Oldboy

"15 years of imprisonment, five days of vengeance."

2003 2h 0m KO

🙌

8.2

BANGER

🍅

82%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

8.3

IMDB

★8.2TMDB · 10,275🍅82%Rotten Tomatoes●78Metacritic★8.3IMDB · 710,562

ThrillerMystery

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.

“15 years of imprisonment, five days of vengeance.”

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Cast

Choi Min-sik
Oh Dae-su
Yoo Ji-tae
Lee Woo-jin
Kang Hye-jung
Mi-do
Kim Byeong-ok
Mr. Han
Ji Dae-han
No Joo-hwan
Oh Dal-su
Park Cheol-woong
Lee Seung-shin
Yoo Hyung-ja
Yoon Jin-seo
Lee Soo-ah

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Park Chan-wook
Writers: Im Joon-hyung, Hwang Jo-yoon, Park Chan-wook
Languages: Korean
Countries: South Korea

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 5.8× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 23 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Park Chan-wook, shot by Chung Chung-hoon. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Choi Seung-hyun. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Kim Sang-bum shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Choi Min-sik and Yoo Ji-tae and Kang Hye-jung carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "15 years of imprisonment, five days of vengeance.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Park Chan-wook directs. Chung Chung-hoon behind the camera. Choi Seung-hyun scores. Kim Sang-bum cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in South Korea. Dialogue in Korean.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 5.8× over at the box office.
3Released 23 years ago.
4Directed by Park Chan-wook, shot by Chung Chung-hoon. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Choi Seung-hyun. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Kim Sang-bum shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Choi Min-sik and Yoo Ji-tae and Kang Hye-jung carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "15 years of imprisonment, five days of vengeance.".
9IMDB entry: tt0364569 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1010,275 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
11Classified under 38 themes, including "daughter", "martial arts", "rage and hate", "hostility".
12Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Chung Chung-hoon
Original score: Choi Seung-hyun
Editing: Kim Sang-bum
Production design: Ryu Seong-hie
Costume design: Cho Sang-kyung
Makeup / hair: Shin Jae-ho
Runtime: 120 min · 2h 0m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,000,000
Box office: $17,500,000
Return: 583% of budget
Original language: KO
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Oldboy (2003)
Rotten Tomatoes: 82% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 78/100
IMDB rating: 8.3/10 · 710,562 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

46 wins & 28 nominations total

Sitges Film Festival Best Feature-Length Film award
Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Park Chan-wook

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Eky2012-06-16
I’m sure that all of you can always spot a film with good acting, superb plot and great cinematography easily but when it comes to a thriller that possesses all those above quality, it would be such a rarity. OldBoy here, second installment from The Vengeance Trilogy directed by Park Chan-wook (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, OldBoy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) really have them all, good story, powerful acting and the most horrifying and clever end twist if not genius. In fact no matter how many times you see this, the twist would still be awesome. The theme of revenge here is taken to the next level, to its supremacy for it’s really carefully-planned. OldBoy has a mind-bending assortment of drama, thriller, romance and beautifully spiced up with sadistic plot, shocking elements, ultra violence and clever psychological twist. Imagine yourself captured, locked in a room for 15 years, not knowing why and who did it and when you finally escaped and thought it’s all over, you were wrong and here’s the punching line, the direct punch to your stomach. Min-sik Choi as Oh Dae su really acted well, he really got us carried away by dragging us into the mystery that surrounds his life, into the depression he’s been feeling and into the deep well of his curiosity. Once again, OldBoy is a way too remarkable, when “revenge” isn’t merely knife-chopping or gun-battling. Enough said.
manwhonose2012-09-29
★ 10/10
This is definitely one of the films to see before you die. It's seat-squirmingly unsettling, shocking and very violent. It's a journey into a truly disturbed mind; a mind, which - like yours will be - is unable to cope with what it discovers. This film is brilliantly twisted. It has a thread of the most wonderful, blackest humour running through it, a sense of complete disorientation and enough plot twists and turns to sustain your interest. Not one of the best revenge thrillers I've seen - simply THE best!
Niemand2023-08-06
Just about everyone I’d spoken to about this film recommended it to me. I watched this film with the original Korean-language soundtrack, with English subtitles. Oh Dae-su (Chi Min-sik) is a bit of a flirt (whether he is a womaniser is not made clear) with a wife and young child, who has turned two years old on the day we start the film. Dae-su is in a prison waiting room having insulted a woman he was flirting with. A friend comes and eventually gets him out, but while he’s making a call to his wife to explain he will be home soon, he is kidnapped. Incarcerated in a small room, with only a TV for company, he is fed and looked after, but not allowed his freedom. He unsuccessfully attempts suicide several times. He keeps himself fit by doing exercise programmes he sees on TV and he starts to dig his way out with chopsticks. He sees a TV report that shows he’s been framed for the murder of his wife. Fifteen years later, without a word of explanation, he is released. The rest of the film follows his attempts to find out why he was imprisoned, who did it, and where his daughter is. The film is frenetic, highly charged, and very emotional on several levels. It is also bloody in places, but Dae-su’s obsession for seeking revenge on whomsoever imprisoned him and on finding out where his daughter is drives this film along. There are psychological aspects to the film as well, and the film does eventually resolve itself – it is not one of those open-ended “I wonder who did it” type films. Follow the film through and you will get all the answers. I would recommend it, but I wouldn’t call it light entertainment.