Oldboy (2003, S. Korea)

In co-writer/director Park Chan-wook's mysterious, neo-noirish, suspenseful, compelling, and visceral (double) revenge action-thriller - it was an ultra-violent, potently sinister tale (mostly in flashback) and horror-mystery about dark secrets, adapted from the Japanese manga written by Tsuchiya Garon and Minegishi Nobuaki. Its themes included vengeance, conspiracy, guilt, the taboo of incest, hypnotism, and redemption. The tagline incorporated a brief description of the plot: "15 years of imprisonment, five days of vengeance."

The modern-day allegory included referential allusions to the dated Freudian theory of the Oedipus complex, and the Greek myth and tragedy of Oedipus, similar to the name of the film's protagonist Oh Dae-su. Oedipus engaged in an incestual relationship with his mother and subsequently gouged out his eyes due to his feelings of shame. This was similar to the film and the victim's final act of tongue-excisement and a promise to his cruel tormenter to never spread gossip again.

The cult favorite was a critical and commercial success, although it was not for the squeamish. On a budget of $3 million, the film grossed revenues of $2.5 million (domestic) and $17.6 million (worldwide). The film was the middle film of director Park Chan-wook's trilogy, including Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), and Lady Vengeance (2005).

The film was remade 10 years later (Oldboy (2013)), an inferior box-office bomb by director Spike Lee, starring Josh Brolin as the male protagonist.

• the film began with the male protagonist Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) on a rooftop, holding onto the necktie of a despondent, suicidal man (Oh Kwang-rok) with his white pet dog in his arms; the man was attempting to throw himself off the grass-covered roof-top of the building; Dae-su saved the man by holding onto his necktie, and was able to delay the man's death; the man begged: "I want to tell you my story," but Dae-su responded: "Who the hell are you?"
• in the next flashbacked scene during the opening credits, the married, directionless, womanizing businessman Dae-su was in a police station after being arrested for disorderly drunkenness; the unhinged, inebriated Dae-su showed disrespect for authority after being apprehended; he playfully wore a pair of white, fluffy angel-wings - a birthday gift for his 4 year old daughter at her party - which he had missed; he explained the meaning of his name: "Just get by the day quietly" - although it didn't seem appropriate
• later on the rainy night, his friend and Internet cafe owner Joo-hwan (Ji Dae-han) bailed him out of jail and picked him up from the police station; after Dae-su made a brief call from a phone booth to his daughter and promised to arrive soon, he inexplicably disappeared (or was abducted)
• Dae-su found himself waking up and imprisoned in a strange, dingy, windowless hotel-like room in South Korea without knowing why he was being held, the charges or his captors; he was fed through a doggy-door slot and periodically kept sedated with gas (to trim his hair, change his clothes, and clean up the place) and often tranquilized with hypodermic shots so that he wouldn't commit suicide by slashing his wrists out of despair; he didn't realize at the time that he would be held in captivity for 15 years; the almost-insane Dae-su was comforted by recalling lines from Ella Wheeler Wilcox's familiar poem Solitude: "Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone"
• in the locked room, he learned from color-TV viewing during the first year of his imprisonment that he had been charged (and framed!) for the murder of his wife Kim; after years in confinement, he began to suffer from delusions and hallucinations (including ants crawling on him and emerging through his skin) [Note: Director Luis Bunuel's short film Un Chien Andalou (1929) also visualized ants on a man's hand.]; the television was Dae-su's sole companion: ("The television is both a clock and calendar. It's your school, home, church, friend and lover"); he often experienced suicidal thoughts
• he also passed the time by writing voluminous notes in his autobiographical journals-diaries about who he might have hurt to cause his imprisonment during his sinful life: ("I wrote about all the people I fought, tormented, and hurt. This was both my prison journal and an autobiography of my evil deeds"); he practiced shadowboxing (martial arts) against a wall with his bare knuckles, and kept track of the number of passing years with tattoos on his hand; he also attempted to escape through a wall tunnel that he was laboriously digging out with a metal chopstick; he made note of historical events as the years passed by: the death of Princess Diana, 9/11, the changing political environment in Korea, etc.
• after confinement for 15 years, in the year 2003, he broke through one brick in the wall to the outside and felt rain on his hand; after he was sedated with gas, female hypnotist Miss Yoo Hyung-ja (Seung-Shin Lee) entered the room and put him under a spell, using the sound of a bell to trigger hypnotic commands; Dae-su was inexplicably freed and released with new expensive clothes and his diary writings; he gained consciousness on the building's grassy rooftop after being deposited there in a large red trunk
• the film returned to the opening scene - where he saw the suicidal man on the side of the building - the first human he had seen in 15 years; Dae-su repeated back to the distraught man: "Even though I'm no more than a beast, don't I, too, have the right to live?"; as the man fell backwards, Dae-su grabbed his necktie; they sat together, but when the saved man suggested: "I want to tell you my story, die later...Now, I'll tell you my story," Dae-su walked off
• the recently-freed Dae-su emerged from the front of the building - where he heard the body of the suicidal man (and his pet dog) crashing into the top of a car behind him; as he proceed along, he again remembered the line from the Solitude poem; he knew he couldn't call anyone and felt like a "fugitive" for having 'murdered' his wife (a frame-up); with his training in self-defense skills, he efficiently beat off an attack by young thugs, and then as he was looking into an aquarium in the front of a restaurant, a beggar (Dae-yeon Lee) handed him a black wallet with money and a flip-phone
• he entered a sushi restaurant where he sat in front of a helpful and young sushi chef named Mi-do (Kang Hye-jeong), and told her he wanted to eat something alive; he thought she looked familiar - he recognized her as the "youngest female Japanese cuisine chef in Korea" who appeared regularly on a Thursday evening cooking TV show
• as he sat there, he received a taunting, enigmatic phone call from his unidentified, villainous, sadistic and insane captor-tormentor (later identified as Woo-jin Lee (Yu Ji-tae)); Dae-su asked about the extent of his hypnotic suggestion and control: ("You hypnotized me in there, didn't you? What did you do to me?"); the caller challenged Dae-su to investigate the reasons for his incarceration, with a cryptic clue: "A grain of sand and a rock both sink in water with the same speed"; then, Dae-su consumed a wriggling, live octopus (eaten headfirst!) before he fainted from a high fever
• Mi-do took pity on him and took him in to her place, where before he awoke, she read some of his journals and asked: "Is this all true?"; when he sexually assaulted her in her bathroom, she resisted but understood his anger when she denied him; she was able to reconcile with him when she promised: "You know, later on when I feel I'm ready, then we do it, scouts honor"; she would signal him by signing a specific song he had written about in his diary ("The Face I Want to See"); she added: "I may try to resist you again in the heat of the moment. But no matter what, don't stop. Just give it to me!"
• the teenaged sushi chef realized that Dae-su was very lonely - due to his hallucinations about ants that she also experienced; she began to assist him in following clues in order to unravel the mystery and discover the enigmatic reasons for what had occurred to him; Dae-su suffered many setbacks and punishments as he went about seeking answers, finding vengeance and trying to locate his young daughter (who would now be 19 years of age); posing as a journalist, Mi-do was told that Dae-su's orphaned daughter had been adopted by foster parents (both doctors) in Sweden and had emigated there; and she also located the grave site of Dae-su's murdered wife
• Dae-su doubted Mi-do's trustworthiness when he discovered she had been computer-chatting with Dae-su's tormenting captor using the code name Evergreen, and referring to "The Count of Monte Cristo"; there was a brief glimpse of the man's face before he logged off; Dae-su was angered and wrongly believed that she was allied with the enigmatic person ("I can't trust you")
• during his own search, Dae-su was able to finally identify the restaurant (Violet Blue Dragon) that made and served the dumplings (that he had eaten for 15 years), and the delivery boy (Yi Yong) that was supplying the private prison with meals for people who were incarcerated there against their will; he followed the delivery boy to the building's basement, where after pressing the buttons for both 7 and 8, the elevator took them to the 7.5th floor - the strange location of the prison

Dae-Su's Torture of Prison Manager Park by Tooth Extractions

• he confronted the prison manager Park Cheol-woong (Dal-su Oh), and sought revenge by questioning and torturing the man who had locked him up for 15 years; during a vengeful tooth removal scene in the control room of the prison, Dae-su forcibly extracted (with the claw of a hammer) 15 of the manager's teeth; Dae-su explained: "I am going to avenge myself for all 15 years. Each tooth I extract will age you by one year"
• as Dae-su left the prison, in the film's best, uninterrupted-take action sequence, he defended himself (using his bare hands and claw-hammer) against prison guards in a corridor, but was severely injured when stabbed in the back; upon entering an elevator, he realized he was surrounded by more thugs, but when the door opened on the basement level, he had defeated all of them
• weakened and bloodied on the street, he pondered: "Now I have become a monster. When my vengeance is over, can I return to being Oh Dae-su?"; an individual helped him into a taxi (that was directed to Mi-do's building # 8 in the Saewoon Apartments), and Dae-su realized his captor was showing his face and aiding him
• Mi-do cared for him and reestablished his health; during his recuperation, Dae-su learned from the prison's audio tape recordings that his captor had paid to have him locked away for a decade and a half - for the sin of gossip: "Oh Dae-su, you see, talks too much"
• at his friend Joo-hwan's Internet cafe, Dae-su had a lucky break when the person that Mi-do had been chatting with on her computer was identified - the one with the alias or code-name "Evergreen"; Dae-su discovered Mi-do had been chatting online at evergreen@nate.com with his taunting tormentor; Dae-su angrily returned to Mi-do's apartment - and suspicious of her loyalties, he attacked her and bound her up, and demanded to know: "Who's Evergreen?"
• but then Dae-su received a call from his savvy friend who had tracked down "Evergreen" and found the owner's name (Su Dae-oh) and address - in apartment building # 7 across the street; he left Mi-do and raced to the neighboring building, where he finally met face-to-face with his captor and a protective, white-haired bodyguard (Mr. Han); he realized that his tormentor was his former grade-school classmate Woo-jin Lee who had inexplicably freed him after 15 years

Dae-su Face-to-Face with His Tormentor: Code-named "Evergreen"

With His Enforcer Mr. Han - An Ultimatum-Warning for Dae-su: "You have until July 5"

• Dae-su was given an ultimatum by his captor - he was challenged to find answers about his prison-punishment, but he was given only five days: "Come on, it's a game. First who, then why. When you know the answer, come and see me. I'll mark your work. You have until July 5. Oh no, only five days left. Too short? Chin up. If you succeed, I'll kill myself instead of Mi-do. That's right, Mi-do. I'm going to kill every woman you love until you die"
• "Evergreen" had described what would happen if Dae-su succeeded in his discovery mission - he promised to suicidally kill himself by remotely deactivating the pacemaker that was implanted in his own chest; if Dae-su failed, Mi-Do would be killed on July 5th; for the remainder of the film, for the few days remaining, Dae-su was engaged in a cat-and-mouse "game" with his tormenter, to seek surrealistic vengeance against his captor(s) and prison officials
• however, Dae-su realized it would be counter-productive to kill his captor before discovering the truth; Dae-su was given a choice: "Revenge? Or the truth?" - and chose the latter; "Evergreen" explained how he had found some peace through revenge over the last 15 years: "Seeking revenge is the best cure for someone who has been hurt....revenge is good for your health," although vengeance wasn't entirely satisfying: "I bet that hidden pain probably emerges again"
• after he returned to Mi-do's apartment across the street, Dae-su attempted to save her after she had been strung-up, half-stripped, and possibly sexually-molested and abused by Park and his thugs; they had entered through the front door that he had left open when he rushed off; Park was dissuaded from vengefully retaliating against Dae-su with the same teeth-pulling torture technique when he was presented with a case of cash by bodyguard Mr. Han; Park left with his gang, as Dae-su threatened to seek vengeance and amputate Park's hand: ("I'll chop off your hand. You touched Mi-do's breasts"); Mi-do criticized Dae-su: "So do you trust me now, you bastard?"
• as Dae-su and Mi-do drove out of town in a rental car, she was upset after he told her about his ultimatum: ("Did he really say that he'd kill me?...Because I'm the woman you love?"); she had quit her job in the sushi restaurant; Mi-do signaled to Dae-su that she wanted to consummate their love and have sex with him, by singing the song mentioned in Dae-su's journal: "The Face I Want to See"; in his penthouse, "Evergreen" listened to them through a wire-tap on Dae-su
• they entered a 'love hotel' where they made love - it was a pivotal love-making scene between them; she claimed it was very painful but wanted to give him pleasure: ("It hurts so much. But I'll endure it. You shouldn't forget this"); they were unaware that the heel of Dae-su's shoe had been bugged and wired; "Evergreen" knew about their sexual contact and where they were; their room was gassed and he watched them sleeping together; he also delivered a pretty gift-box with Mr. Park's severed left hand wrapped up inside; Mi-do fainted

Pivotal Love-Making Scene Between Dae-su and Mi-do

• Dae-su discovered the eavesdropping apparatus hidden in the heel of his shoe; Mi-do began to further assist Dae-su in his investigation into the reason for his jailing for 15 years, and who was tormenting him; her online search with Joo-hwan led to their discovery that the pseudonym "Evergreen" (the captor's name of his many business enterprises) was tied to Dae-su's own Sangnok high school classmate Woo-jin Lee (Yoo Ji-tae), pictured on the school's alumni home page and in the yearbook - class of 1979
• from his friend Joo-hwan during computer sleuthing, Dae-su learned that years earlier when they attended the same school, Woo-jin's younger sister Lee Soo-ah (Yoon Jin-seo) had died for some reason (after Dae-su had transferred to another school); she was found drowned a week after her death at the Habchun Dam, and therefore didn't have a graduation picture for herself; Joo-hwan had only derogatory words to say about her reputation as a promiscuous teen: "She was a complete slut...a filthy whore...a total slut"
• at the Internet shop while listening in to Joo-hwan's slanderous comments being told to Dae-su via headphones, Woo-jin became very upset, and he sought immediate revenge - he beat and stabbed the nearby Joo-hwan to death in his own shop's computer cafe; then he spoke through Joo-hwan's headphones to Dae-su to defend his sister's honor: "My sister was no slut. You must believe that," and he then admitted that he had just murdered Dae-su's friend: ("Joo-hwan is dead because of you"); incensed, Dae-su naturally suspected that Woo-jin had imprisoned him as retaliation after wrongly blaming him for his sister's death; Dae-su sought out one-handed Park, who cooperatively agreed to be paid to temporarily hide Mi-do for a few days in Dae-su's old but improved prison room to keep her safe; as Dae-su left the building, he instructed Park: "If I don't return after July 5, let her go"
• Dae-su followed clues to the Waterwheel Hair Salon, where one of Soo-ah's school friends - a salon employee, vowed that "rumors" at the Catholic school wouldn't have killed her; she hypothesized: "Could she have been pregnant, maybe?" but then doubted that theory; she explained how Dae-su's friend Joo-hwan should be blamed for exaggerated rumors about Soo-ah; on the contrary, she thought that Soo-ah was a "pure girl...never went with anyone"; she implied that Dae-su would also have heard Joo-hwan's rumors about her
• in a flashback to his high school days at the Catholic school, Dae-su visited the school as he remembered and followed himself as a young student, spying on a sexual act in an unused science classroom; he watched as the young Woo-jin reached under a female student's dress and removed her panties; then, after unbuttoning the front of her dress, she obliged by lowering her bra as he opened the two sides of her dress to expose her breasts; he moved forward to put his lips on her nipples; she vainly smiled at herself and watched everything via a mirror reflection; he had unintentionally witnessed something forbidden (although he didn't know they were related siblings - and therefore that their sexual act was incestual)
• later, young Dae-su relayed what he had seen (he regarded what he had viewed as very inconsequential at the time, since he didn't know the female) to his young friend Joo-hwan, and told him to not pass on the information: ("I'll kill you if you blab to anyone"); undoubtedly his friend disobeyed and spread further gossip; after Dae-su made the comment, he transferred to another school in Seoul and didn't hear about the sister's death
• to Mi-do, Dae-su's fate (imprisonment for 15 years) seemed excessive for what he had witnessed; on July 5th, she asked him: "You got locked up for 15 years just for saying that? Is that such a crime?"; Dae-su explained how he had been solely blamed by Woo-jin, for one off-handed comment that led to the spread of rumors about his sister's sluttiness; Dae-su experienced insight into the first cryptic clue presented earlier to him by Woo-jin: "A grain of sand and a rock both sink in water with the same speed"; it meant that both kinds of remarks (an innocent bit of small-talk or slip of the tongue, and a major piece of deliberate gossip) could cause the same devastating results; Mi-do suggested running away, but Dae-su refused to surrender without vengeance: "I can't end it like this. Vengeance has become a part of me"
• in millionaire villain Woo-jin's 64th floor penthouse, Dae-su confronted his accuser face-to-face: "You slept with your sister. So refreshing. And I started the rumors. That's why your sister died"; Dae-su realized that Woo-jin's motive for his diabolical and vengeful plan of imprisonment against him was definitely in retaliation for the incident regarding his sister's rumored promiscuity and subsequent death
• Dae-su claimed he had won the ultimatum, and it was time for Woo-jin to die as promised; Woo-jin countered Dae-su's statement, reminding Dae-su that he had simply forgotten his part in the rumor mill incident, not because of Woo-jin's hypnosis, but because it was "not exciting" or "important" to him; according to Woo-jin, Dae-su's initial rumor had turned into additional exaggerated gossip that Soo-ah was pregnant; while hateful accusations were spreading about an incestuous pregnancy, Woo-jin's humiliated sister experienced a false pregnancy and then committed suicide: "Your tongue got my sister pregnant. It wasn't Lee Woo-jin's dick. It was Oh Dae-su's tongue"
• Dae-su speculated that Woo-jin had played a major role in killing his sister: "Is that why you killed your sister? Imagine how a boy would feel, fathering both his child and his nephew? You were probably afraid. Afraid that everyone would know once the baby was born. After you killed her, you realized it was a phantom pregnancy, so your hating me is understandable"
• Dae-su showed Woo-jin a picture that he had taken of his sister at the dam on July 5th, proving that he had been present at the time of her death when she fell into the water at the dam: ("They said Soo-ah died alone at the dam, so who took this photo? And what about the date, July 5?")
• Woo-jin then turned the tables by explaining how he had hired the female hypnotist, Miss Yoo, to have both Mi-do and Dae-su hypnotized or programmed to fortuitously meet and then fall in love and have sex - a punishment suited to fit the crime, since he would be having incestual sex with his grown-up daughter, to feel the same pain; with a series of photos from a similar family photo album viewed as a flip-book, he proved that Mi-do was Dae-su's daughter; Mi-do progressed in age to become a teenager; Dae-su was again reminded of the poem's lines: "Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone"
• utterly enraged, Dae-su attacked Han, and although thrown into a shattering window, he had been able to stab Han in the neck; as they continued to fight, Woo-jin ended their struggle by shooting Han in the head, and then implied that Dae-su was stupid for hiding Mi-do in Park's prison; (Park was still working for him as owner of the prison, and had also been compensated with cash for his lost hand); he also stated how he had raised young Mi-do starting at age 4 once Dae-su was imprisoned
• during a phone call between Dae-su and Mi-do in prison while Park was in her presence, Dae-su begged for her to not open a box holding a similar family photo album until he returned to be with her; he knew that it would reveal that he was her father; Dae-su begged for Woo-jin to not inform Mi-do ("Please, don't tell Mi-do")
• Dae-su admitted his sin and guilt: ("I have committed an unforgivable sin against your sister. And I also did you wrong"), but also asked for the innocent and blameless Mi-do to be spared; he began to grovel, bark like a dog on his hands and knees, and debase himself, and even subjected himself to an extremely-painful tongue self-excisement with a rusty pair of scissors - to find atonement and to prevent any further rumors or talk; he realized that he had taken the virginity of his own long-lost daughter Mi-do (an act of unintended incest!); Woo-jin covered his mouth with a handkerchief to hide his self-satisfied laughter
• feeling vindicated by Dae-su's subjugation, Woo-jin accepted Dae-su's act of penance and apology, and as he had allegedly promised, he called Park and instructed him to not open the box of photos for Mi-do; Woo-jin also prophetically asked himself: "Now, what will I live for?"; he thought about pulling the trigger on a gun he held to Dae-su's head, but then decided otherwise; he gave Dae-su his pacemaker's remote before stepping into his elevator; Dae-su realized it was a trick after he pressed the button on the remote - and was shocked with further torment that it played the taped audio recording of his incestual sex act with Mi-do
• the main reason for Dae-su's imprisonment, learned by the film's end, was the film's major plot twist - in his elevator as Woo-jin departed from his penthouse, he spoke his last words: "You must understand. My sister and I loved each other despite everything. Can you two do the same?"
• then, Woo-jin experienced a startling, guilt-ridden, pained, flashbacked memory revealing that he had murdered his own suicidal sister - she had not committed suicide; just before he let go of her over the side of Habchun Dam, she urged him: "I have no regrets, do you?"; as the guilty memory from years earlier came over him (she was pregnant with his child - the reason that he had released her), he clenched his right hand - and shot himself in the side of the head inside his elevator as the door opened, leaving a bloodstain on the wall

Woo-jin in Penthouse Elevator
	Young Woo-jin's Flashback Recalling Letting Go of his Suicidal Sister at the Dam
His Sister Soo-ah's Death
	Woo-jin's Suicide in His Penthouse Elevator

• in the concluding scene, Dae-su was attempting to erase his unbearable knowledge of his lover Mi-do being his daughter; he located the female hypnotist (from earlier who had hypnotized both of them) and wrote to her about his entire tragic life's story: "This is the whole adventure of my life until now. Thank you for listening to this terrible story to the end"
• in his request through a letter (he was unable to talk), his final sentence was touching to her; it mirrored the words of Dae-su with the suicidal man from the film's opening: "Even though I'm no more than a beast, don't I, too, have the right to live?" Dae-su requested that she wipe clean his memory of their incestual act, so that they could continue living in ignorance; she met with him in an unidentified wintry setting in the snowy mountains, and proceeded to put him in a spell
• the hypnotist's intention was to destroy the monstrous Dae-Su who knew the awful truth, but warned it might not work; she instructed him to imagine that part of himself so he could kill it; she asked him to return mentally to Woo-Jin's penthouse apartment and to split himself up into two different people when he heard the sound of a bell she was holding; two different Dae-Sus were to be imagined - in a window reflection:
  1. an "Ignorant" one who had no memory
  2. a "Beast" or monster who held the secret
• as the monster walked away, she explained how every step equaled a year until the age of 70 when it would die:
  • "The hypnosis may go wrong and distort your memories. Do you want to proceed? If you're ready, Iook at that tree. The tree is slowly changing into a concrete pillar. You're now inside Lee Woo-jin's penthouse. It's a dreary night. The sound of your footsteps crossing to the window fills the room. When I ring my bell, you'll split into two people. One person doesn't know your secret: Oh Dae-su. The one who knows your secret is the monster. When I ring the bell again, the monster will turn around and start walking. With each step, he will age by one year. When he reaches 70, the monster will die. There's no need to worry. It will be a very peaceful death. Now, good luck to you"
• in the film's ambiguous ending, Mi-do (wearing red) found the delirious Dae-su lying in the snow, and waking up; after attempting to warm his hands, she saw his footsteps in the snow reaching back about 70 feet, and she questioned him: "Who were you with?"; as she embraced him, Mi-do told him softly: "I love you, Dae-su"; he struggled to bring a smile to his face, but it slowly became painful to maintain

The Film's Ambiguous Ending
Mi-do: "I love you... Dae-su"	Dae-su Was Embraced, But He Had a Pained Smile on His Face

• the film didn't answer the question: Did the hypnosis work? Did he or did he not extinguish the self that knew the truth about their identities? Was Dae-su able to escape his fate and forget what had happened?