Oldboy

- I feel like I say this with every good movie but my God, that might genuinely be one of the best 3rd acts of all time. Like genuinely, eyes glued to the screen, but hiding in abject horror at the shit happening on my screen. Jesus Christ. - Before talking about anything else I have to talk about those last 20 minutes or so. God, at the very beginning i predicted it was his daughter but it just seemed more and more unlikely and then. my god what a reveal its just so masterfully played. - this is aided greatly by 2 performances of a lifetime from Dae-Su and Woo-Jin. Dae-Su is played pretty stellarly from the very beginning. he plays a dazed man confused by the world so well and then things take a slight dip before unleashing one of the most cathartically horrifying performances ever. Woo-Jin was played well from the moment he appeared. He plays that sort of sadistic John Doe se7en type character so well, its horrific to see his masterplan fully come into effect. you cant even say Dae-Su was "saved" by Woo-Jin's guilt-ridden suicide because the damage had been done. Whether Woo-Jin died at that point was completely irrelevant to Dae-Su's fate. - Really just the way this film uses it's extreme genre to push all of it's characters to the depth of their humanity is insane. Really potent how Dae-Su has the full capability to walk away and live with Mi-Do blissfully unaware, but his vengeance pushes him further. - In my opinion, the ending Dae-Su is very much The Monster who must live with the truth. Idk for what reasons Oh Dae-Su would react that way if hypnosis worked lol. - While the cinematography isn't Nolan-level blowing you away I think it's just so expressive and contains the mood so well. Especially in the latter-half the blur and hasty panning works so greatly to convey the panic and horror that creeps in. - Starting from the flashback sequence, this movie becomes perfect. - The flashback sequence itself is also just terrific, first part of the movie that blew me away. First of all, the gorgeous browns that make modern-day Dae-Su pop so well and really make it feel like a memory. And also, of course, it's plot relevance as practically the catalyst for the movie. - Maybe I'm too focused on societal themes but I feel the overarching themes of this movie are underbaked. The only big themes I agree are present are the cyclical nature of violence and the search for truth. Still, I think if I was more into movies which examine themes like, on a human-to-human level I think this would be a perfect movie for me. - Another flaw is the sidelining and at points, fridging of Mi-Do as a character. Slightly disappointing that she's pretty much only used as a plot point for Dae-Su considering (except the 15 years of entrapment which you could argue she went through in a larger cage), she goes through the same things Dae-Su does! She also gets mind-controlled to commit incest and is raped and tortured, she just doesn't have the privilege of knowing the truth. But yeah, let's make her have none of her own character apart from being motivation for Dae-Su cause she's a woman or something. - I'm actually unsure about the Dae-Su bathroom sexual assault scene. I think it does make us hate Dae-Su a little which is unideal but it does lay the groundwork for the twist which is only bolstered with the scene. - As well as this, I think the ticking time could've been more well-established. Obviously they show us the calendar a lot but it never feels quite as urgent as I think it should. - Music is used great in this movie, not only with Dae-Su's love song but all the little tunes that pop-up. - I doubted it at first, but it gets extremeee. You get the first taste with the tooth scene but it really comes back in the tongue scene, I had to partially hide my face that shit was scary. - Horrendous octopus eating scene too I can't believe they did that in real life too. - Of course, the big fight scenes like the corridor scene are immaculately staged and pretty run-of-the-mill perfect action sequences. - Hard to say it's even a revenge film. - Overall, a masterpiece that has a serious misogyny problem that brings it way down from being perfect.