Oldboy
so, tonight I snaked my way to the naro theater to catch the much talked about "Oldboy", a south korean film by director chan wook park. i had heard alot about a "hammer" used as a violent instrument of dentistry, and what can i say...i was intrigued.
summing up the story spoiler-free will be pretty easy. a man has one too many during the course of the evening and when he awakes, finds himself imprisoned in a room. he is fed through a small opening in the door and his only companionship is the TV, where he learns that his wife has been murdered and he is the suspect. fifteen years pass before he is released, and he sets out to find his daughter and clear his name, but first...he has to get revenge...and to get revenge, he has to find out the who's and why's.
being a revenge flick, there is plenty of action and plenty of violence. one scene in particular stands out: our hero finds himself trapped in a hallway with thirty to forty bad guys standing in his way. armed with only a hammer, he dutifully takes them on in one, long, uncut tracking shot. and its brilliant. unraveling the mystery is alot of fun too, and when all is revealed, its pretty shocking...or, it would've been if it hadnt figured it out (to a certain extent) earlier on. but there are a few other sub-plot twists that take place and before all is said and done, I was left thoroughly satisfied. what can i say, im a sucker for ultra violence and plot contrivances.
"Oldboy" stars Min-sik Choi as the hero, and Ji-tae Yu as the baddie and both are very impressive. particularly Ji-tea Yu's villain. there are a number of scenes that are after-movie-coffee-shop-conversation worthy, and yet...its still not as good as advertised. there are a few scenes that didnt seem necessary and pacing seemed to be a problem a number of times. but with that having been said, its still more than worthy of your time and money and could be seen as a jumping off point to the more violent and gory films of the likes of Takashii Miike.
3.5 stars outta 5