and am retreating to the old thumbs up and thumbs down...thumbs up!
ReplyDeleteThis movie was really a mixed bag for me. I liked the central mystery and most of the action. It has a very charismatic bad guy, and I really liked the flashback sequences. What I didn't buy were the extended hallway fight scene and how over the top and unlikeable the hero was in the begging scene. I hated the whole tongue thing but did like how even after so many years, he basically was the same man who maniacally bounced between threats and self-abasement
ReplyDeleteOn the whole, I thought "Oldboy" was interesting and shot with great energy and style, but to a small degree was too much style over substance. I think you are a little wrong, but this doesn't deserve prizes, either. A 15.
You and winter rates are so silly!
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