Oldboy
Joe Nguyen, staff writer
April 8, 2005

Synopsis
One day in 1988, an ordinary man named Oh Dae-su, who lives with his wife and an adorable baby daughter, is kidnapped right in front of his house. He later wakes up to find himself in a private makeshift prison. After 15 long years, he is released back into the world. With the clothes on his back and a wallet full of cash, he searches for answers as to why he was imprisoned.

Review
About a year ago, I came across a Korean movie called "Oldboy" while I was looking through IMDB’s top 250 films list. Intrigued, I read up on the film. It was an action thriller that was also based off a manga. I was sold, I had to see this movie.

Min-sik Choi in "Oldboy"

This was really a fun movie. Watching Oh-Daesu figure out piece-by-piece who and, more importantly, why someone would do this to him was enjoyable. Every twist, every turn, just left me feeling in awe of the elaborate nature of the game he was playing.

I loved the humor in this movie. It was dark, twisted and fairly subtle. Right after Oh-Daesu is released from his imprisonment, he tells his story to a man who’s about to commit suicide. When he finished, he gets and leaves as the man tries to start on his own personal story. It’s just funny watching as he looks up and notices Oh-Daesu walking away.

Granted, I didn’t feel that it was quite as good as everyone had hyped it up to be. It had some slow moments that seemed to drag on and took me out of the movie, but was it a still a very good movie? Yes.

Dark, stylish and twisted, "Oldboy" is destined to become a cult classic. If you like mysteries and don’t mind excessive violence, you’ll like this.

Joe gives "Oldboy":

Joe Nguyen is a staff writer for asiaXpress.com. You can reach Joe at joe@asiaxpress.com.

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