Old Boy [2003] (DVD)

It's not often that I see a film that's so good it completely knocks my socks off. Oldboy is a revenge movie from South Korea. Released in 2003, it's made quite an impact here in the West, winning the Jury Grand Prize at Cannes last year (probably because of Quentin Tarantino - he's well known for liking his far Eastern cinema). Asian cinema is currently very much in vogue, and the Koreans are starting to offer serious competition to the Japanese. But while other recent Korean films like Foul King or Save the Green Planet are very good, they're a bit too strange to appeal to a mainstream audience. I don't see this being a problem with Oldboy. It should appeal to anyone ...

Oh Dae-su finds himself in prison. But this is no ordinary prison. He doesn't know why he is there or how long he has to stay. Little does he know that he will have to spend fifteen long years there. When he is finally released, he finds himself in a new set of clothes and is shortly given a wallet full of money and a mobile phone. While eating in a restaurant, he is attracted to the female chef, Mido, and the attraction is mutual. But Dae-su wants to know why he was imprisoned - what crime had he committed? As he begins to piece the puzzle together with the help of Mido, and friend Joo-hwan, he realises that not only is his life at risk, but so is the life of Mido, who ...

An Asian man is making a drunken fool of himself on a wet night in the city. When he exit’s the building with his friend he makes a call to his young daughter wishing her happy birthday. He then vanishes only to wake up imprisoned in a hotel room, days turn into years and soon Dae-su Oh wonders if he’ll ever see civilisation again. In his confinement he watches TV, thinks about how to get out and perfect his fighting skills for when the day comes to seek revenge. The only problem is he has no answer to why he find’s himself imprisoned. After fifteen years he awakens to find himself a free man, a lot has changed. What has happened to his wife and daughter? ...