Oldboy (2 Discs) DVD

Kidnapped and locked in a room for fifteen years without explanation Oh Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) promises revenge.

Dressed in a suit, carrying nothing but a mo... Read on

Kidnapped and locked in a room for fifteen years without explanation Oh Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) promises revenge.

Dressed in a suit, carrying nothing but a mobile phone and cash-filled wallet, Oh Dae Su finds himself released with a terrifying offer of life or death from his incarcerator.
Determined for answers, Oldboy is caught in a painful and psychotic roller coaster where insanity appears to be normal.

Director Park Chan-wook is creating an original style of Asian cult films introducing explicit and enigmatic plots and engaging tragic heroes.
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Park Chan-Wook’s astonishing thriller swept all before it at Cannes (where it won the Grand Prix Jury prize), and it's hard to resist the compulsive appeal of this hig... Read on

Park Chan-Wook’s astonishing thriller swept all before it at Cannes (where it won the Grand Prix Jury prize), and it's hard to resist the compulsive appeal of this highly personal piece of cinema (unless, of course, you're squeamish, in which case you should steer well clear). This two disc set from Tartan really is a deluxe job, with the usual ‘making of’ documentaries and a truly startling DTS Dolby soundtrack. This darkly comic revenge movie is screwed down to a peculiarly unsettling plateau of tension. After a drunken spree, a businessman is arrested and imprisoned for 15 years. He is given no indication what his crime was, or who is responsible for his imprisonment. Suddenly, he finds himself released and is given three days to discover why he was locked away and who is behind it. This bizarre smorgasbord of The Usual Suspects, Memento and Sam Peckinpah remains a unique experience. Hide

Chan-wook Park's Oldboy is a grisly but exhilarating experience. A grand prizewinner at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Oldboy is the story of a man imprisoned in a ... Read on

Chan-wook Park's Oldboy is a grisly but exhilarating experience. A grand prizewinner at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Oldboy is the story of a man imprisoned in a hotel room for fifteen years. Driven only by an insane desire to get out and enact revenge on his jailer, he trains himself daily to stay in shape by punching the wall. After fifteen years, he is released but soon finds out that the world outside is as much of a prison as his room. Oldboy has plenty of action, state of the art CGI, dark humor, and an existential mystery that will linger in your mind long after the final credits have rolled. Based on a manga by Tsuchiya Garon, Oldboy has elements of revenge but to describe it as a "revenge saga" is perhaps to oversimplify things. It is a complex film about love and the price we must pay to save it.

There is a sequence where Daesu has to fight his way past a gang of thugs in a narrow hotel corridor that stands out for its naturalism. Shot in a continuous tracking shot, the scene shares the drama of a terrible struggle for survival. Like much of the movie, the scene is arresting. Oldboy is not for the squeamish, but if you can stand the grimmer moments you will enjoy one of the most memorable films of the year. Park does not condemn or stand in judgment of his characters but allows us to see them as flawed human beings who have been pushed into taking extreme measures to salvage what remains of their dignity. Oldboy can be harsh but it also has a great deal of humanity and Daesu's longing for redemption reminds us of our own vulnerability.
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