Let me tell you my story

The Movie: Oldboy, directed by Chan-wook Park
Recommendation: The Boy
Reason: "It's unbelievable."

Much as I dislike vague recommendations, The Boy was right. Oldboy was unbelievable. I spent most of the movie with my hands firmly over my mouth (some might say protectively), in a state of shocked horror. It's not that it was graphic. My imagination supplied plenty of additional information that I could have gone without. It's not that it was particularily gory. It was just so awful (not the movie, the things that were happening to the main character).

I think there's possibly a lesson here to be learned about making a really scary movie. Oldboy had no jump-shocks, no musical cues telling you when to scream. It was just horrific, entirely on a psychological level. The main character's torment was initially carried out for no discernable reason. He's an ass, but so are a lot of people. Then the revenge starts, and the tension ratchets, and...well, saying more would be giving up too much. It's a stomach-twisting movie to watch, downright painful in parts. The physical torment is nothing compared to the mental anguish.

As you may have gathered by now, I'm a fan of camerawork and cinematography. The movie was excellently shot. The claustrophobia of the first act was particularily well done. The visual tone of the movie was part of the reason it was so relentlessly evil-just looking at it, at some points, made you feel dirty. The fight choreography was particularily good: it looked like Dae-su Oh really had learned to fight by watching TV and punching a wall for several years, and I really got nervous whenever he picked up that hammer. Overall? Well done. Great movie. I never want to see it again, and I hope that Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance are as good.

-38/365 down, 327/365 to go