Film Summary CDLXX (Oldboy)


It's time to voice an opinion that similar to just about everyone else's. Oldboy is really good. Like
Choi Min-sik as an actor is absolutely fantastic. Everyone in this movie does a really good job but especially Min-sik. The amount of emotion he goes through is beyond comprehensible. 
This man should win some Oscars. 
Never mind that it's a Korean film and I'm not even sure if the Oscars deal with foreign movies or the fact that Oscars are a really stupid award only given out by a company Administration that the rest of us have decided is artificially important for some reason.
They should just throw those stupid golden men at this movie anyways. Give him any of the awards who cares which one. Best screenplay, best film, best animated feature. Whatever. Just throw it in here and give them the recognition they deserve.

This is one of those unique movies where you can sit down and try and analyse the entire story. 
See where certain plot points begin and end and to discover crucial elements of the story that you might be able to piece together before the ending even comes about. Or you can just sit back and watch as the incredibly bizarre adventure unfolds in front of you. 
Paying attention to nothing more than visual cues and taking in the film on a purely visual level. It's good enough that you can enjoy it either way. 

I wish somebody like John Cassavetes could have been alive to see a movie like this. Than he could have actually understood that you can be a creative person who makes an incredibly well thought-out provocative film that's  still entertaining to a general audience.

I went into this movie expecting a lot more action. I was kind of built up on the premise that this was nothing but a Kung Fu flick that had the occasional dramatic moment. 
But luckily I was proven really wrong and I'm actually quite happy about it because the dramatic tension between everybody in this film is so much more entertaining than the action scenes themselves. And that's saying a heck of a lot, giving that the action in this film is among some of the best you'll ever see.
It's a darn good movie with an interesting message, fantastic cinematography and a brutal atmosphere. It's violent enough that you'll be squeamish at some of the more outrageous scenes. But not so violent that it devolves into torture porn.

I don't know if this movie condemns pork dumplings or if it promotes them. Those little grease balls of bread look kind of disgusting throughout the film and are associated with a really negative experience. 
But at the same time each dish at the restaurant is introduced in such a captivating way that I just want to eat them all. 

The golden cherry on top of this cake would have to be the awkward relationship between Min-sik and Hye-jeong Kang characters. 
They totally don't work with each other and yet you're kind of captivated by their awkward relationship. Which becomes all the more fascinating as the film goes on. Oh and there's that weird scene where Min-sik eats an octopus.

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