Oldboy (2003)
"Oldeuboi" (original title)

After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in 5 days.

Director:

Chan-wook Park

Writers:

Garon Tsuchiya (story), Nobuaki Minegishi (comic),

Stars:

Min-sik Choi, Ji-tae Yu, Hye-jeong Kang

Top Rated Movies #69 | 24 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Min-sik Choi	...	Dae-su Oh
Ji-tae Yu	...	Woo-jin Lee
Hye-jeong Kang	...	Mi-do
Dae-han Ji	...	No Joo-hwan
Dal-su Oh	...	Park Cheol-woong
Byeong-ok Kim	...	Mr. Han
Seung-shin Lee	...	Yoo Hyung-ja (as Seung-Shin Lee)
Jin-seo Yoon	...	Lee Soo-ah
Dae-yeon Lee	...	Beggar
Kwang-rok Oh	...	Suicidal Man
Tae-kyung Oh	...	Young Dae-su
Yeon-suk Ahn	...	Young Woo-jin
Il-han Oo	...	Young Joo-hwan
Su-hyeon Kim
Seung-jin Lee

Storyline

An average man is kidnapped and imprisoned in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. He then is released, equipped with money, a cellphone and expensive clothes. As he strives to explain his imprisonment and get his revenge, Oh Dae-Su soon finds out that his kidnapper has a greater plan for him and is set onto a path of pain and suffering in an attempt to uncover the motive of his mysterious tormentor.

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Plot Keywords:

imprisonment | revenge | love | hypnosis | father daughter relationship | 

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Taglines:

15 years of imprisonment, five days of vengeance

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence including scenes of torture, sexuality and pervasive language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Russia] Wild Side Films [France]

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

21 November 2003 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Oldboy

Filming Locations:

Songgye High School, Chinju, Kyongsangnam-Do, South Korea

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$44,465 (Hong Kong) (15 October 2004)

Gross:

$2,181,290 (USA) (20 December 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Egg Films, Show East

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The restaurant that Mido works in is called "Mediterranean", which is the name of the restaurant in real life, but the director originally intended for it to be called "Akira" - not as a reference to the popular Manga, but to the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.

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Goofs

When Woo-jin Lee is searching through the Internet for the word "Evergreen", you can see that the high school website already has been visited on that computer because the link is highlighted in purple colors.

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Quotes

Mi-do: What should I pray for?
Dae-su Oh: Dear Lord, next time let me meet a younger man.

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Connections

Remade as Zinda (2006)

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Soundtracks

Waltz
from "Masquerade"
by Aram Khachaturyan

User 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