Oldboy (Oldeuboi) [Sub: Eng]
After a drunken night on the town, Dae-su is locked up in a strange, private “prison” for 15 years. It turns out that he has been framed for his wife’s murder. After being released, he has 5 days to find his captor.
27 August 1962, South Korea
16 December 1982, South Korea
5 August 1983, Seoul, South Korea
22 May 1981, Bronx, New York, USA
May 26, 1974 in South Korea
1973
22 October 1969, South Korea
15 June 1968, Taegu, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea
July 16, 2010
Intense and dark but also humorous and moving, this is an ambitious film that fulfils its promise, despite an arguably overly protracted denouement. Excellent.
April 29, 2009
One of the best imports I've seen in a while...
October 18, 2008
Vengeance, says director Chan-wook Park, is the most dramatic subject in the world. The problem with that view driving his filmmaking is that it seems to override his creative judgement, presenting us with cruelty as the vehicle for his cinematic jollies.
May 06, 2013
Vengeance here's a clever, evolving beast. Dae-su's guardian-like enemy stokes his bloodlust, embittering the free man's returning love of life. The climax is a scarlet swelling into Greek tragedy as truth, reprisal and justice smear.
January 26, 2006
Quite an achievement then, and well worthy of its Cannes prize.
September 01, 2013
..seems to be about the awfulness and inhumanity of vengeance. But watch how the film moves.
September 26, 2005
It's hard to make an argument for Oldboy based on anything other than pure cinematics, but when the style speaks this loudly, it's an argument worth making.
April 15, 2013
Shakespearean in its violence, Oldboy also calls up nightmare images of spiritual and physical isolation that are worthy of Samuel Beckett or Dostoyevsky.
September 17, 2010
Banzai-violence kin to "Cast Away" about a man at time's cruel whim, "Oldboy"is an endurance test worth taking. Its conclusion is the most sadistic and destructively wrathful since "Seven," and the point of no return has rarely shocked this much.
April 17, 2007
There's a lot less here than meets the eye.
June 10, 2005
It's mesmerizing and discomfiting, engaging the viewer on a visceral and an intellectual level.
April 15, 2013
Both brutal and lyrical, writer-director Park Chan-wook's existential nail-biter has torture scenes that will have you avoiding dentists, sushi bars and badly appointed hotel rooms.

