Oldboy (2003)

• Year: 2003
• Released: 21 Nov 2003
• Country: South Korea
• Adwords: 40 wins & 21 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364569/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/oldboy
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/oldboy
• Available in: 720p, 1080p, 2160p
• Language: Korean
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Action, Drama, Mystery
• Runtime: 120 min
• Writer: Garon Tsuchiya, Nobuaki Minegishi, Park Chan-wook
• Director: Park Chan-wook
• Cast: Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-Tae, Kang Hye-jeong
• Keywords: revenge, neo-noir, daughter, based on manga, incest,

	8.4/10
	77/100
	81% – Critics
	94% – Audience

Oldboy Storyline

Abducted on a rainy night in 1988, the obnoxious drunk, Oh Dae-Su, much to his surprise, wakes up locked in a windowless and dilapidated hotel room, for an unknown reason. There, his invisible and pitiless captors will feed him, clothe him, and sedate him to avert a desperate suicide–and as his only companion and a window to the world is the TV in his stark cell–the only thing that helps Oh Dae-Su keep going is his daily journal. Then, unexpectedly, after fifteen long years in captivity, the perplexed prisoner is deliberately released, encouraged to track down his tormentor to finally get his retribution. However, who would hate Oh Dae-Su so much he would deny him of a quick and clean death?

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Oldboy Movie Reviews

Excellent in it’s sickness

I looked at program for today and I saw movie “Oldboy”. I read plot and I liked it. What I expected is decent thriller from very good South Korean cinematography,something like “Salinui chueok “. But once again I was wrong. “Oldboy” is masterpiece, so unusual from all other movies. I’ve seen lots of violence on screen and to me this isn’t nothing new but I think that people under 18 really shouldn’t watch this one. It’s because movie is brutal and I don’t think that younger ones would fully understand this one.

To say something about plot is quite impossible because I don’t know where to begin. If I start talking about the movie I could tell few important things and I know that people often read other comments because they didn’t watch that movie. So,I’m going to say only what I read before watching this movie.

On his daughter’s birthday, Oh Dae-su gets drunk and soon he’s arrested by the police. His best friend No Joo-hwan somehow manages to get him out of jail and when No Joo-hwan is making a phone call Oh Dae-su disappears. Someone kidnap’s him and puts him into room during 15 long years.But one day he’s released.

That’s the plot. Very interesting, you should watch this movie and then judge it. By the rating on IMDb this movie is in top 250 movies. Now I can understand why. This plot that I wrote doesn’t reveal the greatness of the people who wrote the script. I bow to them because this movie is so good, with all those twists and it really represents a whole new wave of making a movie, of writing a script and of acting in it. About direction and actors I can say only good things. Director Park Chan-wook won prize Grand Jury at Cannes. That’s enough about direction part. About actors. I can say that I’m impressed by one actor:Choi Min-sik. He’s amazing in major role and he showed great potential. I hope I will see him again in some good movie.

I cannot say anything more because I could reveal some secret and I don’t wanna do that to all new viewers. Only a recommendation. Beautiful, intelligent masterpiece of movie that I highly recommend for everyone with strong stomach and too all of you who want to see one excellent, but sick story. 10/10

A family thing

Oddly having seen the Spike Lee Americanized remake first, I preferred the critically lambasted Oldboy slightly more than the Korean original. Talk about going out on a limb.

Oh Dea-Su goes out drinking on his daughter’s birthday and finds himself imprisoned in a room for 15 years. He is also suspected of killing his wife. He has no idea who has captured him and for what reason.

15 years on he is released and given just five days to discover the identity and reason of the man who imprisoned him. Oh Dae-Su sees this as a chance of getting revenge, he has kept himself in shape while he was locked up and goes out looking for answers, he also falls in love with a young woman along the way.

The film is a Gothic revenge tale with graphic violence and a nod to The Count of Monte Cristo and Oedipus Rex.

It seems that Oh Dea-Su’s nemesis has set up a complex and contrived form of revenge that spans years. Like Oh Dea-Su you yearn for the answers and you root for him as he beats up all-comers some literally to a pulp.

However I found the ending to be messy and unnecessarily graphic and gruesome. The remake had an elegant ending which was more palatable. Also I found the lead actor hard to take as a bad ass.

Josh Brolin in the remake I could buy as the rowdy student in his youth or the drunken boor as a young man. When he is released I can see him being grungy and violent as he hunts down the people who locked him up.

Still Oldboy was critically lauded and regarded as a masterpiece of modern South Korean cinema and is worth a watch.

A cinematic bad boy

Oldboy really is an odd movie. It’s totally unconventional, completely original, and unlike anything else you’ll probably find out there, even in the realms of Asian cinema. To say too much would be to spoil the ride, but this is a film where you’ll always be guessing what’s going to happen next and never quite sure what’s really going on.

It’s a bleak, dark movie that begins very well indeed and stays strong throughout. Chan-wook Park is an expert director and really handles everything well. He’s blessed with a superior leading man in Choi Min-sik, the kind of actor who gives his all to the movie, no restraint, no mild-mannered acting here…he lives and breathes the role and you believe in him at all times. Kang Hye-jeong, starring opposite him as love interest Mido, is also very effective, completely lovely and just right for her role.

As for the story… wow. This movie has a brilliant script that constantly surprises you right up until the very last scene. Twists are commonplace these days, but the one found here is the most shocking I’ve ever seen. OLDBOY has it all, really. A great story unveiled in a leisurely way, piece by piece, no hurry. Touches of the surreal – the disgusting octopus-eating scene is everything you’d imagine it to be. Great acting, great technical aspects. There’s violence too, of course. The tooth-pulling torture is probably the most squirm-inducing bit, but the highlight for me is the one-take corridor battle which has to be seen to be believed. One guy with a hammer versus twenty hoods…well, watch it and find out what happens.

By the time the ending comes and you find out why Oh Dae-su was imprisoned, you realise you’re watching a masterwork of cinema. It’s not an easy film to sit through by any means, but it is affecting and it is very well made indeed. Challenging, gut-punching and outrageous: OLDBOY is one of the bad boys of our time.