41.
Oldboy (2003) -
Chan-wook ParkAfter being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in 5 days. I'm far from being an expert on Korean cinema and I'm a little ashamed to admit that I have only seen the more well known movies that have made it to the Western world with big acclaim. Oldboy was one of the first Korean movies I had ever seen, and I have to admit, it fucked with my mind. I love movies that allow me to re-visit them because they are so interesting in subject matter and pure entertainment. Oldboy did that for me, I think I've watched it four or five times in the 2 years since I first saw the movie, it's borderline obsessive. Oldboy shows us how thrillers can and
should be made. It's as if Park has the script of any convential cookie-cutter thriller and completely torn it up, daring to do something different with a failing genre, something that could only be achieved outside of the hollywood system. The ending has been much talked about in critic circles, but it doesn't work just for it's shock value, but because the tone of the film becomes completely clear. The movie is about revenge, and the question of whether it is truly worth the sacrifices you have made to get it. Can finding your revenge, ever truly make you happy? These questions are all asked, but never answered for you by the film. The scene in the middle of the movie involving the hammer fight alone is breathtaking stuff, and although I always thought it was a bit out of place in the film, it is one hell of a damn cool scene. Oldboy showed me the light to what movies from Asia could do and that Hollywood is streets behind what that country is producing year in year out. I know not every movie from Asia is like Oldboy, but the ten or so I have seen in two years have been great, and if I had more money (they are damn expensive to buy over here) then I might have seen more. To everyone I have shown Oldboy too, they have loved it and to me the name and aura of the film has almost become bigger than the movie itself. It stands for a whole nation's cinema, and is the benchmark for what Hollywood can't achieve.