Oldboy Movie

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 4 people | Log in to rate

Ranked #698 in Movies & TV, #17,678 overall

Oldboy

Winner of the Grand Prix de Jury in Cannes, Oldboy is Park's today most complex and cruel film. Where all his films study cause and effect, "Oldboy" is a Kafka-ian ping pong game.

Summary 


Original title: Oldboy
Country: South Korea
Year: 2003
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
International MPAA: R (USA)
IMDB Rating: 8

An explosively exciting

psychosexual revenge drama
that makes movies feel alive again

Cast 

actors on the left side, roles on the right one

Director and writer:
Koreeda Hirokazu - director/writer

(Hint: hover on image for cast info, images are also clickable)
Actors and actresses:
Choi Min-Sikas Dae-su Oh  Yu Ji-Taeas Woo-jin Lee  Kang Hye-Jeongas Mi-do
Oh Dal-Suas Park Cheol-woong (The private prison's manager)  Kim Byeong-OkMr. Han (Bodyguard of Woo-jin)  Yun Jin-SeoLee Soo-ah (Woo-jin's sister)

Plot 

OldboyAn ordinary oldboy is inexplicably kidnapped one day and imprisoned for fifteen years and his wife is brutally killed. Then, just as sudden as he was kidnapped, he is released and given new expensive closes, a wallet full of money and a cellphone. A stranger calls and asks him to try and figure out why he was imprisoned. A girl appears and promises to help him solve the enigma and seek vengeance for his cruel fate.
As he strives to explain his imprisonment and get his revenge, he soon finds out that not only his kidnapper has still plans for him, but that those plans will serve as the even worse finale to fifteen years of imprisonment.

What Wikipedia says about the Oldboy movie 

Oldboy (Hangul: ????, the phonetic transliteration of "old boy") is a 2003 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook. It is loosely based on the Japanese manga of the same name written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. Oldboy is the second installment of The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and followed by Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The film follows the story of one Oh Dae-Su, who is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae Su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls for an attractive sushi chef.

The film won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and high praise from the President of the Jury, director Quentin Tarantino. Critically, the movie has been well received in the United States, with an 81% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rottentomatoes.com. Film critic Roger Ebert has claimed Oldboy to be a "...powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare". In 2008, voters on CNN named it one of the ten best Asian films ever made.http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/entertainment/entertainment/view/20081112-171695/CNN-Himala-best-Asian-film-in-history

"Be advised to ignore the rave from Tarantino about this film, as it reduces the film-show enjoyment."

Featured reviews 

  • «The brio and glee that Koran bad-boy filmmaker Park Chanwook brings to the gaudy psycho-shockeroo OLDBOY is undeniable, even impressive.» - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

  • «OLDBOY ventures to emotional extremes, but not without reason.» - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  • «With rigorously inventive direction and an emotional undertow that builds to a startling level of intensity.» - Matthew Leyland, Sight and Sound

  • «An explosively exciting psychosexual revenge drama from Korean powerhouse Park Chanwook that makes movies feel alive again.» - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

  • «Park Chan-Wook is a tremendous craftsman....He ratchets up the sadistic suspense in a variety of fruit flavors.» - Premiere Staff, Premiere

  • «Park's direction is bristlingly inventive, and his themes are ancient Greek in scope.» - Michael Atkinson, Movieline's Hollywood Life

  • Ranked #5 in Entertainment Weekly's Top Ten DVDs Of The Year - «Fans of Tarantino and films with surprise endings that are actually surprising should flock to this Korean import...» - Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly

  • «A master of composition, Mr. Park makes some of the snazziest-looking pulp fiction going.» - Manohla Dargis, New York Times

"Instead, sit back and enjoy one of Korea's greatest filmmakers taking you on a roller coaster ride."

Oldboy trailer 

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Oldboy DVDs 

from biggest Asian distributor

Old Boy Blu-ray (US Version) (recommended)

coverAudio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo - English, Korean
DTS-HD master Audio Surround 6.1 Uncompressed - Korean
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX - Korean
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
Disc 1: OLDBOY (Blu-ray Disc)
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. Director's Commentary
2. Director and Cast Commentary
3. Director and Cinematographer Commentary
Deleted Scenes with Opional Commentary
Theatrical Trailer
Disc 2: Standard Definition Bonus Disc
5-Behind The Scenes Documentaries
Featurette - 1. Making The Film - The Cast Remembers
2. Production Design
3. The Music Score
4. CGI Documentary
5. Flashback.
6. 'Le Grand Prix At Cannes'
Interview - Cast & Crew Interviews
Trailers - Tartan Asia Extreme Trailers

Buy at
yesasia

$31.49


Old Boy DVD (US Version)

coverKeep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - Korean
Dolby DTS-ES Surround 6.1 - Korean
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo - Korean
Additional Release Material:
Deleted Scenes
Audio Commentary - 1. Director & Cinematographer
Production Interview

Buy at
yesasia

$22.95


Old Boy DVD 3-Disc Limited Edition (US Version)

coverCollectors Edition
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 - Korean
Subtitles - English - Optional
Disc 1:
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary:
1. Chan Wook Park - Director
2. Chan Wook Park - Director; Jeong-hun Jeong - Cinematographer
3. Chan Wook Park - Director; Cast Members
Disc 2:
Additional Release Material:
Featurette: "Le Grand Prix at Cannes"
Interviews: Cast & Crew
Outtakes: Deleted Scenes
Behind the Scenes:
1. Making Of
2. Production Design
3. The Music Score
4. CGI Documentary
5. Flashback
Disc 3:
Feature - "The Autobiography of Oldboy"

Buy at
yesasia

$39.95

Most Important Thing

Park is not everyman's taste, but an acquired taste, which ones you get the hang of it, never can let go again.

Qualified Oldboy reviews 

by expert sites


  • [KFCC] Oldboy movie review by KFCCinema.com
    http://www.kfccinema.com/reviews/drama/oldboy/oldboy.html
    The monologues are so naturally and realistically executed that it immediately conjures up the narratives of Wong Kar Wai films, which in turn, also creates a similar somber atmosphere and mood that Oh Dae-su navigates in. This adds so much to the characterization because we are immediately sympathetic to his rationalized evils. For the sake of the film, he may be on the positive side of the revenge spectrum, but it ends up becoming much grayer as the story builds on.

  • Oldboy movie review at AmpedAsia.com
    http://www.ampedasia.com/movies/Oldboy/
    Mido, played by Kang Hye-Jeong, is a more reserved character, but the variety of different scenes this character had to perform was extraordinary. She is adept at playing innocent yet sexual, and her role in this movie is huge. The beauty of this actress is that she is willing to do anything for a character, including the graphic sex scenes (scenes that are actually in the film for a reason and not just for sex), and this is the main reason she is so believable as Mi-do. Her character in Oldboy is easily her best and most memorable film role.

  • Oldboy movie review at KoreanMovie.org
    http://koreanmovie.org/reviews/oldboy.htm
    Part of the success of the movie is its complex story structure that is seemingly hard to define and grasp initially. It is such unorthodoxy that challenged viewers leaving us with not much sure ground to stand on. It is thus exhilarating watching the movie unwinds. Park continue to redefine and refine the genre with excellent cinematography that made Old Boy such a polished work, even a simple flashback scene is filmed with much invention. Old Boy is a myriad of disparate elements that combine well to give the movie a distinctive edge. The sounds, words and actions all combine to give the movie a poetic madness giving the movie a unique style.

  • Oldboy review at Channel4.com
    http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=137372
    On his way to solving the riddle, Park and his co-screenwriters Jo-Yun Hwang and Chun-Hyeong Lim really put the protagonist through the mill. It's pretty Jacobean stuff - violent, vengeful, impassioned, angry. In one incredible sequence, the camera tracks slowly left to right alongside a corridor as Oh fights his way through a mob of heavies armed with clubs and blades. No balletic martial arts here, instead it's brutal but compellingly so, the hero resisting pain and defeat due to his all-consuming motivation.

  • Oldboy movie review, in Film Australia
    http://www.infilm.com.au/reviews/oldboy.htm
    This is an enthralling film: its ideas are mostly all recycled but they're rehashed in original and confronting ways, and Chan-wook Park draws upon a kooky and crazy-eyed sense of rhythm and energy to distil any notions of genre familiarity. Old Boy is a really hard edged film; it's bold, striking, unashamedly violent and impulsive. It's rich with concisely plotted and networked ideas joined together with scatter-brained cohesion and endowed with the prowess of a true showman.

More Oldboy photos 

oldboy by 南宮博士

Oldboy (korean poster) by Foxtongue

curated content from Flickr

Best Oldboy Quotes: Sound off 

Vote for your favorites, or add a new one.

Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone.

1 point

Revenge is good for your health, but pain will find you again.

0 points

Even though I'm no more than a monster - don't I, too, have the right to live?

0 points

created by Garou

Oldboy fan trailer 

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Oldboy manga 

as a base of Oldboy movie script

Oldboy movie is based on a Japanese manga of the same name written in 1996-1998 by Garon Tsuchiya and with artwork done by Nobuaki Minegishi.

In 2007, The Old Boy manga won an Eisner Award in the category of "Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan."

The manga is composed of a total of eight volumes.

Oldboy manga description 

volume by volume - 8 volumes total

Old Boy Volume 1 (v. 1)

Ten years ago, they took him. He doesn't know who. For ten years he has been confined in a private prison. He doesn't know why. For ten years his only contact with the outside world has been a television set and the voice of his jailers. In time, he lost himself... changed... transformed himself into something else... something hard... something lethal. Suddenly one day, his incarceration ends, again without explanation. He is sedated, stuffed inside a trunk, and dumped in a park. When he awakes, he is free to reclaim what's left of his life... and what's left is revenge.

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Old Boy Volume 2 (v. 2)

Deciding that he must know the truth, the man who calls himself "Yamashita" follows a trail of clues that lead him back to the mysterious building where he was imprisoned and kept incommunicado for ten years. There, with the help of violence and a brutal imagination, he will try to find answers to the questions that haunt him. However, he will discover that his opponent will not yield to him so easily, and that his ordeal is far from finished.

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Old Boy Volume 3 (v. 3)

The deadly game of cat-and-mouse continues! Imprisoned for a decade without trial or explanation - and then released just as unceremoniously - and now armed with a cell phone that his former torturer has provided for him, will Goto be able to hunt down the truth behind his decade in hell, or will he become even more his tormentor's plaything? No doubt, Goto's adversary still has a few surprises in store, and if Goto wants answers, he'll have to fight like hell to get them.

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Old Boy Volume 4 (v. 4)

Goto's search to unearth the identity of his mysterious tormentor has led to one dead end after another, until he receives a tip that an old high school classmate may have orchestrated the kidnapping that began Goto's ten years of isolation and imprisonment. But many years have passed since Goto's seen his schoolmate, and he looks much different than Goto remembers. Has Goto found the true path to his final vengeance, or has he swallowed another piece of poisoned bait?

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Old Boy Volume 5 (v. 5)

Ten years locked away in a private prison with only a TV set and a jailer's voice for company - but why? What had Goto done to deserve this unexplained forced isolation, and why was he unceremoniously released, again without given reason? Could this decade of torment really be about a schoolyard grudge? Is an adolescent vendetta worth the millions of yen required to imprison a man for a decade? And is allowing the brutal Goto the opportunity to pursue his revenge just another opportunity to watch him twist on a hook?

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

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