My eldest son is doing film related degree and he asked me to watch a film and answer some related questions . I don't watch TV or go to the cinema much and he has one of these new TVs that hang flat on the wall like a picture inside a frame. So, in massive resolution full colour I watched Old Boy.It's pretty damn shocking and I don't want to watch it again.

I was supposed to be asking the question, to myself , do I think this is a pornography of violence or does it approach questions
underlying the human problem of justice, forgiveness and measured retribution.

Man,the guy eats a live squid that tries to helplessly grip his face as he's consuming it . I felt so sorry for the squid I lost concentration on the next ten minutes.

The fight scene with the hammer is ludicrous, they all go down too easy .

Lots of teeth pulling out and claw hammers, like don't I see enough of the effects of claw hammers on digits and stuff like this at work.

So I'm being asked to appreciate the music- "Yep I like the music"

Do I like the haiku worked into the script?

"The Haiku is good." I smile , "I just don't like watching a guy cutting out his own tongue when I could be making herb boxes in me garden."

I sitting there thinking why can't I just have the haiku and maybe the music . Do I need a film that tries to break my mind like an interrogator to get to the meaning of the poetry that pre-existed it ?

Andy.

Yes - and it's an amazing film, and although it is totally horrific I think it's a great work of art - and no more horrific and bloody than some of Shakespeare's darker plays.

It is one of a trilogy and I do recommend the other films - especially Lady Vengeance.

What is disturbing - and on a wider cultural level for me - is that so many Korean films have this element of 'cruelty' amidst the most heartrending stories.

Yeah but the question I'm left asking myself is did I need to sit through two hours of that to reach the conclusion ( at all the levels I did) that revenge really doesn't resolve anything unless you need the street cred that goes with it.

I get why this guy character is being so wound up and released as possibly the most angry human being on earth , and has developed much insight through self examination, as well as a whole bunch of fighting skills.

I get that the guy who was doing it to him wants him to feel the intensity of feelings that he felt , the ones that drove him to take his revenge.

I get neither anger nor the symmetrical opposite of controlled applied aggression in the revenger's character provides either with any meaningful resolution their situation.

I guess what I'm trying to ask myself here is , did I need to watch all that to get to this conclusion?

I don't think I did. Maybe it's an age thing.

I have been invited back to watch the other two films.

Would prefer a few rum and cokes on a Sunday afternoon and sink into some Sci Fi B movie than have my brain zapped into doing work by high voltage stuff like that.

Oh well, they say when you stop learning and adapting that's when you get old.So maybe I'll go back and watch the rest of the trilogy some time.

Andy.

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But it's the octopus that really bothers me , all the rest was made up violence that was real and feel sorry for it that it ended its life on a plate in that film.

I was told, ( now the kids might be winding me up) they had to do this scene sixteen times and the guy stuffing it into his mouth was a Buddhist and he had to say a prayer for each one every time.

I haven't seen it, though I've heard a lot about it, and would like to see it one day. Ichi the Killer is another along the same lines that I have seen. I thought it was great but my boyfriend hated it for similar reasons to the ones you give. But my tolerance for violence and horror in films has gone down with age, too.