http://www.criticsrant.com/archive/2007/11/08/OLDBOY-Revenge-Was-Never-So-Satisfying.aspx Imagine, just for a moment, you are a South Korean businessman named Oh (Min-sik Choi). You’re a better drunk than you are a businessman, and you’re stumbling home, late for your daughter’s birthday, when you get arrested for being drunk and stupid in public. Your friend No (Ji Dae-han) bails your ass out of the pen, and while he’s on the phone, trying to placate your wife, somebody spirits you away. You wake up in a hotel room, locked away from the world, a TV your only source of information. Occasionally, you try to kill yourself, which gets you gassed into unconsciousness, only to wake up shaved and groomed. You eat the same fried dumplings every day, watch the TV until you’re sick of it, work out and practice shadowboxing to exhaustion. The news says your wife was murdered, and you’re the prime suspect. Time passes; 15 years’ worth of it. One day, you’re set free, no explanation. All you have is a new suit, your diaries, and a list of people who may hate you enough to do this. What now? That is the setup to OLDBOY, Chan-wook Park’s 2003 meditation on violence and vengeance, and one of the coolest, and weirdest, thrillers ever committed to film. Soon after his release, Oh decides to track down his captor and find out what the hell is going on. With only the sense memory of fried dumplings to start with, Oh goes on a search for the whack job who kept him penned. Along the way, he meets sympathetic chef Mi-do (Hye-jeong Kang), who helps him on his quest and falls in love with the taciturn Oh. So far, we think we know how this is going to shake out, and then the first of several twists appears: Oh’s captor Lee (Ji-tae Yu) makes himself known to Oh, and offers him a challenge: find out why he was captured, and Lee will commit suicide. Fail to meet Lee’s deadline, Mi-do dies. en-US Critics Rant info@criticsrant.com Subtext Version 1.9.4.0 http://www.criticsrant.com/images/default_gravatar_bullhorn.png http://www.criticsrant.com/archive/2007/11/08/OLDBOY-Revenge-Was-Never-So-Satisfying.aspx 77 60 http://www.criticsrant.com/archive/2007/11/08/OLDBOY-Revenge-Was-Never-So-Satisfying.aspx#2114 sounds intriguing. brokun1 http://www.criticsrant.com/archive/2007/11/08/OLDBOY-Revenge-Was-Never-So-Satisfying.aspx#2114 Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:20:50 GMT