"What I am isn't important. WHY is important.": Words from an Oldboy.

Good grief.

What the fuck was that......?!

I've the horrible feeling that film is going to be in my head for quite a while.

Dark as fuck moments to make you squirm and that's really squirm too. Hand over mouth in uncertainty at what you just saw or the twist you've just been steamrollered by. While you're recoiling, you're hit by a beautiful pan or a wonderful piece of dialogue and you're thrown back into balance again.

You want an example ? After I've just said that ? Are you quite mad ?

Follow some great down-beat dialogue with an odd request. A request for something to eat. Combine that with a live baby squid. A real one. You work out the rest and you'll probably be right. All the more shocking when you realise that the actor is a vegetarian and had to film it three times.

It's a weird feel to it - almost like 60% Korean new-wave genius, 20% French art-house quirk and 20% Fincher-esque flair. I think thats why east and west alike seems to 'get' this and embrace it. It's got limbs in many camps but all equally at home.

The film ?

2003's Park Chan-Wook cinematic tour-de-force 'Oldboy'

The tagline for it is that 'After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he has to work out why, and find this out in 5 days - whether he does or not, one person will die either way'.

This really doesn't capture how it's going to grip you from the first minute and keep you until the end some 2 hours later. There are bits you'll be dying to find out and others you'll wish you hadn't.

Oh, and the twist is an absolute blinder - I never saw it coming in the slightest.

Watch this film if you get the chance....just don't say I didn't warn you.



(Oh and yes, Ray, I'll bring it in for you to borrow)