Product Details

• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Number of discs: 1
• DVD Release Date: December 16, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (240 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000TQLJ14
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #346,661 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In the realm of revenge thrillers, you'd be hard pressed to find more ultra-violent vengeance and psycho thrills than in the creepy story of Oldboy. This Korean import made a pop splash at the Cannes Film Festival and during its limited theatrical run thanks to the imprimatur of Quentin Tarantino, who raved about it and its visionary director, Chan-wook Park, to anyone who would listen. It's easy to see why QT fell in love with the grindhouse attitude, fast-paced action, violent imagery, and icy-black humor, but it's a disservice to think of Oldboy as another Tarantino homage or knockoff. The darkly existential undercurrent in the themes that Oldboy traces over its life-long narrative arc is much more complex and deeply disturbing than anything of its kind. The movie's tagline is, "15 years of imprisonment... 5 days of vengeance." The imprisonee is Oh Dae-Su, an ordinary Joe who is snatched off a Seoul street corner and locked away in a dank, windowless fleabag hotel room for the aforementioned 15 years. Just as abruptly he is released, and thus the five days begin. Why did this happen to Oh Dae-Su? Ah, but that would be telling, and in fact we don't know ourselves until the final wrenching scenes.

Oldboy breaks into a classic three-act saga, the first of which details the hallucinatory period of imprisonment in which Oh Dae-Su wades from mild insanity to outright psychosis in the hands of unseen yet attentive captors. Act 2 is the revenge, when an entirely different tone takes over and Oh Dae-Su moves with single-minded purpose and clarity. It's this section that has gained the most notoriety, primarily for the claw-hammer dentistry scene, the one-man-army tracking shot, and the wriggling octopus that Oh Dae-Su consumes in a sushi bar (he's been dead so long he simply needs life back inside him in any way possible). In act 3, answers finally start to emerge and the sinister atmosphere grows even more profound--not without a healthy dose of extra bloodletting, of course. Oldboy is an undeniably poetic masterpiece of tension, fury, and dynamic craft. Ultimately, its epic cycle of tragedy is of the sort that mankind has been inflicting upon itself for all time. Some of the images may be gruesome, but all converge into a kind of beauty. It's in the telling of this lurid tale that these details become one and the memories of pain ultimately heal. --Ted Fry

From The New Yorker

A man named Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is imprisoned in a room for fifteen years, not by the state but by the anonymous bearer of a grudge. On his release, he goes in search of revenge, with the aid of a fetching sushi chef. Upon this unusual plot, which manages to seem at once slender and wholly implausible, the South Korean director Park Chanwook has constructed a highly wrought, low-lit piece of gothic, worrying away at our senses without pausing to check that his story makes any sense. Scenes branch off one from another in a gruelling phantasmagoria that is best approached in a spirit of bitter comedy, or after a few drinks; if you want to follow the progress of subcutaneous insects, or to see a man ingest a live octopus, then this is the movie for you. There is no doubting the finesse of the director's eye, or the calmness with which even his most savage sequences are composed, but the result feels unappealingly pleased with itself, trapped in its obligation to shock. As for the solution to the mystery, don't wait up. In Korean. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

130 of 144 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brutally Raw & Brilliantly Inspiring Revenge Film..., April 10, 2005

By 

Kim Anehall "www.cinematica.org" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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Oldboy has a Shakespearian tone as it depicts the tale of Oh Dae-su (Min-sik Choi), whose name means "he who can get along with people". Oh Dae-su is on his way home after having been arrested for public drunkenness to celebrate his daughters birthday. However, Oh Dae-su never arrives to his home as he is kidnapped and imprisoned in a small room where his only contact with the human world is a television. During the time Oh Dae-su is caged someone murders his wife and he becomes the prime suspect for the murder. The questions that Oh Dae-su unsuccessfully attempts to answer while locked up is why revenge is being taken on him and who is seeking this cruel revenge. After 15 years Oh Dae-su is released from his torturous imprisonment, which leaves him confused and ragingly vengeful.

Chan-wook Park directs a brilliant cinematic experience that is full of well-written conspiring intrigues that will keep the audience in suspense. The suspense is initiated in the opening shot where a man is hanging over the edge of a roof top causing the audience to asks themselves--why is this happening? The suspense continues as new and mysterious clues appears, but apprehension does not leave the audience even after the end of the film as the final line echos in the minds of the audience. Park's vision of revenge in Oldboy often depicts exaggerated violence that is well balanced with story as it is related to the themes of the film. However, this should serve as a warning to squeamish folks as the film is occasionally brutal and bizarre. Furthermore, the cinematography used in Oldboy vividly projects the emotional tone of the cinematic themes and characters. The characters are also superbly performed by an excellent cast, which will help the audience to experience a first class cinematic event.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Oldboy's Life, November 23, 2006

By 

Terrence Aybar "cinemaparker@twitter" (New York City, NY) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Oldboy (Three-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition) (DVD)

I'm surprised to see that no one else has written about this collector's edition DVD package because it's so cool that it needs to be spoken about in some form or other. It comes in a metal box which is exactly the same dimensions as the box that the HBO series "Band of Brothers" came in. There's that which is already pretty nice but inside is where you find the real treasure. The film comes in a three disc set, each one in an individual slipcase with one of the three main characters in the film on the cover. The presentationof the film is on par with, if not above the quality of the previous Tartan video release in terms of picture and sound. This set has a 6.1 DTS mix which is nice, clear and loud. The picture is very nice as it should be, since this film is beautifully shot. There are plenty of bonus features like commentary and featurettes but the third disc has the best supplementary feature which is a production diary from the entire shoot. I think this is one of the shining examples of a behind the scenes documentary done right as it really shows you what goes in to making a film and how much hard work it can be. It's lengthy, it's detailed and thankfully, it has English subtitles because I don't speak a lick of Korean. Just for this documentary alone, this set is worth picking up.

Finally, you get not only a 35mm film strip encased in a nice cardboard sleeve, you get a miniaturized graphic novel of the original similarly titled Japanese Manga that the film was based off of. If you've seen the special edition of Sin City that came with the Hard Goodbye graphic novel, it's just like that except its printed in reverse and you have to read it from back cover to front like you would with an actual Japanese book! (Don't worry, the language is in English so you can still read it)

This is easily one of the best recommendations I can make. If you love the movie, this is a no-brainer. If you know someone else who loves this movie, this would make a great gift. Either way, this is one of the coolest all around DVD packages I've ever picked up and believe me, I've picked up plenty.

71 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do I deserve life?, April 23, 2005

By 

Daitokuji31 (Black Glass) - See all my reviews
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Some films just do not allow themselves to fall into generalizations and these films pose conundrums when one tries to explain them. I've owned _Old Boy_ for a number of months now, but for some reason or another I had been able to make myself sit down and watch the film. For some reason I thought it was a horror film and being that I generally do not care for horror films I let this one sit on the sidelines while I watched other films. However, I was finally inspired to watch this film when my Korean office partner told me how much she enjoyed the film, been amazed by Choi Min Sik's acting, and how long the film stuck in her head after watching it. Trusting my friend's taste in film, last night I finally settled down to watch the film and similar to my reaction with other films that I had underestimated, I wondered: Why the heck had I had not watched this film earlier?

The film begins with a drunken Oh Daesu, Choi Min Sik, sitting in the police office. He is a noisy drunk heaping abuse on the police officers and constantly trying to urinate on the floor. He tells the police to let him go because it is his daughter' birthday, but when his pleas fall on death ears, he becomes even more recalcitrant to remain calm in the police office. Eventually Daesu's friend comes to pick up his inebriated friend. However, while talking to Daesu's daughter on the phone, the friend notices that Daesu is missing.

Daesu finds himself imprisoned in a room that resembles a cheap motel room. Fed a diet of dumplings and with a television as his only companion, Daesu will live for fifteen years inside of that small room. Occupying his time watching television, punching the walls, writing the names of all who might have had him imprisoned in that room, watching television, and carving a hole in the wall with a metal chopstick, Daesu grows older his youth withered away within that room. However, one day, he finds himself on top of a building finally free to hunt the individual who had imprisoned him. Daesu eventually makes a new friend in the personage of the young sushi chef Mido, Gang Hye Jeong, who for some reason seems to fall for Daesu as he consumes a live squid, who accompanies him on his search for the individual who ruined his life.

This is an extraordinary film. Choi Min Sik's acting is top notch and one can really feel his anger and frustration inside of his prison. I won't go into details here, but his performance during the final minutes of the film must be witnessed to be believed. The music is grand and the special effects are nicely done. The ant poking through Daesu's skin is very creepy.