This third and last part of the vengeance trilogy that began with "Sympathy for Mister Vengeance" and "Oldboy" leaves me once again breathless because of the brilliant acting and a very intense story. What really contributes to the success of this third part are the episodes that the main characters lived inside the prison during the last thirteen years or so. Those episodes show many different and interesting characters and they make us understand and follow the development and the forging of the personality of the main character even though those episodes are ultimately not all essential to understand the main story and sometimes a little bit confusing as you may happen to not being able to distinguish the high amount of different characters at a certain point.

The main story is not as complex as "Sympathy for Mister Vengeance" was and not as unique and shocking as "Oldboy" was, but still intriguing and interesting. The reason why this movie is definitely the worst part of the trilogy even though it is still a very good psychological thriller is the fact that once the main characters comes close to the edge of its desires for vengeance, the development of the movie stops and the last thirty minutes contain nothing truly interesting or gripping any more. There are no surprises left, no philosophical, dramatic or shocking elements. The movie simply calms down and ultimately ends as vengeance seems to be fulfilled in a certain way and the main character still turns somewhat out to suffer. The very end is maybe slightly interesting as there are two ways to analyze the ending but that's already about everything. All the details, all the developments and all the weird connections shown in the first three quarters of the movie somewhat get lost and it ends on a low note. Even the characters are less shining and touching in the end. Personnaly, I was probably longing for something more concerning such a great trilogy that anyone that likes psycho thrillers or the Asian cinema in general should watch. But on the other hand the fact that this movie simply calms down and ends on a lower note is still surprising and underlines in a certain way the uniqueness of the South Korean cinema so that I turn out to be not completely disappointed.

To keep it short, this movie might also get eight points if I compare it to any modern psycho thriller or vengeance story but as it is connected to two previous masterpieces that created somewhat high expectations, this movie is less gripping and might ultimately fail with its possibly high attempts to follow the vein of its predecessors without being a complete disappointment as the first half of the movie is on a very high level and very entertaining.

This movie is a horrific ride through human decay and the sense of vengeance. The movie is emotional, philosophical and the characters are authentic, unique and very touching. On the other hand, the movie is not only a profound drama but also a very haunting film noir with some gore scenes and many surprises until the very end. This movie is not only about a simple vengeance story, as there are many different vengeance stories that follow each other and are all strangely related and emerging into a very absurd "grande finale".

The biggest surprise to me was that the first half of the movie turns out to be only a slow paced but amazingly intense introduction to a really gripping and dark second part where the vengeance stories begin. In my whole cinematic experience, I have never seen such a stunning and long introduction to a main story. But all of this is entirely necessary to get into the characters and could have been an excellent drama on its own before the movie turns out to be a brutal psychological thriller. Both parts work together hand in hand and the transition is stunningly perfect so that the movie isn't torn apart but only surprisingly diversified by showing two different approaches. The first part is calm, dramatic while joy and desperation are mixed before the second part turns out to be much darker, very heavy from a mental and physical point of view and ultimately tragically absurd. The movie is touching and extreme in every meaning of the expression.

I really liked the second part named "Oldboy" of the trilogy that begins with this movie and ends ultimately with "Lady Vengeance" though all the three movies can be seen as single films as they show us three different casts and story lines that are only bound by the vengeance topic but I must admit that I prefer this first part to the shocking, calm and intriguing "Oldboy" because this movie has maybe a little bit less atmosphere but is really surprising the whole time long and something completely new for an entire genre by connecting the drama and thriller universe truly together for the very first time. This movie is one of the most innovating ones ever made in the genre and better than any psycho thriller from the Western world as it even beats the big classics such as "Seven", "Fight Club" or "Memento" which I adore by being completely unique and over the top. If you like any of the movies I just mentioned, don't hesitate to try out this one and you won't surely be disappointed.

This cult movie is a must see for any fan of humorous movies even though it won't beat "The naked gun" series or the Monty Python movies such as "Life of Brian". It's maybe on the same level as the "Vacation" series minus the cultural part of those ones. But this movie deals with many clichés of the eighties and presents a couple of absurd, superficial and yet very funny characters that guarantee for many laughs, slapstick humour and absurd situations. At the end of the movie, you begin to appreciate those simple characters with all their weird behaviours, forces and weaknesses. The story and the reactions of the characters are simple and predictable, but maybe just because of that very entertaining and funny. This is a movie where one might switch its brain off and just laugh out loud as this comedy doesn't take itself so serious.

A positive point about the movie is that there is also some action and some well hidden social criticism in this movie if you take a look beneath the surface. Another plus is the fact that the jokes are not all sexual as many movies of that kind but in fact quite simple but still diversified so this movie is a perfect entertainment for the whole family if you're not too severe and conservative with one or two slightly sexual scenes. That's why I highly suggest to watch this first part of the cult series.

I know that one shouldn't take this kind of movies too serious and the main public of this kind of films might still be twelve year old boys and girls that are excited to see a movie with many sexual allusions, exaggerated gore scenes and absurd slapstick humour.

The problem that I have with this movie is that the jokes are permanently repeated and quite superficial. You can laugh about fake oral sex scenes in the beginning but when it turns out that every pun of this movie is orientated towards this, it gets quite silly, boring and even somewhat embarrassing. Another bad point is that there are not that many movies that get parodied by this film so that it stays quite one-dimensional all the time and mainly focuses on two well known movies ("Scream" and "I know what you did last summer"). A little bit of diversity would have been more dynamical, funny and enjoyable. The last bad point is the really atrocious acting. The characters are mostly so ordinary and boring that you can't even laugh about them. The next parts of the series have done a better job and included some truly gifted actors like Leslie Nielsen for example.

Nevertheless, this is a short and entertaining movie made for parties to have some good laughs in a good company and where it doesn't matter if you are drunk, stoned, chatting, gone fishing or simply falling asleep during the movie and miss some bits here and there. It somewhat because of those curious twelve year old teenagers that this has become a cult movie as I know many better parodies in that key like "The naked gun" or "Wrongfully accused" but there have also been movies that have been worse like "Epic Movie" or "Meet the Spartians". This is pure entertainment, but nothing groundbreaking or truly interesting. I would call it typically American junk food for the cinematic lunatics.

This movie attracted me because of its original black and white expressionism style and the topic of Iran's recent history. The flick has autobiographical influences and tells the story of a young girl growing up in a country filled with tension, shattered by war and disintegrated by many revolutions and changing governments.

The movie shows us the happy sides of the life of an innocent child, the tragical sides of a young girl leaving her country in despair, the courageous side as the girl fights for her dreams and her freedom, the philosophical and moral sides as she meets many old and wise personalities and learns a lot about Islam and Catholic religion, anarchy and communism, disco music and heavy metal, the melancholic sides as she faces death and isolation and the sides of uncertainty in the very end.

The movie is highly educational and very interesting from a cultural and historical point of view but the main force are its vivid characters that are precisely and with much feeling becoming alive in this "avantgarde" comic strap. There are lot of details and emotions in this movie and it is sometimes hard to digest and pretty much filled within its running time of about one hour and half. There is no moment when I found this movie boring or difficult to follow.

One the negative side, some people that don't know anything about the Iran may be confused by some names and events so that the public of the movie might be somewhat limited due to this factor. I also think that the movie is somewhat too educational and has too many propagandist touches but that doesn't destroy the pleasure of drowning into a different world through this open-minded and very interesting movie.