Oldboy (2003)
8.25 /10
9250 Reviews
Rate This Movie:
With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.
Videos & Photos
cast
... Oh Dae-Su
... Lee Woo-jin
... Mi-do
... Mr. Han
... No Joo-hwan
User reviews
I’m sure that all of you can always spot a film with good acting, superb plot and great cinematography easily but when it comes to a thriller that possesses all those above quality, it would be such a rarity. OldBoy here, second installment from The Vengeance Trilogy directed by Park Chan-wook (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, OldBoy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) really have them all, good story, powerful acting and the most horrifying and clever end twist if not genius. In fact no matter how many times you see this, the twist would still be awesome. The theme of revenge here is taken to the next level, to its supremacy for it’s really carefully-planned. OldBoy has a mind-bending assortment of drama, thriller, romance and beautifully spiced up with sadistic plot, shocking elements, ultra violence and clever psychological twist. Imagine yourself captured, locked in a room for 15 years, not knowing why and who did it and when you finally escaped and thought it’s all over, you were wrong and here’s the punching line, the direct punch to your stomach. Min-sik Choi as Oh Dae su really acted well, he really got us carried away by dragging us into the mystery that surrounds his life, into the depression he’s been feeling and into the deep well of his curiosity. Once again, OldBoy is a way too remarkable, when “revenge” isn’t merely knife-chopping or gun-battling. Enough said.
Director:
Writer:
Hwang Jo-yoon (Screenplay)
Lim Joon-hyung (Screenplay)
Park Chan-wook (Screenplay)
Garon Tsuchiya (Comic Book)
Nobuaki Minegishi (Comic Book)
Release Date:
2003-11-21
Run Time:
120 min
MMPA Rating:
R
Reviews of
Oldboy
I’m sure that all of you can always spot a film with good acting, superb plot and great cinematography easily but when it comes to a thriller that possesses all those above quality, it would be such a rarity. OldBoy here, second installment from The Vengeance Trilogy directed by Park Chan-wook (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, OldBoy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) really have them all, good story, powerful acting and the most horrifying and clever end twist if not genius. In fact no matter how many times you see this, the twist would still be awesome. The theme of revenge here is taken to the next level, to its supremacy for it’s really carefully-planned. OldBoy has a mind-bending assortment of drama, thriller, romance and beautifully spiced up with sadistic plot, shocking elements, ultra violence and clever psychological twist. Imagine yourself captured, locked in a room for 15 years, not knowing why and who did it and when you finally escaped and thought it’s all over, you were wrong and here’s the punching line, the direct punch to your stomach. Min-sik Choi as Oh Dae su really acted well, he really got us carried away by dragging us into the mystery that surrounds his life, into the depression he’s been feeling and into the deep well of his curiosity. Once again, OldBoy is a way too remarkable, when “revenge” isn’t merely knife-chopping or gun-battling. Enough said.
This is definitely one of the films to see before you die. It's seat-squirmingly unsettling, shocking and very violent.
It's a journey into a truly disturbed mind; a mind, which - like yours will be - is unable to cope with what it discovers.
This film is brilliantly twisted. It has a thread of the most wonderful, blackest humour running through it, a sense of complete disorientation and enough plot twists and turns to sustain your interest.
Not one of the best revenge thrillers I've seen - simply THE best!
Just about everyone I’d spoken to about this film recommended it to me.
I watched this film with the original Korean-language soundtrack, with English subtitles.
Oh Dae-su (Chi Min-sik) is a bit of a flirt (whether he is a womaniser is not made clear) with a wife and young child, who has turned two years old on the day we start the film. Dae-su is in a prison waiting room having insulted a woman he was flirting with. A friend comes and eventually gets him out, but while he’s making a call to his wife to explain he will be home soon, he is kidnapped.
Incarcerated in a small room, with only a TV for company, he is fed and looked after, but not allowed his freedom. He unsuccessfully attempts suicide several times. He keeps himself fit by doing exercise programmes he sees on TV and he starts to dig his way out with chopsticks. He sees a TV report that shows he’s been framed for the murder of his wife. Fifteen years later, without a word of explanation, he is released.
The rest of the film follows his attempts to find out why he was imprisoned, who did it, and where his daughter is.
The film is frenetic, highly charged, and very emotional on several levels. It is also bloody in places, but Dae-su’s obsession for seeking revenge on whomsoever imprisoned him and on finding out where his daughter is drives this film along. There are psychological aspects to the film as well, and the film does eventually resolve itself – it is not one of those open-ended “I wonder who did it” type films. Follow the film through and you will get all the answers.
I would recommend it, but I wouldn’t call it light entertainment.
Cast & Crew of
Oldboy
Cast
... Oh Dae-Su
... Lee Woo-jin
... Mi-do
... Mr. Han
... No Joo-hwan
... Park Cheol-woong
... Hypnotist
... Lee Soo-ah
... Young Dae-su
... Young Woo-jin
... Young Joo-hwan
... Clock Store Lady
... Elevator Lady
... Dental Nurse
... Night Teacher
... Nun Teacher
... Electronics Store Owner
... Woo-jin's Doctor
... Nurse
... Rude Man
... 1988 Guard
... 1988 Guard
... 1996 Guard
... 2003 Guard
... Woo-jin's Bodyguard
... Woo-jin's Bodyguard
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cheol-woong's Gang
... Cigarette Thug
... Cigarette Thug
... Cigarette Thug
... Cigarette Thug
... Cigarette Thug
... Dae-su's Wife
... Young Mi-do
... Young Mi-do
... Stunts
... Stunts
... Suicidal Man
... Beggar
... Young-ja
... Chief Secretary
... Delivery Man
... Cheol-woong’s gang member
Crew
... Director of Photography
... Screenplay
... Screenplay
... Editor
... Screenplay
... Original Music Composer
... Art Designer
... Production Sound Mixer
... Costume Designer
... Editor
... Props
... Stunts
... Stunts
... Special Effects Makeup Artist
... Costume Design
... Production Design
... Set Decoration
... Comic Book
... Comic Book
... Sound Supervisor
... Line Producer
... Producer
... Original Music Composer
... Executive Producer
... Assistant Director
... Assistant Director
... Camera Operator
... Camera Operator
... Assistant Director
... Executive Producer
... Makeup & Hair
... Assistant Director
... Original Music Composer
... Colorist
... Colorist
... Production Manager
... VFX Supervisor
... Director
... Lighting Director
... Fight Choreographer
... Visual Effects Director
... Title Designer
... Stunts
... Dolly Grip
... Music
... Special Effects Supervisor
... Executive Producer
![Original Trailer [Subtitled]](https://img.youtube.com/vi/hBNBpNcuQHI/mqdefault.jpg)
Similar Movies To
Oldboy
Odu Raja Odu (2018)
6.5/10
A wife wants her husband to get her a set-top box. The husband goes out to buy it with his drug peddler friend and gets into problems that soon spiral out of control.
Release: 2018-08-17
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
6.618/10
A mysterious artifact unearthed below a London Underground station proves to have powerful psychic effects on the people around.
Release: 1967-11-09
Boiling Point (1990)
6.891/10
Masaki, a baseball player and gas-station attendant, gets into trouble with the local Yakuza and goes to Okinawa to get a gun to defend himself. There he meets Uehara, a tough gangster, who is in serious debt to the yakuza and planning revenge.
Release: 1990-09-15
Puppet Master II (1990)
5.9/10
A new team of paranormal researchers has come to the hotel to investigate its murder-soaked past; the puppets -- led by a new member, Torch -- shed some light on the matter, as they tunnel, burn, strangle and hook to survive.
Release: 1990-02-07
Una buena forma de morir (1994)
5/10
After his wife is murdered by gang members, a man must take revenge.
Release: 1994-11-11
Ojo por Ojo (1981)
4.7/10
A couple is attacked bu thugs and the woman is killed, the boyfriend plans his revenge.
Release: 1981-10-08
La barranca sangrienta (1962)
4.7/10
Alberto and Leonor have a son, they find out that one of the masked men who attacked them was her nephew, things get difficult for them when they find out about a testament left by her grandmother.
Release: 1962-11-16
May God Save Us (2016)
6.736/10
Madrid, summer 2011. Economic crisis. 15-M movement and 1.5 million pilgrims waiting for the Pope’s arrival live side by side in a Madrid that’s hotter and more chaotic than ever. In this context, detectives Velarde and Alfaro must find what seems to be a serial killer. Their against-the-clock hunt will make them realise something they’d never imagined: neither of them are so very different from the killer.
Release: 2016-10-28
Dosa Musyrik (2024)
4.5/10
Pushed by debt to the point of despair, Nugie is forced to take her terminally ill mother to the sakti shaman, Mbah Narto. Seeing Mbah Narto's treasure, Nugie was tempted to get it. But unfortunately, all he got was not money, but the sacred gift of the shaman. Since then, Nugie has had to face the terrible terror of Ni Loro Pati! Not only Nugie experienced terror, but the people around her began to die one by one.
Release: 2024-10-31
American Mirror - Intimations of Immortality (2018)
10/10
Oscar-winning screen icon Susan Sarandon and Armenian painter Tigran Tsitoghdzyan discuss time and identity, and how the apparently in conflict values of beauty and aging are perceived in our modern society dominated by social media, as he limns her portrait during a timeless sitting session. With this film the director sets in motion his film theory on poetics of cinematic art, by re-creating a set of sense memories of an artist in a non-linear, challenging, yet intriguing story-telling scheme.
Release: 2018-10-21
The Fantasy of a Barnacle (2010)
1/10
Elisa and Mathieu are siblings at their early 20s. She has incestuous desires for her brother who has a girlfriend, but he refuses her. She struggles with her forbidden desire and plays a trick on him.
Release: 2010-06-09
The Sin of Nora Moran (1933)
5.5/10
Nora Moran, a young woman with a difficult and tragic past, is sentenced to die for a murder that she did not commit. She could easily reveal the truth and save her own life, if only it would not damage the lives, careers and reputations of those whom she loves.
Release: 1933-12-13
Far from Home (1989)
5.293/10
Charlie Cox should have stopped for gas in California. While he's on a cross-country trip with his teenage daughter, Joleen, his car hits empty in a creepy town in Nevada. With nary a drop of fuel to be found, Charlie and Joleen stop for the night at a dilapidated trailer park. There, Joleen catches the eye of two teenage boys, Jimmy and Pinky -- either of whom could be the serial killer currently terrorizing the town.
Release: 1989-06-30
The Killer Is Loose (1956)
6.6/10
A savings-and-loan bank is robbed; later, a police wiretap identifies meek bank teller Leon Poole as the inside man. In capturing him, detective Sam Wagner accidentally kills Poole's young wife, and at his trial Poole swears vengeance against Wagner. Poole begins his plans to get revenge when he escapes his captors.
Release: 1956-02-03
Prey for Rock & Roll (2003)
4.8/10
In late 1980s Los Angeles, Jacki and her all-girl punk rock band, Clam Dandy, are trying to make it big. On the verge of turning 40, Jacki decides that if the band's one last shot at the big time is unsuccessful, she will give up her dreams of stardom.
Release: 2003-09-26
Smiles of Sad Men (2018)
6.7/10
A writer gets into a rehab where he meets a lot of successful men who destroyed their lives with alcohol.
Release: 2018-07-12
The Ghost (1963)
6/10
A woman and her lover murder her husband, a doctor. Soon, however, strange things start happening, and they wonder if they really killed him, or if he is coming back from the dead to haunt them.
Release: 1963-03-30
Violence in a Women's Prison (1982)
5.8/10
Laura Kendall, also known as Emanuelle, arrives at a remote prison with a long, fictional rap sheet that will allow her to go undercover to report on the cruelties behind bars.
Release: 1982-09-09
The Lost Weekend (1945)
7.624/10
Don Birnam, a long-time alcoholic, has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last - one way or another.
Release: 1945-11-29