Oldeuboi

English title: Oldboy

Genre: action drama

With: Choi Min-sik (Dae-su Oh), Yoo Ji-tae (Woo-jin Lee), Kang Hye-jeong (Mi-do), Kim Byeong-Ok (Mr. Han), Ji Dae-han (No Joo-hwan), Oh Dal-su (Park Cheol-woong), Seung-shin Lee (Yoo Hyung-ja), Jin-Seo Yoon (Lee Soo-ah)

Director: Park Chan-wook

Screenplay: Park Chan-wook, Joon-hyung Lim and Jo-yun Hwang (based on the manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi)

Release: 2003

Studio: Celsius, ShowEast and Egg Films

Rating: R

MBiS score: 8.6/10 

 

‟Laugh… and the world laughs with you. Weep… and you weep alone.” 

 

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Story-line: in 1988, a happily married man named Oh Dae-su is arrested for drunkenness on his daughter’s third birthday and annoys everyone at the police station with his disorderly conduct. Once released under the care of his friend No Joo-hwan, Dae-su stops to call his family from a phone booth and suddenly disappears… for reasons unknown.

Pluses: excellent acting by a fine cast and especially Choi Min-sik (one scene in which he sings and cries at the same time is simply amazing), fast-paced, masterful direction, a complex, twisted and surrealistic screenplay remarkable for its startling characters and catchy dialogues, consummate cinematography and fantastic editing, utterly effective production values and a varied, devilishly efficient musical score.

Minuses: don’t be confused by the rooftop sequence at the very beginning… it makes perfect sense once you reach the 20-minute mark. Some scenes may be painful to watch, especially for professionals in dentistry. 

Comments: the lively, awesome and ceaselessly creative OLDBOY nurtures a strong sense of mystery and delivers terrifying, edge-of-your-seat entertainment. Dae-su’s dark and dangerous quest for revenge, which was rewarded with the Grand Prize at Cannes and multiple awards internationally, is a must-see for all movie buffs. 

 

MBiS 

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