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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Oldboy
Tartan USA


8.5

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 85 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong violence including scenes of torture, sexuality and pervasive language

Starring Min-sik Choi, Ji-tae Yu, Hye-jeong Kang, Dae-han Ji, Seung-Shin Lee, Dal-su Oh, and Byeong-ok Kim

Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is an ordinary Seoul businessman with a wife and little daughter who, after a drunken night on the town, is locked up in a strange, private "prison." No one will tell him why he's there or who his jailer is. The imprisonment last for 15 years until one day when Dae-su finds himself unexpectedly deposited on a grass-covered high-rise roof, determined to discover the mysterious enemy who had him locked up. (Tartan Films)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Foreign \| Mystery \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Chan-wook Park Jo-yun Hwang Chun-hyeong Lim Garon Tsuchiya (story)
DIRECTED BY:	Chan-wook Park
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 23, 2005 Theatrical: March 25, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	120 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	South Korea
LANGUAGE(S):	Korean (with English subtitles)

Grand Prize of the Jury, 2004 Cannes Film Festival; Best Foreign Film, 2004 British Independent Film Awards

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's a movie of such jaw-dropping violence, wild improbability and dazzling style it overpowers all resistance.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Oldboy is a powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare.

100

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Park's direction is flawless and Jung Jung-hoon's cinematography is stunning.

100

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Startling and amazing -- a cinematic hammer to the skull.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Anguished, beautiful and desperately alive, Oldboy is a dazzling work of pop-culture artistry.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

It's a work of art for sure, but a sadistic one. Oldboy is one of the year's best; it just isn't for everyone. If you're still interested, go for it.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Whatever its oversteps and excesses (I do think Park ran a little amok with the computer gimcrackery), Oldboy has the bulldozing nerve and full-blooded passion of a classic.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

As always with Park Chanwook, you just hold on and let him rip.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Once the picture gets into Hollywood's bloodstream, it could well prove to be as influential as John Woo's 1989 crime thriller, "The Killer."

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

This hunt for revenge is really a quest for self-discovery. The story, acting and brilliant directing elevate Oldboy into a human struggle to know yourself and your place in the universe, and to live with that sometimes terrible knowledge.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

His film is not for the weak of stomach or heart, but it's a stunner all the same.

Slate David Edelstein

Obviously, this sort of taboo-flouting imagery isn't for everyone, but Park's vision is all of a piece.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This is absolutely not a film for all tastes, but it's a masterpiece of pitiless power whose audacious, ambiguous climax strikes a note of insane romanticism as haunting as it is perverse.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The result is a powerfully visceral experience that justifies itself almost entirely on surface chops, with striking color composition and a complex sound design that elevates the story to an operatic scale.

Variety Derek Elley

A wild, intensely cinematic ride into two men's burning desire to get even.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

You will surely leave this movie shocked, shaken and surprisingly moved. And definitely stuck on that poor octopus.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Its magnificence is that it takes itself dead serious. It's not entertainment, but it's sure a piece of toughness.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

While the climax is admittedly something of a letdown after all the build-up, it's a hopelessly, helplessly original film, all guts, no glory.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

More than anything else, Oldboy recalls Alfred Hitchcock with all restraint tossed to the wind, or Hitchcock's most obsessed devotee, Brian De Palma, at his most nastily inspired.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

This nightmarish revenge drama from Korea is grueling, intense, cruel -- the very definition of extreme cinema.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

This is a movie about draining, tenderizing and chopping up the audience emotionally.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

As mysterious as it is sinister.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Regardless of how you look at Oldboy, it's unlike anything you are likely to have seen before.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

It says something when you come out of a film as weird and fantastical as Oldboy and feel that you've experienced something truly authentic. I just don't know what. I can't think of anything to compare it to.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's just the kind of film that you'd expect a jury led by Quentin Tarantino to choose, a bloody and brutal revenge film immersed in madness and directed with operatic intensity.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Oldboy has the fatal air of wanting so desperately to be a cult movie that it forgets to present itself as a coherent one.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Oldboy caused a love-it-or-hate-it stir at Cannes last year, and how could it not: It's an onslaught made to cause a sensation. Consider me simultaneously jolted and depressed.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Entertaining to watch - notwithstanding the scene in which Dae-su eats a live animal - which is a good thing, because there is not much to think about here, outside of the choreographed mayhem.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Despite its director's skill at staging trash with dash, Oldboy is too long and portentous to be an enjoyable B movie. The movie's self-seriousness short-circuits its sensationalism.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

There's a lot less here than meets the eye.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Put simply, in my humble opinion, Oldboy sucks.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 85 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

philip gave it a10:
It was the best movie in my life.never fet so emotionally shocked.a true love story.

Matt R. gave it a0:
My question is, what is the point of this movie? Besides leaving you with the feeling of being raped. This movie sucked. If you enjoyed this, you probably secretly desire incest with your children. Or you just lack complete empathy or moral center as a human being.

James L. gave it a10:
This has to be one of the best made films of all time. This movie is far better than Lady Vengeance; with all due respect, I don't know what Jackie is saying. Of course Oldboy is dark, sick and disturbing, but that's also what makes the film so original . The director does a good job to get people to think about what the outcome will be without losing momentum .

Jackie gave it a0:
Absolutely fucking horrific. Good people are tortured in unbelievably vile ways for having done nothing at all; everyone in the film is pointlessly disturbed and it leaves one with absolutely no satisfaction at the end. I didn't feel that justice had been done, which is the point for me of films like this, I just felt like I'd seen some cool fighting and needless suffering. Watch this if you want to destroy your faith in humanity, watch the far superior Lady Vengeance to have it restored.

Lisa B. gave it an8:
I just saw it, and will definitely go back for the other two in the trilogy. Although I'm not giving it a 10, and can understand some of the criticism here, but that anyone could use the attribute "hollow" to describe this movie is beyond belief. Greek tragedy at the core, and really a remarkable meditation on the idea of vengeance. With little dialogue, captures complex relationships and emotions.

Czeslaw K. gave it a7:
Although at times visually mesmerising I found it hard to not leave the cinema. Painful viewing left me feeling empty. Not for the weak minded, its stretched my mind. I am left asking myself wether or not that defines a good movie, one that makes you feel bad or uncomfortable.

Rick Y. gave it a10:
I can't remember much of anything after seeing this film except feeling completely emotionally spent. I was too busy picking up the pieces of my shattered jaw off the floor.

Oldboy Tartan USA

Oldboy
Tartan USA