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Squid Scene in Korean Film Leaves U.S. Critics Gagging

U.S. newspapers in their reviews of the Korean film "Oldboy" invariably zoomed in on a scene where the hero Oh Dae-su (played by Choi Min-sik) gulps down a small live octopus. Perhaps they felt sorry for the octopus, or because the scene encapsulates Oh's brutal temperament.

"Let's just say the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Octopoids will be picketing most screenings", the Washington Post commented on April 8. In the Friday edition of the Boston Globe, film critic Ty Burr wrote, "By the time the hero sits down in a sushi bar to eat a live, wriggling squid, you'll have probably figured out whether 'Oldboy' is or isn't for you".

In a review on the same day, the San Francisco Chronicle suggested the scene has already acquired a certain fame by word of mouth when it said, "And there's an already notorious scene in a restaurant that begins when he announces, 'I want to eat something live...'" The San Diego Union-Tribune wrote, "The 'money scene' must be a cute young sushi chef falling hard for the rather dilapidated Oh after seeing him swallow a sizable and writhing octopus. It doesn't go down easy".

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