OLDBOY

I’m not going to tell you about the last movie that I saw, that by the way, was a very, very good movie: J’ai tué ma mere, the prime opera of Xavier Dolan, a twenty-year old French director who won the Revelation Prize of Cannes 2009 with this film. Actually, I’m going to tell you about the movie that I’ve liked the most these past few weeks: Old Boy, a SouthKorean film directed by Chaan-wook Park, the second of his trilogy of vengeance, and premiered in 2003. This movie won the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes in 2004, and many other trophies around the world
Well, I can’t say much of the movie because if you know how the plot develops it will lose all the greatness that the movie has and believe me, it has it in tons.
Oh-De sue, played by Choi Min-Sik, is a middle-aged guy that’s weirdly kidnapped, in fact, from nothing, he just disappears. After this, he is kept in something that looks like a hotel room, with a bath, a desk, a tv and a bed, during fifteen years without knowing why…and then, suddenly, and also without any reason, he’s released and he is told by a phone call that has to discover the reason of his captivity in five days…
In that journey, he meets Mido, a young girl, played by Gang Hye-Jung, who helps him to discover that reason. He also reunites with an old friend, Park Cheol-woong, played by Oh Dal-Su, who helps him too and, finally, meets his anonymous nemesis, No Joo-hwan, played by Chi Dae-Han.
The movie is really a masterpiece. The photograph is perfect, and some associations between the scenes are just awesome, passing from one to another trough elements that are related but you will never expect it until it happens. And, of course, the leitmotiv is the crudest and the most complex vengeance that you could ever devise: The ultimate vengeance.
You must see it.