I'm glad about Korean movies

I was bored on this lonely Saturday night so I decided to drop by the DVD shop beside Murni in SS2 to find some new movies to watch. Lo and behold, a copy of Oldboy caught my eye.

Those who know me, know of my deep love for Korean movies. Someone once said that the Koreans now do better Hollywood movies than Hollywood itself and I cannot disagree. See The Big Swindle as an example of a great Hollywood-styled heist movie. That said, Hollywood does not have the balls to make a movie like Oldboy. Oldboy is a movie unlike any other... and is not only one of my alltime fave Korean movies, it's also one of my alltime fave movie in ANY language. I dare you to find another movie with as much talent in it as the ferocious performance by the great Choi Min Sik and the divine direction of Park Chan Wook. Oldboy is actually the 2nd movie in a trilogy of vengeance themed movies by Park. The first was the insane Sympathy For Mr Vengeance (by the enigmatic Song Kang Ho - another fave actor of mine) and the 3rd, hopefully to be released in 2005, will star Lee Young Ae, last seen working with Park in JSA.

That said, those who know me, also know that I already have the original DVD of Oldboy which I ordered from Korea when it first came out.



From my previous posting, you would also know that Oldboy won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year.

Which brings me to my topic of discussion tonight. As I was browsing for DVDs in SS2 tonight, I spied a couple deciding whether or not to get the copy of Oldboy. As they were deciding, I took the last copy and commented to the boss of the shop that he should be getting more copies to sell because the movie is excellent. I also told him and the couple that I was getting the extra copy to lend out to my friends just to convince them of the greatness of this movie. The couple was of course disappointed that I took the last copy but the boss quickly added that more copies would arrive the day after.

That said, I'm glad that Korean movies are finally finding a decent market in Malaysia (albeit pirated). Nevertheless, it's a good start and I hope that the Malaysian audience will finally realize that Korea is now the king of East Asia when it comes to movies (and that it's not only just good for horror movies). Hongkong has gone down the drain especially with its adoption for the intolerable Twins (thank god for Johnny To Kei Fung) and Japan's movies are simply too quirky for the mainstream (although Takeshi Kitano has agreed to do another Zatoichi and Azumi 2 is coming). I'm also glad to see the shelves filled with the latest Korean releases (Everybody Has A Secret, Fighter In The Wind, R-Point, etc).

I get a tingle down my spine thinking of Choi Min Sik in his role in Oldboy... if you haven't seen it, for the sake of all that is good, please PLEASE RUN and get a copy now. You no longer have an excuse.