Rent Oldboy (2003)

The ultimate revenge movie. - Oldboy review by CP Customer

A drunken man named 'Dae-Su' disappears one night after being released from a police station only to be kidnapped by anonymous captors and imprisoned in a hotel room. For the next 15 years he finds himself incarcerated and has little contact with others. He obsessively watches T.V where he learns of his wife's murder and his daughters' placement with another family. Occasionally the room fills with a sedative gas and when he awakes he finds himself clean shaven and haircut. This routine continues through a 15 year period, when suddenly he is released, he then enters on a surreal and violent odyssey of revenge to discover the identity of his captors. This is an excellent film about revenge and how it can possess someone to the point of self destruction, and where Quentin Tarantino's, entertaining 'Kill Bill' is also based around the theme of revenge; 'Old Boy' is something else entirely. It's an absolutely stunning film that succeeds both as a violent action thriller and as a powerful thought provoking tragedy. There are some great fight sequences where Dae-Su's rage consumes him so fully he is able to fight off enemies with a knife sticking out of his back. There are also scenes of torture and gore that are particularly intense, although the extreme violence never overshadows the brilliance of this film. The well crafted story takes so many twists and turns that as a viewer you are almost always on edge, and just when you think you know where story is heading another there's yet another surreal twist to the tale. Be warned, this is not a film for the squeamish or easily offended, but if you can get past the violence and disturbing images, 'Old Boy' is an amazing film.

A black-hearted classic - Oldboy review by Kurtz

“Oldboy” is a riveting and totally insane slice of Korean extreme- the plot seethes with horrifying twists and turns, there is wince-inducing action and gallons of pitch-black humour; and at the film’s heart there is an outstanding bug-eyed performance from Choi min-sik as the man plucked from the street and imprisoned for fifteen years, then released without explanation. He sets off to identify his abductors and wreak revenge on them, only to find that they haven’t finished with him yet…

Groundbreaking thriller - Oldboy review by CP Customer

I think this film goes into my all time top 5, for its originality, shocking plot and its quite disturbing depiction of the sheer bloody mindedness of human nature. It is quite graphically violent in places, but not excessively so as to divert from the plot.

The acting and direction is first class and as my first introduction to the work of Korean director Chan-wook Park I was extremely impressed.