Park Chan-wook‘s mixed influences have never been so fine a solution: a neo-noir that finds absurd dreamlike fantasies in the isolated, manic delusions of its central characters, where it prunes the most desperate motivations of the subconscious to mine intense hatred and brutality rarely seen in a revenge plot. Dae-su’s alienation and confusion come to life in the city’s overwhelming, mazelike cinematography. Each scene in Oldboy is incredibly gripping, distinct, and alien.