Oldboy (2013)
Directed by Spike Lee
A man has only three and a half days and limited resources to discover why he was imprisoned in a nondescript room for 20 years without any explanation.
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What critics compared Oldboy to
The Argentinian-born director Andy Muschietti, whose only other feature is the 2013 horror film Mama (which I have not seen, but now want to), demonstrates a flare for both horrific imagery (of the slow-building-dread variety and the sudden shock variety) and the mundanity of normal life; he and cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung, a regular collaborator of Chan-wook Park’s (Oldboy, Stoker) give the film a distinct visual sensibility that is both familiar and slightly uneasy.
And while the later fights find Hutch a little sprier than the beginning, that initial bus battle carries a watered-down Oldboy hallway energy with Odenkirk about to pass out from lack of breath and excruciating pain.
The film's at it's best when it's winking wittily - Jimmy the cop's response to a noise complaint, the smooth ministration's of the Continental's manager Charon (Lance Reddick, 2013's "Oldboy," 'American Horror Story: Coven').
Since then, various other South Korean pulp mavens have come to international prominence, some of whom have far surpassed Park’s cult favorite in terms of emotional and dramatic heft (Bong Joon-ho’s “The Host” and “Mother”) or sheer white-knuckle intensity (Kim Jee-woon’s “I Saw the Devil,” Na Hong-jin’s “The Yellow Sea”).