Of the Chanwook Park Vengeance trilogy, Oldboy is the middle piece, the one with the least subtext and the most predictable, and not surprisingly the one with the most orchestrated glorified violence that the American market devours. And the one with the most pointless deus-ex machina "twists" may I add, whereas plot "twists" in the other movies unravel like a perfectly dropped ball of yarn cascading in a straight line down a staircase.
This is the weakest movie of the trilogy, and anyone wishing to understand the subtext of Chanwook''s vision should at least do him the courtesy of watching Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance before taking to analyze this in terms of theme because the movies are meant to be like a chord. One note - nothing but repetitive sound. Three notes- a chord. And Oldboy is an annoying note. It's a great movie but it's just not anywhere as good as the other two.