Oldboy was a milestone when it was released back in 2003. To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the movie will be re-released in the United States by Neon on August 16. It was inspired by Old Boy, the manga, and was directed by Park Chan Wook. The film stars Choi Min Shik, Yoo Ji Tae, Yoo Yeon Seok, and Han Suk Kyu among others. This was one of the main movies that helped change the face of Korean cinema.
Oldboy is based on the 1996-1998 Japanese comic strip of the same name and is written by Japanese writer Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobaki Minegishi. The film follows the story of Oh Dae Su, who is imprisoned in a cell that resembles a hotel room for 15 years without knowing the identity of his captor’s motives. When he is finally released, Dae Su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls in love with an attractive young sushi chef, Mi Do.
Oldboy won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and garnered appreciation from the president of the jury, director Quentin Tarantino. It also received praise for its action sequences, most notably the single-shot corridor fight sequence. In the United States, film critic Roger Ebert stated that Oldboy is a powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare. It has been regarded as one of the best films of all time and listed among the best films of the 2000s in several publications.
The film was remade in 2013 by Spike Lee, starring Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Olsen. The film is the second installment of Park’s The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy of Mr. Vengeance in 2002 and followed by Lady Vengeance in 2005.
