Oldboy
Oldboy
R | 25 March 2005 (USA)
Oldboy Trailers

With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.

Reviews
Michael Speiser

Oldeuboi is currently, and has been for a while now, my favorite movie. Min-sik Choi plays his role flawlessly. This movie promises you an exciting experience right off the bat, and then entirely over-delivers and becomes something much more than you expected going into it. You name it, this movie does it incredibly well. The cinematography is nothing short of artistic. The soundtrack is perfectly fitting and very emotional. The writing and storytelling are the best I've ever seen, and call back to classic tragedies and the tragic hero. I find that American audiences generally don't like this movie much because of it's nontraditional storytelling and ending. If you're interested in something you won't ever get out of an American movie, this will deliver. And don't worry about being bored, because not a second of the runtime of this movie is wasted. There is always either action happening on screen, plot being developed, or cinematography being shown off. Most of the time all at once. Even if you don't like drama, or don't like international movies, it can be appreciated for so many different things that everyone will find something to love about it. The fight scenes in this movie are some of the best I've ever seen, and aren't even one of the main reasons why I love this movie. If you aren't very open to stories that are nontraditional or something you're not used to seeing in the West, you might take issue with this movie, to which I'd say you need to open up some more, because you're missing out on a great experience.As I said earlier, Min-sik Choi is an incredible actor, and after watching Oldeuboi I watched two of his other films, "I Saw the Devil" and "Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time", both of which are incredible films that I suggest you go watch if you liked Oldeuboi or are interested in Korean cinema but want something other than Oldeuboi. Min-sik Choi delivers an almost, but not quite as amazing performance in both of those movies. Oldeuboi itself is a great dive into Korean cinema and what it has to offer. Watch this movie if you get the chance.

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paulclaassen

'Oldboy' is constantly mentioned as one of the greatest Korean films ever made, and has also been called the most disturbing Korean film (followed by 'I saw the Devil' and 'The Chaser', which were both incredibly disturbing). I therefore eagerly watched the film in high anticipation, but am quite sad to say I was very disappointed. It started off very interesting and mysterious, and the story was told in a very unique way. The moment Oh Dae Su is released, the film becomes very neo-noir-ish (and I don't enjoy neo-noir) and I actually found it to me more comedic than disturbing or suspenseful. Choi Min-sik was excellent, as usual, and without him in the lead I might have liked the film even less. So, essentially the film is about an old school friend, Lee Woo-jin, who wants to avenge Oh Dae-Su for Lee's sister's suicide. Because of this he locks him up for 15 years, then sets him free after 'programming' both him and his daughter via hypnosis to fall in love. Uhmm, ok... Ok, spoilers to follow, so stop reading if you don't want to know. Is this filmed said to be the most disturbing film simply because it is revealed the woman he so eagerly had sex with is actually his daughter? Nothing else in the film is disturbing. When all is said and done and Lee kills himself (what an anti-climax!!), Oh Dae-Su tracks down the hypnotist and asks her to erase his memory of his daughter so they can have a relationship. Seriously!!?? So he'd rather have her as his lover than his daughter?? I rest my case...

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bearsss

This is an amazing revenge story, where the viewer assumes the revenge is being gotten by the main character the entire movie. The ending ruined my brain for about 20 mins and I can't recommend this movie enough to anyone.

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Aashish Kumar

This movie tell us a story about Revenge, Sins and complicated human relationships. there is a quote in the movie "Even though I'm no more than a monster - don't I, too, have the right to live?" You will find Mystery, Family, Drama, , Thriller, Action, Film noir almost every movie Genre.

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