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Oldboy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Park Chan-wook
Screenplay by	Hwang Jo-yun Lim Jun-hyung Park Chan-wook
Produced by	Lim Syd
Starring	Choi Min-sik Yoo Ji-tae Kang Hye-jung
Cinematography	Chung Chung-hoon
Edited by	Kim Sang-bum
Music by	Cho Young-wuk
Production company	Show East
Distributed by	Show East
Release date	21 November 2003 (2003-11-21)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Budget	$3 million
Box office	$15 million

Oldboy (Korean: 올드보이; RR: Oldeuboi; MR: Oldŭboi) is a 2003 South Korean neo-noir mystery thriller film co-written and directed by Park Chan-wook. It is 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 Lady Vengeance.

The film follows the story of Oh Dae-su, who is imprisoned in a cell which resembles a hotel room for 15 years without knowing the identity of his captor or 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 in love with an attractive young 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. The film has been well received by critics in the United States, with film critic Roger Ebert stating that Oldboy is a "powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare". It has been listed among the best films of the 2000s in several publications.

An American remake of the same name directed by Spike Lee was released in 2013.

Plot

In 1988, a businessman named Oh Dae-su is arrested for drunkenness, missing his daughter's fourth birthday. After his friend Joo-hwan picks him up from the police station, they go to a phone booth for Dae-su to call home. While Joo-hwan is talking to Dae-su's wife, Dae-su is kidnapped and wakes up in a sealed hotel room, where food is delivered through a trap-door. Watching the television, Dae-su learns that his wife has been murdered and he's the prime suspect. Dae-su passes the time shadowboxing, planning revenge and attempting to dig a tunnel to escape.

15 years have passed since he was imprisoned. It is 2003 and a new century has dawned. Just before digging himself to freedom, Dae-su is sedated, hypnotized and wakes up on a rooftop dressed in a suit. On the rooftop, Dae-su sees a man on the ledge holding a dog ready to commit suicide. He steps in front of the man's face and stays uncomfortably close as to make it certain he is not dreaming. The man asks Dae-su, "Even though I am no better than a beast, don't I have the right to live?" Dae-su recounts everything that has happened so far to the man who reacts by attempting to tell Dae-su the reason for his own suicide attempt. Disinterested, Dae-su leaves him on the rooftop to jump off with the dog. Dae-Su tests his fighting skills on a group of young thugs. Afterward, a mysterious beggar gives him money and a cell phone. Dae-su enters a sushi restaurant where he meets Mi-do, the restaurant's young chef. Dae-su receives a taunting phone call from his captor, who refuses to explain the reason for Dae-su's imprisonment. He collapses and is taken in by Mi-do. After he recovers, Dae-su tries to find his daughter and the location of his prison. Discovering that his daughter was adopted by a Swedish couple, he gives up trying to contact her. Dae-su locates the Chinese restaurant that made food for his prison and finds the prison by following a delivery man. It's a private prison where people can pay to have others incarcerated. Dae-su enters the prison and tortures the warden, Mr. Park, who doesn't know the identity of Dae-su's captor but reveals that Dae-su was imprisoned for "talking too much". While leaving the prison, Dae-su is attacked by a large number of guards and stabbed in the back with a knife but manages to defeat them all.

Dae-su's captor, a wealthy man named Lee Woo-jin, contacts Dae-su again and gives him an ultimatum: if Dae-su discovers the motive for his imprisonment within five days, Woo-jin will kill himself by stopping the pacemaker in his chest. Otherwise, he will kill Mi-do. As Dae-su and Mi-do become intimate, they have sex. Meanwhile, Joo-hwan tries to contact Dae-su with some important information about Woo-jin's sister but is murdered by Woo-jin, who was secretly following him after Dae-su removed all of Woo-jin's electronic bugs. Dae-su eventually recalls that he and Woo-jin had gone to the same high school, and he had witnessed Woo-jin committing incest with his own sister. Dae-su told Joo-hwan what he had seen before leaving the school, which leads to his classmates learning about the event. Rumors about Woo-jin's sister started to spread and she eventually committed suicide, leading a grief-stricken Woo-jin to seek revenge. Back in the present day, Woo-jin cuts off Mr. Park's hand, fulfilling an earlier threat by Dae-su, causing Mr. Park and his gang to seemingly join forces with Dae-su. Dae-su leaves Mi-do with Mr. Park and sets out to face Woo-jin.

At Woo-jin's penthouse, Woo-jin reveals that Mi-do is Dae-su's daughter. Woo-jin had orchestrated everything by using hypnosis to guide Dae-su to the sushi restaurant, arranging for them to meet and fall in love so that Dae-su will experience the same pain of incest that Woo-jin did. Dae-su attempts to attack Woo-jin but is beaten badly by Woo-jin's bodyguard. Using scissors as a weapon, Dae-su manages to stab the bodyguard in the ear, deafening him. The deafened bodyguard, now seriously hurt and enraged, attempts to kill Dae-su. Woo-jin, unable to call him off, intervenes and coldly shoots his bodyguard in the head with a Derringer pistol. Woo-jin reveals that Mr. Park is still working for him and sold Mr. Park the newly refurbished prison building in exchange for him amputating his hand. Woo-jin threatens to tell the truth to Mi-do, who is being held in Mr. Park's new prison. Dae-su apologizes for his involvement in the death of Woo-jin's sister and humiliates himself by imitating a dog, begging Woo-jin not to tell Mi-do. When Woo-jin laughs unimpressed, Dae-su cuts out his own tongue as a sign of penance. Woo-jin finally accepts Dae-su's apology and tells Mr. Park to hide the truth from Mi-do. After entering the elevator, Woo-jin recalls his sister's suicide and shoots himself in the head with the Derringer.

In the epilogue, an undisclosed amount of time later, Dae-su finds the hypnotist from the prison to erase his knowledge of Mi-do being his daughter, so that they can stay happy together. To persuade the hypnotist, Dae-Su repeats the question that he heard from the man on the rooftop, so she begins a hypnosis to erase his memories. Afterwards, Mi-do finds Dae-su lying in snow and confesses her love for him while the two embrace. There are no signs of the hypnotist, leaving it ambiguous if Dae-Su really even met her. Dae-su breaks into a wide smile, which is then slowly replaced by a look of pain. Whether the hypnosis really worked is left unknown.

Cast

• Choi Min-sik as Oh Dae-su; he has been imprisoned for about 15 years. Choi Min-sik lost and gained weight for his role depending on the filming schedule, trained for six weeks and did most of his stunt work.
  • Oh Tae-kyung as young Dae-su
• Yoo Ji-tae as Lee Woo-jin: The man behind Oh Dae-su's imprisonment. Park Chan-wook's ideal choice for Woo-jin had been actor Han Suk-kyu, who previously played a rival to Choi Min-sik in Shiri and No. 3. Choi then suggested Yoo Ji-tae for the role, despite Park thinking him too young for the part.
  • Yoo Yeon-seok as young Woo-jin
• Kang Hye-jung as Mi-do: Dae-su's love interest.
• Ji Dae-han as No Joo-hwan: Dae-su's friend and the owner of an internet café.
  • Woo Il-han as young Joo-hwan
• Kim Byeong-ok as Mr. Han: Bodyguard of Woo-jin.
• Yoon Jin-seo as Lee Soo-ah, Woo-jin's sister.
• Oh Dal-su as Park Cheol-woong, the private prison's manager.

Production

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2018)

The corridor fight scene took seventeen takes in three days to perfect and was one continuous take; there was no editing of any sort except for the knife that was stabbed in Oh Dae-su's back, which was computer-generated imagery.

Other computer-generated imagery in the film includes the ant coming out of Dae-su's arm (according to the making-of on the DVD the whole arm was CGI) and the ants crawling over him afterwards. The octopus being eaten alive was not computer-generated; four were used during the making of this scene. Actor Choi Min-sik, a Buddhist, said a prayer for each one. The eating of squirming octopuses (called san-nakji (산낙지) in Korean) as a delicacy exists in East Asia, although it is usually killed and cut, not eaten whole and alive. Usually the nerve activity in the octopus' tentacles makes the pieces still squirm posthumously on the plate when served. When asked in DVD commentary if he felt sorry for Choi, director Park Chan-wook stated he felt more sorry for the octopus.

The final scene's snowy landscape was filmed in New Zealand. The ending is deliberately ambiguous, and the audience is left with several questions: specifically, how much time has passed, if Dae-Su's meeting with the hypnotist really took place, whether he successfully lost the knowledge of Mi-do's identity, and whether he will continue his relationship with Mi-do. In an interview with Park (included with the European release of the film), he says that the ambiguous ending was deliberate and intended to generate discussion; it is completely up to each individual viewer to interpret what isn't shown.

Reception

Critical response

Oldboy received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 80% based on 133 reviews with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's consensus is "Violent and definitely not for the squeamish, Park Chan-Wook's visceral Oldboy is a strange, powerful tale of revenge." Metacritic gives the film an average score of 74 out of 100, based on 31 reviews.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars. Ebert remarked: "We are so accustomed to 'thrillers' that exist only as machines for creating diversion that it's a shock to find a movie in which the action, however violent, makes a statement and has a purpose." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three out of four stars, saying that it "isn't for everyone, but it offers a breath of fresh air to anyone gasping on the fumes of too many traditional Hollywood thrillers."

Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com praised the film, calling it "anguished, beautiful, and desperately alive" and "a dazzling work of pop-culture artistry." Peter Bradshaw gave it 5/5 stars, commenting that this is the first time in which he could actually identify with a small live octopus. Bradshaw summarizes his review by referring to Oldboy as "cinema that holds an edge of cold steel to your throat." David Dylan Thomas points out that rather than simply trying to "gross us out", Oldboy is "much more interested in playing with the conventions of the revenge fantasy and taking us on a very entertaining ride to places that, conceptually, we might not want to go." Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer gave Oldboy a score of "B-", calling it "a bloody and brutal revenge film immersed in madness and directed with operatic intensity," but felt that the questions raised by the film are "lost in the battering assault of lovingly crafted brutality."

MovieGazette lists 10 features on its "It's Got" list for Oldboy and summarizes its review of Oldboy by saying, "Forget ‘The Punisher’ and ‘Man on Fire’ – this mesmerising revenger’s tragicomedy shows just how far-reaching the tentacles of mad vengeance can be." MovieGazette also comments that it "needs to be seen to be believed." Jamie Russell of the BBC movie review calls it a "sadistic masterpiece that confirms Korea's current status as producer of some of the world's most exciting cinema." Manohla Dargis of the New York Times gave a lukewarm review, saying that "there is not much to think about here, outside of the choreographed mayhem." J.R. Jones of the Chicago Reader was also not impressed, saying that "there's a lot less here than meets the eye."

In 2008, Oldboy was placed 64th on an Empire list of the top 500 movies of all time. The same year, voters on CNN named it one of the ten best Asian films ever made. It was ranked #18 in the same magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010. In a 2016 BBC poll, critics voted the film the 30th greatest since 2000.

Oedipus the King inspiration

Chan-wook stated that he named the main character Oh Daesu "to remind the viewer of Oedipus." In one of the film's iconic shots, Yoo Ji-tae, who played Woo-jin, strikes an extraordinary yoga pose. Park Chan-wook said he designed this pose to convey "the image of Apollo." It was Apollo's prophecy that revealed Oedipus' fate in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. The link to Oedipus Rex is only a minor element in most English-language criticism of the movie, while Koreans have made it a central theme. Sung Hee Kim wrote "Family seen through Greek tragedy and Korean movie – Oedipus the King and Old Boy." Kim Kyungae offers a different analysis, with Dae-su and Woo-jin both representing Oedipus. Besides the theme of unknown incest revealed, Oedipus gouges his eyes out to avoid seeing a world that despises the truth, while Oh Dae-su cuts off his tongue to avoid revealing the truth to his world.

More parallels with Greek tragedy include the fact that Lee Woo-jin looks relatively young as compared to Oh Dae-su when they are supposed to be contemporaries at school, which makes Lee Woo-jin look like an immortal Greek god whereas Oh Dae-su is merely an aged mortal. Indeed, throughout the movie Lee Woo-jin is portrayed as an obscenely rich young man who lives in a lofty tower and is omnipresent due to having placed ear bugs on Oh Dae-Su and others, which again furthers the parallel between his character and the secrecy of Greek gods.

One could also mention Mido, who throughout the movie comes across as a strong-willed, young and innocent girl, which is not too far from Sophocles' Antigone, Oedipus' daughter, who, though she does not commit incest with her father, remains faithful and loyal to him which reminds us of the bittersweet ending where Mido reunites with Oh Dae-Su and takes care of him in the wilderness (cf. Oedipus at Colonus, the second installment of the Oedipus trilogy). Another interesting character is the hypnotist, who, apart from being able to hypnotise people, also has the power to make people fall in love (e.g. Oh and Mido), which is characteristic of the power of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, whose classic act is to make Paris and Helen fall in love before and during the Trojan War.

Box office performance

In South Korea, the film was seen by 3,260,000 filmgoers and ranks fifth for the highest-grossing film of 2003.

It grossed a total of US$14,980,005 worldwide.

Awards and nominations

Soundtrack

Nearly all the music cues that are composed by Shim Hyeon-jeong, Lee Ji-soo and Choi Seung-hyun are titled after films, many of them film noirs.

Track listing

Remakes

Controversy over Zinda

Zinda, the Bollywood film directed by writer-director Sanjay Gupta, also bears a striking resemblance to Oldboy but is not an officially sanctioned remake. It was reported in 2005 that Zinda was under investigation for violation of copyright. A spokesman for Show East, the distributor of Oldboy, said, "If we find out there's indeed a strong similarity between the two, it looks like we'll have to talk with our lawyers."

American film remake

Steven Spielberg originally intended to make a version of the movie starring Will Smith in 2008. He commissioned screenwriter Mark Protosevich to work on the adaptation. Spielberg pulled out of the project in 2009.

An American remake directed by Spike Lee was released on 27 November 2013.

See also

Template:Misplaced Pages books

• Old Boy (manga)
• East Asian cinema
• Greek tragedy
• Kafkaesque
• List of Korean language films
• List of South Korean films of 2003
• Revenge play

References

1. "Oldboy". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
2. "Oldboy (2003) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
3. ^ "Oldboy (2005)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 20 May 2008.
4. ^ Ebert, Roger. "Ebert review". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 11 April 2007.
5. Cine21 Interview about Park's revenge trilogy; 27 April 2007.
6. Rosen, Daniel Edward (4 May 2010). "Korean restaurant's live Octopus dish has animal rights activists squirming". New York Daily News. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
7. Han, Jane (14 May 2010). "Clash of culture? Sannakji angers US animal activists". The Korea Times. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
8. Compton, Natalie B. (17 June 2016). "Eating a Live Octopus Wasn't Nearly as Difficult As It Sounds". Munchies. VICE. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
9. Baillie, Russell (9 April 2005). "Oldboy". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
10. "Oldboy Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
11. "Oldboy (2005): Reviews". Metacritic. CBS interactive. Retrieved 20 May 2008.
12. Review by James Berardinelli, ReelViews.
13. Stephanie Zacharek (25 March 2005). "Thunder out of Korea". Salon.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
14. Bradshaw, Peter (15 October 2004). "Film of the week: Oldboy". The Guardian. London.
15. amctv.com. "Oldboy". Filmcritic.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2011. Retrieved 25 September 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
16. Sean Axmaker (21 April 2005). "'Oldboy' story of revenge is beaten down by its own brutality". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
17. "Oldboy – Movie Review". Movie-gazette.com. 24 October 2004. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
18. Jamie Russell (8 October 2004). "Films – Old Boy". BBC. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
19. Review by Manohla Dargis, New York Times.
20. Review by J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader.
21. "Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time". Empire. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
22. "CNN: 'Himala' best Asian film in history – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos". Showbizandstyle.inquirer.net. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
23. "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema". Empire.
24. "The 21st century's 100 greatest films". BBC. 23 August 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
25. "Sympathy for the Old Boy... An Interview with Park Chan Wook" by Choi Aryong
26. ": IKONEN : Interview Park Chan Wok Old Boy Lady Vengeance JSA Choi Aryong". Ikonenmagazin.de. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
27. "그리스비극과 한국영화를 통해 본 가족 – 드라마연구 – 한국드라마학회 : 전자저널 논문". :. Retrieved 25 August 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
28. "〈올드보이〉에 나타난 여섯 개의 이미지 – 문학과영상 – 문학과영상학회 : 전자저널 논문". :. Retrieved 25 August 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
29. [web|url=https://keithtselinguist.wordpress.com/2015/04/18/greek-tragedy-in-east-asia-oldboy-2003/
30. Korean Movie Reviews for 2003: Save the Green Planet, Memories of Murder, A Tale of Two Sisters, Old Boy, Silmido, and more
31. Denis, Fernand (10 January 2005). "La victoire de "Poulpe fiction"". La Libre Belgique (in French). Retrieved 26 October 2012.
32. "Awards (2004)". Bergen International Film Festival. Archived from the original on 13 February 2007. Retrieved 10 April 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
33. Cinemasie.com
34. "Winners (2004)". The British Independent Film Awards. Archived from the original on 7 April 2007. Retrieved 10 April 2007.
35. "All The Awards (2004)". Cannes Film Festival. Archived from the original on 30 November 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
36. "The Nominations (2004)". The European Film Awards. Archived from the original on 9 December 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
37. Oldboy Makers Plan Vengeance on Zinda Archived 14 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine, TwitchFilm.
38. Kate Aurthur (30 November 2013). "Adapting "Oldboy": Its Screenwriter Talks About Twists And Spoilers". Buzzfeed.com. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
39. "Spike Lee Confirmed to Direct 'Oldboy'". /Film. 11 July 2011.

External links

• Oldboy at IMDb
• Oldboy at the Korean Movie Database (in Korean)
• Oldboy at HanCinema
• Template:AllRovi movie
• Oldboy at Rotten Tomatoes
• Oldboy at Metacritic
• Oldboy at Box Office Mojo

• 2003 films
• Korean-language films
• 2000s action thriller films
• 2000s mystery films
• Films about abduction
• Films about revenge
• Films about solitude
• Films about suicide
• Films directed by Park Chan-wook
• Films featuring hypnosis
• Films set in 1988
• Films set in 2003
• Films shot in Busan
• Films shot in New Zealand
• Films shot in Seoul
• Incest in film
• Live-action films based on manga
• South Korean neo-noir films
• South Korean nonlinear narrative films
• South Korean action thriller films
• South Korean films
• South Korean mystery films