OLDBOY Review

Some of the things time discards are funny. Like, the DVD version of Netflix came in these white and red envelopes that displayed little outside of logo, description, and title. The scant information a stark contrast to the immediate scene/trailer you see while scrolling across today, anxiously considering choice and then immediately regretting the one you make anyway. The thousands upon thousands of options now vs. a single envelope at the beginning. I remember receiving Oldboy. I remember looking at the smeared-ink title, the jumble of numbers in the corner, and the description of this South Korean film I'd heard little about. I remember being baptized into world cinema.

And nothing could've prepared me for what came after hitting PLAY. Chan-wook's neo-noir thriller set to overdrive, painting the ordinary extra-, the unimportant crucial, and the hopeful forlorn. A rhythm that, scene-to-scene, is completely unpredictable for the naïve. So imagine my surprise at the kidnapping, or the octopus, or the 2D scroll, or...you know. The events and genre beats at surface bracketed and separate, but Chan-wook and Min-sik stitch it all together seamlessly. Cementing each emotive response on canvas in black oil paint. The confusion. The hilarity. The pain. Indelible like the marks Dae-su leaves as reminders.

A monolith of an achievement and seeing it on the big screen is a triumph.

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The above was taken from my Letterboxd review.