| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | Oldboy (2003) |
| Director | Park Chan-wook |
| Writer | Hwang Jo-yun, Lim Jun-hyung, Park Chan-wook (based on the Japanese manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi) |
| Lead Actor | Choi Min-sik |
| Cast | Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jung, Kim Byung-ok, Ji Dae-han, Oh Dal-su, Lee Seung-shin |
| Genre | Action, Drama, Mystery, Thriller |
| Release Date | November 21, 2003 (South Korea) |
| Duration | 2h (120 minutes) |
| Budget | $3 million USD |
| Box Office | $17 million USD (worldwide) |
| Language | Korean |
| IMDb Rating | 8.4/10 |
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Within the first several minutes of this movie (which won the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes film festival), I was very aware that this was the most artistic movie in the festival that I was seeing. I was also aware that I was awed and confused by what I was watching, and felt a little dumb for not “getting it”. But I soon realized that what I was watching was all part of one big mystery one that has one of the most shocking conclusions you’re ever likely to watch on film.
Min-sik Choi plays Dae-Su Oh, a man who goes missing and finds himself imprisoned in a one room apartment where he lives for a maddening 15 years before being released into the world again with a mission to figure out why he was kidnapped and by whom.
Visually, the film is at once the most beautiful and unsettling things I’ve ever seen. Transitions between scenes are creative and seamless, and the special effects used in dream sequences and hallucinations are quite lovely. But there is also a lot of very graphic violence, and the queasy-easy may want to opt out of seeing this lest they want to witness the inevitable outcome of claw hammer vs. teeth.
I hate to use the word mind-fuck, but it’s the perfect description for this film. It’s The Game meets Chinatown meets The Manchurian Candidate meets The Count of Monte Cristo.
Seek this one out. It’s the ultimate revenge-flick (sorry Kill Bill, but it’s true) and it’s one of my favourites of the festival, which is slowly coming to an end. If I can recommend two movies from this year’s festival it’s this one, and Palindromes.
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