Oldboy

"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."

A South Korean movie very loosely based on a Japanese manga of the same name, and is the second and most well-known installment of Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy, which begins with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and ends with Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The film also has several parallels to The Count of Monte Cristo, as well as Shout Outs to Titus Andronicus.

Oh Dae-su is an alcoholic businessman with a wife and daughter who is released by the police after a night of drunken misconduct, and then is abruptly kidnapped without a trace. Locked inside a hotel room, completely cut off from the outside world except for a TV, and drugged with knock-out gas every so often, he eventually learns that during his disappearance his wife has been killed, and he has been framed as the murderer. Enraged by his predicament, he finds ways to pass the time, writing his memoirs, training his fists and slowly inching towards his eventual escape.

But just days before his long-awaited breakout fifteen years later, he is just as mysteriously released, with nice clothes, money, a cell phone, a severely weakened psyche, a fugitive status and a million unanswered questions. With the help of a female Japanese chef named Mido and one of his old computer-geek friends, he tries to piece together the scattered clues of who took his life away from him, cutting down anyone who gets in his path.

An English-language remake has been in development for some time, and Spike Lee has been chosen to direct with Josh Brolin in the lead role.

Since this is a movie that has some major twists and surprises, watch out for spoilers.


 * Affably Evil: Woo-jin is pretty charming.
 * Always Save the Girl:
 * And I Must Scream: Oh Dae-su's predicament for fifteen years.
 * And then again,
 * Batman Gambit
 * Bound and Gagged
 * But for Me It Was Tuesday:
 * But for Me It Was Tuesday:
 * But for Me It Was Tuesday:


 * The Chessmaster: Lee Woo-Jin. And as the film picks up speed, he gets faster.
 * Cycle of Revenge
 * : Pretty much the crux of Woo-Jin's motivation.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Woo-Jin practically IS this trope.
 * His reason for locking up Dae-Su for fifteen years?
 * Drop the Hammer
 * Enigmatic Minion: Mr. Han, Woo-Jin's silent bodyguard.
 * Even Evil Has Standards:
 * Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods: The live octopus-eating scene.
 * Eye Scream: Oh Dae-su stabs one of Woo-jin's henchmen in the eye with a broken toothbrush. We don't see anything gory, though.
 * Face Death with Dignity: takes a hot shower and puts on his best suit before shooting himself.
 * Fan Disservice:
 * 555: Averted, as the address - both the street number and PO box - to Dae-su's daughter's foster parents in reality belongs to a hotel in Stockholm.
 * Gambit Roulette: Woo-jin. So much.
 * Go Mad From the Revelation: Dae-su, after learning he has been framed for the murder of his wife.
 * And when he finds out that
 * Gory Discretion Shot: Two occurrences: When Dae-su rips out Mr Park's teeth with the fork of a hammer,
 * Informed Self Diagnosis
 * Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique
 * The Jailer
 * Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition: Quite a few different editions for the film have been released, including various limited editions.
 * Love At First Sight: Deconstructed.
 * Near-Rape Experience: Interestingly, Played for Laughs.
 * No Animals Were Harmed: Very Averted. Four real octopuses were used for the eating scene. (Choi Min-sik, a Buddhist in real life, gave a prayer before eating each one.)
 * The Oner: A number of them throughout the film.
 * Psychological Horror
 * Punch a Wall: A large part of Oh Dae-su's self-training.
 * Shout-Out: To Titus Andronicus including the scene.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: Vivaldi's Winter plays while Oh Dae-su rips Mr Park's teeth out.
 * Token Romance: Subverted in the case of Oh Dae-su and Mi-Do.
 * The Tooth Hurts: The tooth-pulling scene.
 * Unwitting Pawn:
 * Villainous Breakdown: before his suicide.
 * When All You Have Is a Hammer
 * Unwitting Pawn:
 * Villainous Breakdown: before his suicide.
 * When All You Have Is a Hammer