Grand Prize of the Jury
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Oldboy2003
Oh Dae-su is an ordinary Seoul businessman with a wife and little daughter who, after a drunken night on the town, is locked up in a strange, private prison for 15 years. No one will tell him why he's there and who his jailer is, but he is kept in reasonably comfortable quarters and has a TV to keep him company. Watching TV though, he discovers he has been framed for his wife's murder and realizes that, during one of the occasions in which he's knocked out by gas, someone has drawn blood from him and left it at the scene of the crime. The imprisonment lasts for 15 years until one day Dae-su finds himself unexpectedly deposited on a grass-covered high-rise rooftop. He's determined to discover the mysterious enemy who had him locked up. While he's eating in a Japanese restaurant, his cell phone rings and a voice dares him to figure out why he was imprisoned.
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Starring
- Min-sik Choi - Dae-su Oh
- Dae-han Ji - No Joo-hwan
- Hye-jeong Kang - Mi-do
- Byeong-ok Kim - Mr. Han
- Seung-shin Lee - Yoo Hyung-ja
- Dal-su Oh - Park Cheol-woong
- Ji-tae Yu - Woo-jin Lee
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Member Reviews (7)
top reviewer
All around excellence in film making! Min-sik Choi is superb in his role that calls for extraordinary depth of feeling and physicality.The use of Vivaldi and classical music in scenes of great tension is other worldly as is the screen play .The slow unfolding of the story is mesmerizing and doesn't leave one disappointed at it's conclusion.
I just watched this movie for the third time in my life and it has taken on a deeper resonance with age and experience—which says it all. Vengeance, redemption, memory, transgression, mystery, love...so many kinds of love. And how many people reside within each one of us? On one level, this Korean Tarantino-style flick is a deep exploration of our many hidden layers, along with the mistakes, errors and shameful deeds that bury our basest urges and longings still yet to be uncovered; of course, this is also about trying to rise to one's better self and purpose following insurmountable adversity, and despite one's nature. (It has been Tarantino borrowing from this sort of cinema more than the other way around.) Reflections, real or projected, mirrors, memories and latent images are all part of the jarring, frazzled, and violent dance.
This is the best Fandor has to offer. Its not just suspense or gore, it great filmmaking. 5 out of 5 hoy crap that was good!
Perfection.
This is beyond anything I expected for this movie. The story, characters, actors, and what is now top ranking favorite villain.
One of my favorite foreign films to date. Oh De Sue is a great tragic character and the actor that played him doesn't get enough credit. Even after multiple viewing this holds up.
One of the most mind fucking movie i've ever seen.