Oldboy (2003)

Park Chan-wook's brutal revenge thriller opened the world to the Korean New Wave.

Directed by: Park Chan-wook
Cinematography by: Chung Chung-hoon

Country: South Korea

Genre: Neo-Noir/Action/Thriller/Mystery/Drama

For the past two decades South Korean filmmakers have been crafting many of the best films of the 21st century, and it was Park Chan-wook’s masterful 2003 film, Oldboy, that first garnered major international recognition for the burgeoning Korean New Wave. Like a punch to the gullet, it demanded the world’s attention.

Based on the manga by Garon Tsuchiya, and part of Park’s Vengeance Trilogy - the other two being Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), and Lady Vengeance (2005) - this film is a brutally exhilarating mystery-thriller that follows a man who was imprisoned for 15 years, with no explanation, by unidentified captors. After he’s released he stops at nothing to find answers, but when the stakes are that high, answers come with a steep price.

The hallway fight scene in the film has become one of cinema’s most iconic long-takes, and its intricate mayhem is some of the best fight choreography the medium has to offer. In the following years since Oldboy, with commanding technical skill and unique storytelling, South Korean filmmakers have made it their bread-and-butter to create these gripping thrillers with devastating (and occasionally Shakespearean) dramas at their core. The films are often hard to watch, but impossible to ignore.

Side-note: I’ve had to look it up many times over the years so I figured I’d share the info. If you’re unsure of the ordering of Korean names, the family name is typically listed first, followed by a hyphenated given name, one of which is shared by all members of a family generation (brothers and sisters), and the other being unique to the individual.

Distributed by: Tartan