Oldboy (2003 film)

Oldboy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Park Chan-wook
Produced by	Lim Seung-yong
Screenplay by	Hwang Jo-yun Lim Jun-hyung Park Chan-wook
Based on	Old Boy by Garon Tsuchiya Nobuaki Minegishi
Starring	Choi Min-sik Yoo Ji-tae Kang Hye-jung
Music by	Cho Young-wuk
Cinematography	Chung Chung-hoon
Edited by	Kim Sang-bum
Production company	Egg Film CJ Entertainment
Distributed by	Show East
Release dates	21 November 2003 (2003-11-21)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Budget	$3 million
Box office	$15.4 million

Oldboy (Hangul: 올드보이; RR: Oldeuboi; MR: Oldŭboi) is a 2003 South Korean neo-noir action thriller film directed and co-written by Park Chan-wook. A loose adaptation of the Japanese manga of the same name, the film follows the story of Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), who is imprisoned in a cell which resembles a hotel room for 15 years without knowing the identity of his captor nor 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, Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung).

Oldboy attained critical acclaim and accolades worldwide, including winning the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where it garnered high praise from Quentin Tarantino, the president of the jury. In United States, film critic Roger Ebert stated 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". The film's action sequences, particularly the single shot corridor fight sequence, also received commendation for their impressive execution.

Oldboy is regarded as one of the best films ever made and has been included in numerous "best-of" lists by many publications. The film's success also led to two adaptations: an unauthorized Hindi remake in 2006 and an official American adaptation in 2013. As part of Park Chan-wook's The Vengeance Trilogy, it serves as the second installment, following Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and preceding Lady Vengeance (2005).

Plot

In 1988, businessman Oh Dae-su is arrested for public drunkenness, causing him to miss his daughter's fourth birthday. After his friend Joo-hwan picks him up from the police station, Dae-su is kidnapped and awakens in a sealed hotel room, where food is delivered through a pet door. Dae-su learns that his wife has been murdered and that he has been framed as the prime suspect by his captors. As the years of imprisonment pass, Dae-su hallucinates, growing deranged from solitude, and eventually attempts suicide. After slashing his wrists, Dae-su is resuscitated and his wounds are dressed, in order to prevent him from dying to ensure he continues to endure his suffering. After this, Dae-su passes the time practising shadowboxing and attempting to dig an escape tunnel so that he might seek vengeance upon his captors.

In 2003, Dae-su is suddenly released after being sedated and hypnotised. Dae-su awakens on a rooftop where he meets a suicidal man. After testing his fighting skills on a group of thugs, a mysterious beggar gives him money and a mobile phone. Dae-su enters a sushi restaurant where he encounters Mi-do, a young chef. Upon receiving a taunting phone call from his captor, he collapses and is taken in by Mi-do. Dae-su comes on to Mi-do and then regretfully attempts to leave her apartment, but they reconcile and begin to form a bond. Once he has recovered, Dae-su tries to find his daughter, but gives up his attempts to contact her after learning she was adopted following his kidnapping. Now focused on identifying his captors, Dae-su locates the Chinese restaurant where his prison food was prepared, then follows a deliveryman in order to find the hotel room.

Dae-su learns the hotel is a private prison, where people pay to have others incarcerated. He tortures and interrogates the warden, Mr. Park Cheol-woong, who divulges that Dae-su was imprisoned for "talking too much". Park's guards come and attack Dae-su, and a fierce fight ensues in a corridor. Dae-su is stabbed but manages to defeat them all. His captor is then revealed to be wealthy businessman, Lee Woo-jin, who gives Dae-su an ultimatum. If he can uncover the motive for his imprisonment within five days, Woo-jin will kill himself, otherwise, he will kill Mi-do. Dae-su and Mi-do have grown closer and eventually become intimate. Meanwhile, Joo-hwan contacts Dae-su with important information but is murdered by Woo-jin while they are on the phone. Dae-su recalls that he and Woo-jin attended the same high school where he had witnessed Woo-jin committing incest with his sister, Lee Soo-ah. Dae-su told Joo-hwan what he had seen, causing his classmates to gossip. Word spread, causing Woo-jin's sister to commit suicide following a phantom pregnancy, leading a grief-stricken Woo-jin to seek revenge. In the present, Woo-jin cuts off Mr. Park's hand, so Park and his gang join forces with Dae-su. Dae-su leaves Mi-do with Mr. Park and sets out to face Woo-jin.

At his penthouse apartment, Woo-jin shows Dae-su a purple box containing a family album with photos of Dae-su, his wife and his infant daughter together fifteen years earlier, progressing to photos of his daughter as she is growing up. Woo-jin reveals Mi-do is actually Dae-su's daughter, and that he had orchestrated events through hypnosis to guide Dae-su to the restaurant so he and Mi-do would fall in love in order for Dae-su to experience the same pain of incest that he had. Woo-jin reveals Mr. Park is still working for him and threatens to tell Mi-do the truth. Dae-su apologises to Woo-jin for spreading the rumour that led to the death of his sister. Dae-su offers to humiliate himself by barking like a dog and begging on all fours. When Woo-jin is unimpressed, Dae-su cuts out his own tongue as an act of penance. Woo-jin finally accepts Dae-su's apology and instructs Mr. Park not to reveal the truth to Mi-do. He then drops what he claims to be the remote to his pacemaker and walks away. Dae-su activates the device in an attempt to kill Woo-jin, only to find it is actually the remote for a reel-to-reel tape recorder that plays an audio recording, through large loudspeakers, of Dae-su and Mi-do being intimate. As Dae-su collapses in despair, Woo-jin enters the penthouse lift, and as he is recalling his sister's suicide he uses his handgun to shoot himself in the head.

Some time later, Dae-su locates the hypnotist and writes to her requesting that she erase the knowledge of Mi-do being his daughter so they can remain happy together. At first she expresses how she didn't feel the need to help him, but was touched by a certain line in his letter, something said by the man on the rooftop where Dae-su was first released. Afterwards, Mi-do finds Dae-su lying in the snow but there is no sign of the hypnotist. Mi-do confesses her love for him and the two embrace. Dae-su breaks into a wide smile, which is slowly replaced by a more ambiguous expression.

Cast

Choi Min-sik played the lead role in Oldboy as Oh Dae-su.

• Choi Min-sik as Oh Dae-su, a businessman who seeks revenge after being held in a mysterious prison for 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 own 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 believing he was 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, Woo-jin's bodyguard.
• Yoon Jin-seo as Lee Soo-ah, Woo-jin's sister.
• Oh Dal-su as Mr. Park Cheol-woong, warden of the private prison.
• Oh Kwang-rok as Suicidal Man.

Production

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.

The script originally called for full male frontal nudity, but Yoo Ji-tae changed his mind after the scenes had been shot.

Other computer-generated imagery in the film includes the ant coming out of Dae-su's arm (according to the making-of feature 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 filming 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; the squirming is a result of posthumous nerve activity in the octopus' tentacles. 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.

Soundtrack

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack from Oldboy
Soundtrack album by Jo Yeong-wook
Released	9 December 2003 (2003-12-09)
Recorded	2003 Seoul
Genre	Contemporary classical
Length	60:00
Label	EMI Music Korea Ltd.
Producer	Jo Yeong-wook Shim Hyeon-jeong Lee Ji-soo Choi Seung-hyun

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

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Look Who's Talking" (opening song)	1:41
2.	"Somewhere in the Night"	1:29
3.	"The Count of Monte Cristo"	2:34
4.	"Jailhouse Rock"	1:57
5.	"In a Lonely Place" (Oh Dae-su's theme)	3:29
6.	"It's Alive"	2:36
7.	"The Searchers"	3:29
8.	"Look Back in Anger"	2:11
9.	""Vivaldi" – Four Seasons Concerto Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, "L'inverno" (Winter)"	3:03
10.	"Room at the Top"	1:36
11.	"Cries and Whispers" (Lee Woo-jin's theme)	3:32
12.	"Out of Sight"	1:00
13.	"For Whom the Bell Tolls"	2:45
14.	"Out of the Past"	1:25
15.	"Breathless" (Lee Woo-jin's theme [reprise])	4:21
16.	"The Old Boy" (Oh Dae-su's theme [reprise])	3:44
17.	"Dressed to Kill"	2:00
18.	"Frantic"	3:28
19.	"Cul-de-Sac"	1:32
20.	"Kiss Me Deadly"	3:57
21.	"Point Blank"	0:27
22.	"Farewell, My Lovely" (Lee Woo-jin's theme [reprise])	2:47
23.	"The Big Sleep"	1:34
24.	"The Last Waltz" (Mi-do's theme)	3:23
Total length:		60:00

Reception and analysis

Box office

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

Oldboy grossed a total of US$15,421,226 worldwide.

Critical response

Oldboy received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 81% based on 151 reviews with an average rating of 7.40/10. 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 77 out of 100, based on 32 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." In 2019 on The Hankyoreh, Kim Hyeong-seok said that Oldboy was the 'zeitgeist of the vigorous Korean cinema in early 2000s', and a 'boiling point that led history of Korean cinema to new state'. 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. In 2020, The Guardian ranked it number 3 among the classics of modern South Korean Cinema.

Oedipus the King inspiration

Park Chan-wook stated that he named the main character Oh Dae-su "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 planted listening devices on Oh Dae-Su and others, which again furthers the parallel between his character and the secrecy of Greek gods.

Mi-do, 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 Mi-do reunites with Oh Dae-Su and takes care of him in the wilderness (cf. Oedipus at Colonus, another Sophocles play about Oedipus). 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. Dae-Su and Mi-do), 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.

Remakes

Bollywood film controversy

Main article: Zinda (film)

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." Show East, the producers of Oldboy, who had already sold the film's rights to DreamWorks in 2004, initially expressed legal concerns but no legal action was taken as the studio had shut down.

American film remake

Main article: Oldboy (2013 film)

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. 39 percent of critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes were positive for the remake.

Home media

In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 300,000 television viewers on Channel 4 in 2011. This made it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on a non-BBC television channel in the UK.

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
Asia Pacific Film Festival	Best Director	Park Chan-wook	Won
	Best Actor	Choi Min-sik	Won
Austin Film Critics Association	Best Film		Nominated
	Best Foreign Film		Won
Bangkok International Film Festival	Best Film		Nominated
	Best Director (tied with Christophe Barratier for Les Choristes)	Park Chan-wook	Won
Belgian Film Critics Association	Grand Prix		Won
Bergen International Film Festival	Audience Award		Won
Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best Director	Park Chan-wook	Won
	Best Actor	Choi Min-sik	Won
	Best Supporting Actress	Kang Hye-jung	Won
British Independent Film Awards	Best Foreign Independent Film		Won
Cannes Film Festival	Palme d'Or		Nominated
	Grand Prix		Won
Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Foreign Language Film		Nominated
Critics' Choice Movie Award	Best Foreign Language Film		Nominated
Director's Cut Awards	Best Director	Park Chan-wook	Won
	Best Actor	Choi Min-sik	Won
	Best Producer	Kim Dong-joo	Won
European Film Awards	Best Non-European Film	Park Chan-wook	Nominated
Golden Trailer Awards	Best Foreign Action Trailer (tied with District 13)		Won
Grand Bell Awards	Best Film		Nominated
	Best Director	Park Chan-wook	Won
	Best Actor	Choi Min-sik	Won
	Best New Actress	Kang Hye-jung	Nominated
	Best Adapted Screenplay	Park Chan-wook	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Chung Chung-hoon	Nominated
	Best Editing	Kim Sang-bum	Won
	Best Art Direction	Ryu Seong-hee	Nominated
	Best Lighting	Park Hyun-won	Won
	Best Music	Jo Yeong-wook	Won
	Best Visual Effects	Lee Jeon-hyeong, Shin Jae-ho, Jeong Do-an	Nominated
Hong Kong Film Awards	Best Asian Film		Won
Korean Film Awards	Best Film		Won
	Best Director	Park Chan-wook	Won
	Best Actor	Choi Min-sik	Won
	Best Actress	Kang Hye-jung	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Yoon Jin-seo	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Chung Chung-hoon	Nominated
	Best Editing	Kim Sang-bum	Nominated
	Best Art Direction	Ryu Seong-hee	Nominated
	Best Music	Jo Yeong-wook	Won
	Best Sound		Nominated
Online Film Critics Society	Best Foreign Language Film		Nominated
Saturn Awards	Best Action or Adventure Film		Nominated
	Best DVD or Blu-ray Special Edition Release	Ultimate Collector's Edition	Nominated
Sitges Film Festival	Best Film		Won
	José Luis Guarner Critic's Award		Won
Stockholm International Film Festival	Audience Award		Won

See also

• Revenge play
• List of cult films

External links

• Oldboy at IMDb
• Oldboy at the Korean Movie Database
• Oldboy at HanCinema
• Oldboy at AllMovie
• Oldboy at Rotten Tomatoes
• Oldboy at Metacritic
• Oldboy at Box Office Mojo