A twisted classic. Instead of pitting a bunch of good people against each other, Park pits a bunch of disreputable (in varying degrees) against each other and borrows some stylish cinematic elements from 90s Hong Kong martial arts films, which makes Oldboy more palatable than its predecessor, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. One great scene is when one of two walls in the hallway are replaced with camera’s perspective to create a long shot showing an insane gauntlet. I’m not sure if someone spoiled the twist or it was somehow predictable (seriously, I’ve seen too many movies because I’m not sure how to explain that this twist is predictable except that I saw An Awfully Big Adventure with Alan Rickman in college), but seeing it unfold, I couldn’t help but think that the mastermind of the plot had no one to blame but himself. On the other hand, the mastermind has clearly been touched in the head a very long time, and anyone other than Dae Su could have been unlucky enough to discover his secret & blab it. The film is about Park’s favorite themes: love not being enough to create a stronger connection between people who have no obligation to love each other, but just enough to poisonously influence a person to destroy the other. One emblematic scene is where a guy who wants to commit suicide is forced to live to hear the main character’s story, but not accorded the same respect then doomed to resume his journey weighted with further knowledge. Unlike Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, there is a small thread of hope that Dae Su gets by borrowing the pleas of this unnamed character–literally becoming someone other than himself–to garner the possibility of redemption is to forget one’s own story and tragedy, but that seems extra tragic. To live, one must stop being who you are. Another dystopian world without the fantastic elements in which normal life is a sheer veneer of a gaping chasm where life is a prison. Not recommended viewing if you don’t have a strong stomach or are having a bad day.