oldboy is set in korea and starts as a drunken dae su oh (min sik choi) is bailed out of the police station by his friend only to be abducted and dae su wakes up and finds himself in a small room which he will be imprisoned in for the next fifteen years. dae su is fed and looked after by his unknown captors but is never allowed out of the room and dae su begins to train himself to avenge himself after he gets out which he intends to do by scrapping away the cement from the brickwork with a chopstick. however before dae su finishes he is gassed and rendered unconscious and when he wakes up dae su finds himself free on the roof of a tall building dressed and all moneyed up. dae su instantly sets about trying to find out who imprisoned him and after meeting the pretty mido (hye jeong kang) the two fall in love and together with her help dae su finally finds what he is looking for but the truth comes at a price. this south korean production was co written and directed by chan wook park and has gotten any number of glowing reviews (the sort that distributors can pick quotes out and plaster them on the video box) and even won the grand prize of the jury at cannes while it was also nominated for the golden palm so surely oldboy is a true classic. well not for me it isn not since as i can not understand why it so liked and i would go as far as to say i pretty much hated it apart from one or two isolated moments. for a start i couldn not get into the story at all and i just do not like it as i thought it was slow and boring and while many out there would have you believe oldboy has the bestest most shocking twist ever i thought it was rather plain and not very well executed either. the ending in which dae su goes to the new zealand alps to be hypnotised feels tagged on as well almost as if the makers wanted some sort of happy ending. at almost two hours i almost fell asleep i was so bored and the violence is tame and it the thought of what happening that i would imagine most people have a problem with rather than what is actually shown. in fact oldboy has a very low body count of about seven and one mild sex scene and it really not that graphic or memorable. i do not warm to any of the character  and while i accept oldboy has an alright concept and premise it fails to deliver and it one film that i will never understand why so many people seem to like. based on a japanese manga of the same name oldboy the film looks alright and there one or two nice visual moments here although while everyone raves about the hallway fight that takes place in one continuous shot i was pretty unimpressed and thought the fight choreography was quite dull. the actual on screen gore violence amounts to very little and dae su eats a live octopus which is apparently quite normal in korea anyway and there are some fight scenes and a severed hand and someones teeth are pulled out and there a bit of blood at the end. the budget was supposedly around the $4 and 000 and 000 mark which is actually a fair bit and filmed in south korea and new zealand. the acting looks alright but it hard to tell when actors are speaking a different language. oldboy is a film that i found an absolute chore to sit through and i do not mind subtitled films or foreign films or paying attention to the plot as i followed the thing perfectly but i just do not like any of it and it as simple and straightforward as that. apparently the second in director choi wook park revenge trilogy which also includes sympathy for mr. vengeance (2002) and lady vengeance (2005). 
oldboy is set in korea and starts as a drunken dae su oh (min sik choi) is bailed out of the police station by his friend only to be abducted and dae su wakes up and finds himself in a small room which he will be imprisoned in for the next fifteen years. dae su is fed and looked after by his unknown captors but is never allowed out of the room and dae su begins to train himself to avenge himself after he gets out which he intends to do by scrapping away the cement from the brickwork with a chopstick. however before dae su finishes he is gassed and rendered unconscious and when he wakes up dae su finds himself free on the roof of a tall building dressed and all moneyed up. dae su instantly sets about trying to find out who imprisoned him and after meeting the pretty mido (hye jeong kang) the two fall in love and together with her help dae su finally finds what he is looking for but the truth comes at a price. this south korean production was co written and directed by chan wook park and has gotten any number of glowing reviews (the sort that distributors can pick quotes out and plaster them on the video box) and even won the grand prize of the jury at cannes while it was also nominated for the golden palm so surely oldboy is a true classic. well not for me it isn not since as i can not understand why it so liked and i would go as far as to say i pretty much hated it apart from one or two isolated moments. for a start i couldn not get into the story at all and i just do not like it as i thought it was slow and boring and while many out there would have you believe oldboy has the bestest most shocking twist ever i thought it was rather plain and not very well executed either. the ending in which dae su goes to the new zealand alps to be hypnotised feels tagged on as well almost as if the makers wanted some sort of happy ending. at almost two hours i almost fell asleep i was so bored and the violence is tame and it the thought of what happening that i would imagine most people have a problem with rather than what is actually shown. in fact oldboy has a very low body count of about seven and one mild sex scene and it really not that graphic or memorable. i do not warm to any of the character  and while i accept oldboy has an alright concept and premise it fails to deliver and it one film that i will never understand why so many people seem to like. based on a japanese manga of the same name oldboy the film looks alright and there one or two nice visual moments here although while everyone raves about the hallway fight that takes place in one continuous shot i was pretty unimpressed and thought the fight choreography was quite dull. the actual on screen gore violence amounts to very little and dae su eats a live octopus which is apparently quite normal in korea anyway and there are some fight scenes and a severed hand and someones teeth are pulled out and there a bit of blood at the end. the budget was supposedly around the $4 and 000 and 000 mark which is actually a fair bit and filmed in south korea and new zealand. the acting looks alright but it hard to tell when actors are speaking a different language. oldboy is a film that i found an absolute chore to sit through and i do not mind subtitled films or foreign films or paying attention to the plot as i followed the thing perfectly but i just do not like any of it and it as simple and straightforward as that. apparently the second in director choi wook park revenge trilogy which also includes sympathy for mr. vengeance (2002) and lady vengeance (2005). ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

Judge the movie review above, you need to make a function call:
    If you feel the movie review is positive
        print "This is a semantically positive review."
    Otherwise, if you feel the movie review is negative
        print "This is a semantically negative review."
