You can't talk about the modern action movie, or the rising prominence of South Korean cinema, without mentioning Park Chan-wook and Oldboy. At turns entertaining, confusing, and by the end, deeply disturbing, Oldboy is the kind of movie that if someone lent you on DVD, you should keep forever. I'm not one to advocate theft, but Oldboy really is just that good. Now stop questioning the moral ambiguity of this review, and watch it for yourself.
Oldboy caused a love-it-or-hate-it stir at Cannes last year, and how could it not: It's an onslaught made to cause a sensation. Consider me simultaneously jolted and depressed.
Whatever its oversteps and excesses (I do think Park ran a little amok with the computer gimcrackery), Oldboy has the bulldozing nerve and full-blooded passion of a classic.
The result is a powerfully visceral experience that justifies itself almost entirely on surface chops, with striking color composition and a complex sound design that elevates the story to an operatic scale.
WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING?
You can't talk about the modern action movie, or the rising prominence of South Korean cinema, without mentioning Park Chan-wook and Oldboy. At turns entertaining, confusing, and by the end, deeply disturbing, Oldboy is the kind of movie that if someone lent you on DVD, you should keep forever. I'm not one to advocate theft, but Oldboy really is just that good. Now stop questioning the moral ambiguity of this review, and watch it for yourself.
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WHAT ARE CRITICS SAYING?
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
Variety by Derek Elley
Premiere by Glenn Kenny
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
L.A. Weekly by Scott Foundas
The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias