7. Oldboy
Oldboy is magnificent, and if you haven't seen it, I suggest you stop what you're doing and remedy that right now. I'm serious if you've got a strong stomach, don't mind subtitles and like your films daring and edgy, it's right up your street. Go on, go and see it I'll wait. Done now? Good. Well, not good, because you've just been b*tchslapped with the fact that Oh Dae-su had sex with his daughter Mi-do, and has taken the controversial step to have that knowledge hynoptised out of him so he can continue with his life, and most likely his screwed-up relationship. Yet still, you can't have your disturbing cake and eat it, and Oldboy attempts to throw ambiguity into the mix with the last shot of the film where the newly-blanked Oh Dae-su embraces the oblivious Mi-do, who, clearly still in love, embraces him. Then we cut to our protagonist's face and see it's in a strange contortion between happiness and tears, leading people to wonder whether he's managed to elude his hypnosis and remember what a horrible thing he's doing, or if it's just a look of confused elation. However, I put it to you that the face is clearly one of horror. It's so incongruous to any other face you'd pull in a regular situation that it must be a result of neural programming, implying that the hypnotist has left another cue in there as Lee Woo-jin's final act of vengeance. Yet how do I know she's sabotaged him again, on behalf of her deceased paymaster? Well it's simple really just because he's dead, it doesn't mean his money's gone, and he's been so meticulous about structuring Oh Dae-su's life thus far that to let him get away in any way would seem utterly out of character. Also, it explains why the hypnotist a woman previously content to force incest and complicit in life-ruining imprisonment performed such an out-of-character volte-face. Plus and most convincingly she's just too good at her job to be undone by negligence of half-assery. Again, if she can make a father and daughter do the horizontal tango through the cue of a mobile phone, I'm willing to bet her work's not going to be scuppered at the first hurdle. No, it's more likely that she put in a cue to break Oh Dae-su all over again for the sake of vengeance, thus confirming the theme of Park Chan-wook's trilogy.