OldBoy

Anyone seen oldboy? One of my fave films of all time and it has the best ending in a film ever

Oldboy is one out of the many films that prove that South Korea is the future of cinema. I also highly recommend Lady Vengeance, 3-Iron, and Memories of Murder.

Oldboy would've been better had I not known the twist, but it was still pretty awesome regardless.

Originally Posted by Wong Fei Hung

Oldboy is one out of the many films that prove that South Korea is the future of cinema. I also highly recommend Lady Vengeance, 3-Iron, and Memories of Murder.

While I really did like Sympathy for Lady Vengenace (see my old thread here --> A Tale of Two Sisters ), I don't think that I'll ever watch Oldboy. My guess is that it's just too violent for me.

I actually enjoyed the movie more on my second viewing. Oldboy is not just a great script, but is formally brilliant - the cinematography and score are particularly top notch.

Oldboy is a gem in Korean cinema, which has been really over-saturated with rehashed romantic comedies and subpar, predictable drama films recently.

It's a movie that keeps you on the edge of the seat the whole way; with twists, turns and some really brutal scenes... not to mention the main twist of the whole movie, which was disturbing enough to make me gag. The fight scene in the hallway was amazing cinematography. Not to mention the performances were great -- you have to give props to Choi Min-sik for eating four live octopodes in order to get a scene early on in the movie right.

It's worth seeing all the movies in the Vengence Trilogy. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance was also really good, although a lot more violent and brutal than the latter two in the trilogy.

Lady Vengeance was overhyped and it didn't really live up to it, but it was still a relatively good movie with some great cinematography and the atmosphere was top-notch.

Oldboy is one out of the many films that prove that South Korea is the future of cinema. I also highly recommend Lady Vengeance, 3-Iron, and Memories of Murder.

I don't know about that... maybe five years ago it was looking that way, but there is just too little innovation in Korean cinema recently. The same happens everywhere, though; it's happened to Hollywood in a big way, and definitely in Japan which has experienced way too many generic Horror films in lieu of Ring as well as manga adaptions and love stories that all seem way too similar.

I actually preferred Lady Vengeance to Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, which I thought sacrificed some of its artistic integrity for the sake of it's political message. Not that I disagree with the political message, as I'm a socialist myself...

Speaking of romantic comedies, I forgot to mention that the My Sassy Girl is also a good starting point for South Korean cinema, as it transcends the usual crap-tastic quality that plagues most movies that fall into its genre. The American remake, however, looks pretty ****ty.

Originally Posted by Wong Fei Hung

I actually preferred Lady Vengeance to Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, which I thought sacrificed some of its artistic integrity for the sake of it's political message. Not that I disagree with the political message, as I'm a socialist myself...

Speaking of romantic comedies, I forgot to mention that the My Sassy Girl is also a good starting point for South Korean cinema, as it transcends the usual crap-tastic quality that plagues most movies that fall into its genre. The American remake, however, looks pretty ****ty.

I think all 3 of the trilogy are very different movies, and should be taken as such. That said, I think some of the cinematography within Mr. Vengeance was superior even to Oldboy. The subject matter is very different though, considering the only link between the movies is the theme of vengeance.

My Sassy Girl is a great movie, although it started a downward spiral for Korean cinema. After that movie came the wave of copies and clones that are dominating the industry today. There are so many movies that use the exact same formula without bringing anything new to the table at all.

The American remake will be awful, that's a given. It's going to be a direct-to-DVD release.

Originally Posted by Eijiro

I don't know about that... maybe five years ago it was looking that way, but there is just too little innovation in Korean cinema recently. The same happens everywhere, though; it's happened to Hollywood in a big way, and definitely in Japan which has experienced way too many generic Horror films in lieu of Ring as well as manga adaptions and love stories that all seem way too similar.

You seen Dragon Wars? Maybe 40 years ago it would've been something original, but the story is so horribly cliche'd it's impossible to take it seriously. Only selling point are the epic CG battles between weird dragony-things, but even then it's been done before in plenty of animes.

Originally Posted by Sage of Earth

You seen Dragon Wars? Maybe 40 years ago it would've been something original, but the story is so horribly cliche'd it's impossible to take it seriously. Only selling point are the epic CG battles between weird dragony-things, but even then it's been done before in plenty of animes.

Yeah I never bothered seeing it because the trailer looked awful. For Korean monster movies, I'd much rather watch The Host.

'06 and '07 weren't that great for SK, that's a given, but considering how many of the innovators who made the previous 5-6 years great are still in Korea, I don't see a couple years of slump as something to worry about. I don't know if you know much about Hong Kong, but you might remember that little crisis they had in the 1990's. This is nothing compared to that.

With any national cinema, you'll find that anywhere from 70%-90% of it is of average to awful quality, generic BS aimed at appealing to mass audiences.

I'll agree that Mr. Vengeance had some of the best shots of the trilogy, but the original Korean cut of Lady Vengeance also had some beautiful long takes that can't be denied (some of which were skewed by Tartan's Westernized edit).

Originally Posted by Wong Fei Hung

'06 and '07 weren't that great for SK, that's a given, but considering how many of the innovators who made the previous 5-6 years great are still in Korea, I don't see a couple years of slump as something to worry about. I don't know if you know much about Hong Kong, but you might remember that little crisis they had in the 1990's. This is nothing compared to that.

With any national cinema, you'll find that anywhere from 70%-90% of it is of average to awful quality, generic BS aimed at appealing to mass audiences.

I'll agree that Mr. Vengeance had some of the best shots of the trilogy, but the original Korean cut of Lady Vengeance also had some beautiful long takes that can't be denied (some of which were skewed by Tartan's Westernized edit).

Well of course it's nothing compared to Hong Kong... yet. Hong Kong still has almost no decent movies coming out of it. There are the occassional greats, but these really are needles in a haystack, considering just how many movies are being produced over there. The problem stemming from their reliance on cantopop idols as actors in every movie that comes out. I'm sick of seeing the same people over and over again in comedies and poorly done kung-fu flicks that are all the same.

Taking from your signature -- 2046 was an unusually quality movie for HK, but it was so overly pretentious and hard to stomach. It was a beautiful movie, but it was almost too much half the time.

I'm sure Korea will still continue to have some great movies, but I don't think it's the future of cinema. There are equally fantastic movies coming out of countries all over the world.

And yes, and usually it's the mainstream blockbuster hits that make up that 90% of crap.

2046 is densely intertextual, as it continues characters from Wong Kar Wai's earlier films Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love. If you haven't seen either of these earlier films, I could see how you would perceive it as pretentious. However, it is really an excellent continuation of its two predecessors and improves upon repeated viewings.

Originally Posted by Wong Fei Hung

2046 is densely intertextual, as it continues characters from Wong Kar Wai's earlier films Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love. If you haven't seen either of these earlier films, I could see how you would perceive it as pretentious. However, it is really an excellent continuation of its two predecessors and improves upon repeated viewings.

I've seen them both but it's still pretentious. It's a good movie, but that doesn't save it from just being too serious about itself.

Wow, online discussions tend to get off-topic quickly, but damn - this one stopped being about Oldboy after five replies.

I guess I can generally agree with 2046 being too serious about itself. It's definitely far from WKW's best work as a film, but I do like the narrative elements a lot, as I sometimes can relate to Chow Mo-Wan, for better or for worse.

Originally Posted by Wong Fei Hung

Wow, online discussions tend to get off-topic quickly, but damn - this one stopped being about Oldboy after five replies.

I guess I can generally agree with 2046 being too serious about itself. It's definitely far from WKW's best work as a film, but I do like the narrative elements a lot, as I sometimes can relate to Chow Mo-Wan, for better or for worse.

Yeah, like I said it's a standout piece of cinema as far as HK cinema goes, but it has aspects of it that stop it from being that great of a movie. The cinematography and characters were pretty awesome, though.

Yeah, topics with me involved tend to go off-topic pretty quick, but it looks like not enough people have seen Oldboy to comment on it.

2046 is excellent. But it has it's own flaws. Mh.

On the note of Hong Kong cinema, I prefer watching One Nite in Mongkok, and of course, the Infernal Affairs trilogy. Leading on from this, I recently watched Confession of Pain, and damn, that was a let down, even with the awesome cast. It had it's moments though, but the momentum just dropped dead and the film just felt like it sat there in a bowl just waiting. Anyway.

Oldboy was something that showed a breath of fresh air can be invoked within the whole world of cinema, by dropping down a bombshell of a story, mixed with excellent story telling and narrative, giving a kind of post-modernism twist whilst still remaining somewhat classic in it's own unique way, alongside it's graphic violence and acting. The cinematography was excellent. No other way to say that. The scene of the hallway is testament to just how OTT the film goes to show the graphic nature of the human being, yet still being somewhat tasteful in how it is portrayed.

The film itself.. whilst edging on a very touchy subject, it's also still very tasteful in how the film leads up to this part, and while it also shows the basics of human emotions, that of love, anger, revenge and so forth, it also shows the cruelty and what humans are capable of.

It's definitely worth a watch.