Just saw Oldboy for the first time...

[unreal]

I knew it was a famously good film, and saw it in HMV for a fiver so I snapped it up (also bought One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for £3, but haven't watched it yet).

I've become one of those hard-to-amuse film fans as of late, but this is EXACTLY the sort of film I've been looking for lately! It's utterly amazing, and although I suppose I could have seen the ending from a mile away (which I usually get), luckily I didn't! I love the ambiguous nature to the film, where you're put exactly in his position - you don't know what the hell's going on throughout... so when he learns, you learn.

The acting is really on point, and I love how real it seemed... instead of the typical hollywood-esque fighting sound effects, I actually felt like I was witnessing a genuine fight, in particular with the side-scrolling prison corridor bit, which I LOVED. The movie had its fair share of blood and violence to keep the fighting junkies occupied, but the story was compelling enough to actually challenge your intellect a lot... I felt my mind was doing a lot of problem solving as the story went on which for some reason proved quite satisfying. And I always love films that toy with love and loyalty (maybe explains why I loved the story to Final Fantasy 8 so much).

I love world cinema, although this may not be an absolute proper indie world cinema film, I loved it regardless - I wouldn't DARE watch this or anything like it with dubbed audio. Which reminds me, I saw one asian film aaaaaaaaages ago where a woman in a village gets a TV by like selling her blood over and over again etc in the city, it was a great arty flick, but memories of it are so distant - I wonder if anyone can point me in the correct direction for that film?

So this movie definitely justifies its high critic rating in my eyes. Anyone got any recommendations for any other asian films?

[sleepyhead]

Oldboy is a fantastic film. It has some shocking moments too, its not shy about stuff like that. I'll go home and see if I can dig up a smiliar title.

Try Ong-Bak for another good film, though it is action flick but impressive stunts.

The first instalment of Azumi is good; ye olde times, samurai/ninja stuff. The sequel was a cash cow.

[fuddam]

Goodbye South Goodbye - by Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Taiwanese gangster epic
Chungking Express - Wong Kar Wei - romance
In The Mood For Love - Wong Kar Wei - romance
The Host - korean film - horror/drama/comedy
Nowhere to Hide - korean film. thriller
Time And Tide - Tsui Hark
Brotherhood - Korean film aka Taegukgi
the older Takeshi Kitano films
Infernal Affairs - HK film, plus II & III. Inspiration for THE DEPARTED

is a start anyway

[unreal]

Oooh thanks much, I will see if I can find these I was at a central London CEX the other day and they have a huge varied film collection including asian films, so nice one!

[IBM]

Damn, it was on last night and I was going to record it but didn't....

[Mithrandir]

I've not seen Old Boy yet (would love to), but I have to say Brotherhood (Taegukgi) is an amazingly fantastic film. The other Korean film I'd recommend (though not in the same genre as Old Boy) is Musa (the Warrior) It's an outstanding film and truly epic.

[e-LAN-go]

I read over on imdb that oldboy is unofficially part of a trilogy of films that the same director made all based on the theme of vengeance.

The others being Sympathy for Mr. Vegeance and Lady Vengeance so you might wanna check those out.

[TooNice]

Ah, yes, this movie ties for second my in my list of all time favourite. It's my favourite of the 'vengeance trilogy'. My second favourite is Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (the first of the trilogy) because of it has it's own twisted ending (but not on par with Oldboy). I didn't enjoy Lady Vengeance (the final one of the trilogy) as much as I wanted (can't even remember the ending other the very end) to but many differs from my view on this.

@sleepyhead: Azumi didn't do it for me. I mean, cute girl, but I think that I ended up *wanting* to like the movie more than I really did. But if you are into this type of movies though, you may want to check out Shinobi (which I enjoyed more).

[e-LAN-go]

I thought Shinobi was terrible but mainly because I was spoiled by the Basilisk anime and manga versions which are greatly superior in my humble opinion heh.

[fuddam]

The other Korean film I'd recommend (though not in the same genre as Old Boy) is Musa (the Warrior) It's an outstanding film and truly epic.

lol. Got Musa, had it on my shelf for years, and still not watched it. gotta make time........

[ShenBlade]

I highly recommend the following for asian world cinema

1) Spring, Summer, Autumn Winter...And Spring
2) Hana bi
3) When the last sword is drawn
4) Fist of legend with Jet li
5) The Hidden Blade

[staffsMike]

Saw oldboy on TV the other day. Very good

And I saw brotherhood for £3 in HMV so i've snapped that up on your recommendations.

EDIT: Just watched it.. amazing.

[Barakka]

Another worthy of a mention is:

A Bittersweet Life - Korean gangster movie about a hitman who is asked to take out his bosses girlfriend, but can't as he's fallen for her. His boss sees this as a betrayal and sends everyone after him, a bit like OldBoy in that it's got that darkness about it, has some good stunts/set pieces, and a powerful ending. Feels a bit Tarantino inspired too.

[KBeee]

Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei) - The first in Yoji Yamadas samurai trilogy.
The Hidden Blade (Kakushi Ken Oni no Tsume), as already recommended, the second part of the trilogy, and finally (you'll never guess....)
Love and Honour (Bushi no Ichibun) the third and Yamadas last (so he says) samurai movie. Though as he's about 75 years old now and only made his first samurai movie in 2002 I suppose he might be telling the truth.
They're not a trilogy in the sense of related movies, more as 3 takes on a similar theme.

[unreal]

Oooh thanks much for the recommendations peeps, I'm going to see how many (i hope) of these I can find... that Bittersweet Life one sounds really good too.

I just saw Sympathy for Mr Vengeance now that I've learnt Oldboy was part of an unofficial vengeance based trilogy, and it was epic. I love the whole artstyle of the film, and the early loss of a significant character was so tragic especially since it could have been easily avoided and really had an aftershock through the rest of the film of being epicly sad. I wouldn't say it's as good as Oldboy but I didn't expect to find it that good so it wasn't disappointing in the slightest. And the ending twist wasn't too big but nice, although I expected it...

[TonyTiger]

I would recommend 'Battle Royal' a fantastic but shocking film. Word of warning though don't bother with the rather lame sequel.