Oldboy

A man is abducted and held prisoner for fifteen years, only to be released without explanation and discover that he must learn the identity of his captor and the reason why he was held within five days.

Oldboy is a revenge film unlike any other. Partially grandly fantastic, and partially frighteningly real, the film is a brutal look at the extreme measures that a man is capable when driven by rage. That’s not to say this is some kind of gory, masochistic, torture film, but rather an emotionally devastating look at one man’s psychological undoing at the hands of another. Sure, there are some graphic scenes, but they play as part of the bigger picture and never feel gratuitous.

To that end, Oldboy certainly isn’t for everyone. It’s the kind of movie that couldn’t get made here in the States, as its objective look at moral degradation would undoubtedly create a substantial outcry, not to mention earning it the dreaded NC-17 rating, despite the fact that the film is neither pornographic nor exploitive. Still, for some people this film’s relentless, raw, depiction of one man’s undoing layer by layer will be too much to bear.

But for those that are up to the task, Oldboy reinvents the revenge genre. By going further than conventional revenge pictures, it forces us to look at the darkness within ourselves, to question the extreme ends we’re capable of, and to examine our own definition of justice. Like any great film, it haunts you for days after seeing it, and because of that, it’s highly recommended to anyone willing to challenge him or herself to a visceral, emotionally unsettling experience that’s rewarding nonetheless.