Oldboy (2003)

Director: Park Chan-wook

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

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

‘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…

The film won awards for Best Actor, Best Director, Best Foreign Film, Best Supporting Actress, Best Producer, Best Editing, Best Asian Film and Best Music, among other.

In Korean.