Oldboy (Oldeuboi) | Art of ActionOldboy (Oldeuboi) | Art of Action

Two decades before Parasite and Squid Game, arrived Park Chan Wook’s Oldboy...

Featuring the visual inventiveness, twisted humour and operatic scope which has come to characterise his oeuvre, Park kickstarted hallyu (Korean Wave) with a work of cinema which is at once shocking, comic and profound. Oldboy’s much imitated and replicated corridor fight sequence, an iconic showcase of International action has influenced films from John Wick to The Raid, Marvel’s Daredevil TV series and the video game Sifu.

Based on the Japanese manga of the same name, the film tells the horrific tale of Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a businessman who is inexplicably kidnapped and imprisoned in a grim hotel room-like cell for 15 years, without knowing his captor or the reason for his incarceration. Eventually released, he learns of his wife’s murder and embarks on a quest for revenge whilst also striking up a romance with a young, attractive sushi chef, Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung). He eventually finds his tormentor, but their final encounter will yield yet more unimaginable horrors.

Park Chan-wook | South Korea | 2003 | 120 mins | Subtitled | 18