Oldboy (2003 film)

Template:Infobox film Oldboy (Template:Korean) is a 2003 South Korean neo-noir thriller film<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> directed and co-written by Park Chan-wook. A loose adaptation of the Japanese manga Old Boy by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi, the film follows Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), who is imprisoned for 15 years without knowing the identity of his captor or his captor's motives. When he is released, Dae-su finds himself trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence as he seeks revenge against his captor who promises that if Dae-Su cannot find him within five days, the captor will kill himself and thus ensure that Dae-Su will never find the truth behind his capture. His quest becomes tied in with romance when he falls in love with a young sushi chef, Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung).

Oldboy attained critical acclaim and accolades worldwide, including winning the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where it garnered high praise from Quentin Tarantino, the president of the jury. In the United States, film critic Roger Ebert stated that Oldboy is a "powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare". The film's action sequences, particularly the single shot corridor fight sequence, also received commendation for their impressive execution.

The film's success led to two adaptations: an unauthorized Hindi remake in 2006 and an official American adaptation in 2013. As part of Park Chan-wook's The Vengeance Trilogy, it serves as the second installment, following Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and preceding Lady Vengeance (2005).

The film is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time and has been included in numerous "best-of" lists by many publications.<ref name="Film's Top 100 Movies Of All Time">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="bbc.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="empireonline.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="timeout.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2008, Oldboy was placed 64th on an Empire list of the top 500 movies of all time.<ref name="Empire Magazine's 500 Greatest Movi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2020, The Guardian ranked it number 3 among the classics of modern South Korean cinema.<ref name="Bradshaw">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Plot

In 1988, businessman Oh Dae-su is arrested for assault and drunkenness, causing him to miss his daughter's fourth birthday. His friend Joo-hwan collects him, but Dae-su disappears and awakens in a sealed hotel room. Takeout food is delivered through a pet door, and his only diversion is a television; from it, Dae-su learns that he has been framed for his wife's murder. As years pass, Dae-su grows deranged from solitude and attempts suicide by wrist-cutting, but is resuscitated. Dae-su then begins practicing martial arts against the wall and attempting to dig an escape tunnel.

In 2003, Dae-su is sedated, hypnotised, and released after 15 years. He awakens on a rooftop, where he saves a suicidal man and recounts his story; once finished, Dae-su allows the man to commit suicide. Dae-su receives money and a phone from a beggar, and enters a sushi restaurant. Taunted by his captor over the phone, Dae-su orders and consumes a live octopus before collapsing. He is taken in by the young sushi chef, Mi-do, who reads his journals.

Dae-su searches for his daughter, but gives up after learning she was adopted and emigrated. Focusing on his captors, he eats at Chinese restaurants until he identifies which one prepared his prison meals. Chasing a deliveryman, Dae-su finds a private prison where people pay to have others incarcerated. He tortures and interrogates the warden, Mr. Park, who divulges that Dae-su was imprisoned for "talking too much". Park's guards attack Dae-su, but he fights his way through.

Dae-su reconnects with Joo-hwan, who now works at an internet café. Dae-su becomes suspicious of Mi-do and binds her, but his captor calls and sends him to a neighboring apartment. Using the pseudonym "Evergreen", he gives Dae-su an ultimatum: if he can uncover his motive within five days, Evergreen will remotely deactivate his pacemaker; otherwise, Evergreen will kill Mi-do. Dae-su returns to Mi-do to find Park and his thugs molesting her. Park prepares to torture Dae-su, but stops when Evergreen sends a briefcase of cash; Dae-su threatens to remove Park's hand, but Park leaves. Mi-do is upset by the ultimatum, but she and Dae-su grow closer and have sex in a love hotel.

Dae-su wakes to find Park's hand wrapped in a box; he investigates his possessions, and has his shoe debugged. Dae-su and Mi-do follow Evergreen's pseudonym to Dae-su's high-school motto: "Evergreen Old Boys". Identifying Evergreen as Lee Woo-jin in a yearbook, Dae-su calls Joo-hwan. Joo-hwan recalls a girl in his class, Lee Soo-ah — who is revealed to be Woo-jin's sister — and crassly describes her sex life and suicide; an eavesdropping Woo-jin angrily stabs Joo-hwan to death. Dae-su seeks out Park, who wants revenge for his hand removal; Park agrees to temporarily imprison Mi-do to keep her safe. Talking to Soo-ah's friends, Dae-su recalls witnessing her having sex with Woo-jin. Unaware it was incest, Dae-su had told Joo-hwan of her promiscuity, who then spread gossip. Woo-jin, in denial of the truth that he got his sister pregnant, claims Soo-ah developed a false pregnancy, which drove her to suicide.

At Woo-jin's penthouse, Dae-su reveals Woo-jin's motive. An amused Woo-jin gifts Dae-su a family photo album, the contents revealing that Dae-su's daughter grew up into Mi-do. Woo-Jin's bodyguard fights Dae-Su, who stabs him in the ear and deafens him. Realising that his bodyguard will kill Dae-Su, he shoots him dead before continuing to monologue. Woo-jin reveals that he used hypnosis to orchestrate their meeting and incestuous relationship, and that he paid Park to imprison Mi-do. Woo-jin threatens to tell Mi-do the truth, and Dae-su desperately grovels; when Woo-jin is unmoved, Dae-su cuts out his tongue as penance. Woo-jin accepts his apology, instructing Park to not tell Mi-do and dropping his pacemaker remote. Dae-su uses it, but it only plays a recording of Dae-su and Mi-do having sex, making him collapse in despair. Woo-jin leaves the penthouse apparently satisfied with his work. However, he hallucinates his sister's suicide as he is in the elevator and breaks into a flood of tears. Realising that despite his vengeance he will always be tormented by his past, he pulls out his derringer, presses it to his head, and kills himself with the final bullet, symbolising how his revenge only truly hurt himself further.

Sometime later, Dae-su locates the hypnotist and requests she erase his knowledge of Mi-do being his daughter. Touched by a specific line in his letter,Template:Efn she guides Dae-su to envision the part of himself that knows the truth dying. A concerned Mi-do finds Dae-su lying alone in the snow. Mi-do confesses her love for him, and the two embrace; Dae-su smiles, but it becomes a tortured grimace.

Cast

Choi Min-sik played the lead role in Oldboy as Oh Dae-su.

• Choi Min-sik as Oh Dae-su, a businessman who seeks revenge after being held in a mysterious prison for 15 years. Choi Min-sik lost and gained weight for his role depending on the filming schedule, trained for six weeks, and did most of his own stunt work.
  • Template:Ill as young Dae-su.
• Yoo Ji-tae as Lee Woo-jin, the man behind Oh Dae-su's imprisonment. Park Chan-wook's ideal choice for Woo-jin had been actor Han Suk-kyu, who previously played a rival to Choi Min-sik in Shiri and No. 3. Choi then suggested Yoo Ji-tae for the role, despite Park believing he was too young for the part.<ref>Cine21 Interview about Park's revenge trilogy; 27 April 2007.</ref>
  • Yoo Yeon-seok as young Woo-jin.
• Kang Hye-jung as Mi-do, Dae-su's love interest.
• Template:Ill as No Joo-hwan, Dae-su's friend and the owner of an internet café.
  • Template:Ill as young Joo-hwan.
• Kim Byeong-ok as Mr. Han, Woo-jin's bodyguard.
• Yoon Jin-seo as Lee Soo-ah, Woo-jin's sister.
• Oh Dal-su as Mr. Park Cheol-woong, warden of the private prison.
• Oh Kwang-rok as Suicidal man.

Production

Template:Expand section The corridor fight scene took seventeen takes in three days to perfect and was one continuous take; there was no editing of any sort except for the knife stabbed in Oh Dae-su's back, which was computer-generated imagery.Template:Citation needed

The script originally called for full male frontal nudity, but Yoo Ji-tae changed his mind after the scenes had been shot.Template:Citation needed

Other computer-generated imagery in the film includes the ant coming out of Dae-su's arm (according to the making-of feature on the DVD, the whole arm was CGI) and the ants crawling over him afterwards. The octopus being eaten alive was not computer-generated; four were used during the filming of this scene. The eating of squirming octopuses (called san-nakji (Template:Korean) in Korean) as a delicacy exists in East Asia, although it is usually killed and cut, not eaten whole and alive; the squirming is a result of postmortem nerve activity in the octopus' tentacles.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> When asked in DVD commentary if he felt sorry for Choi, director Park Chan-wook stated he felt more sorry for the octopuses.

The final scene's snowy landscape was filmed in New Zealand.<ref name="NZH review">Template:Cite news</ref> The ending is deliberately ambiguous, and the audience is left with several questions: specifically, how much time has passed, if Dae-su's meeting with the hypnotist really took place, whether he successfully lost the knowledge of Mi-do's identity, and whether he will continue his relationship with Mi-do. In an interview with Park (included with the European release of the film), he says that the ambiguous ending was deliberate and intended to generate discussion; it is completely up to each individual viewer to interpret what is not shown.

Soundtrack

{{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |{{#if: Template:Start date | Template:Short description}}}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=soundtrackOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrack from OldboyJo Yeong-wookTemplate:Start date2003 SeoulContemporary classicalTemplate:DurationEMI Music Korea Ltd.Jo Yeong-wook
Shim Hyeon-jeong
Lee Ji-soo
Choi Seung-hyunx|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}}

Nearly all the music cues that are composed by Shim Hyeon-jeong, Lee Ji-soo and Choi Seung-hyun are titled after films, many of them film noirs.

Track listing

Reception and analysis

Box office

Template:Anchor In South Korea, the film was seen by 3,260,000 filmgoers and ranks fifth for the highest-grossing film of 2003.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Oldboy grossed a total of US$17,052,444 worldwide.<ref name="Mojo"/>

20th anniversary re-release

The film was theatrically re-released in the United States by NEON for its 20th anniversary on 16 August 2023, remastered in 4K, featuring bonus commentary by Park Chan-wook.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2025, the film was showcased in the section 'Decisive Moments in Asian Cinema' at the 30th Busan International Film Festival, as part of the special "Asian Cinema 100", being the signature work of the director Park Chan-wook.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Critical response

Oldboy received critical acclaim,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Metacritic-2023">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and is considered an influential cult classic.<ref name="Metacritic-2023" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Praise was also given to the film's action sequences, specifically highlighting the "all-timer" single shot hallway fight sequence.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 82% based on 159 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Violent and definitely not for the squeamish, Park Chan-Wook's visceral Oldboy is a strange, powerful tale of revenge."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, with 82% positive reviews based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars and remarked: "We are so accustomed to 'thrillers' that exist only as machines for creating diversion that it's a shock to find a movie in which the action, however violent, makes a statement and has a purpose."<ref name="ebert">Template:Cite news</ref> James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three out of four stars, saying that it "isn't for everyone, but it offers a breath of fresh air to anyone gasping on the fumes of too many traditional Hollywood thrillers."<ref>Review by James Berardinelli Template:Webarchive, ReelViews.</ref>

Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com praised the film, calling it "anguished, beautiful, and desperately alive" and "a dazzling work of pop-culture artistry."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peter Bradshaw gave it 5/5 stars, commenting that this is the first time in which he could actually identify with a small live octopus. Bradshaw summarizes his review by referring to Oldboy as "cinema that holds an edge of cold steel to your throat."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> David Dylan Thomas points out that rather than simply trying to "gross us out", Oldboy is "much more interested in playing with the conventions of the revenge fantasy and taking us on a very entertaining ride to places that, conceptually, we might not want to go."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer gave Oldboy a score of "B−", calling it "a bloody and brutal revenge film immersed in madness and directed with operatic intensity," but felt that the questions raised by the film are "lost in the battering assault of lovingly crafted brutality."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Jamie Russell of the BBC movie review calls it a "sadistic masterpiece that confirms Korea's current status as producer of some of the world's most exciting cinema."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2019 on The Hankyoreh, Kim Hyeong-seok said that Oldboy was the 'zeitgeist of the vigorous Korean cinema in early 2000s', and a 'boiling point that led history of Korean cinema to new state'.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Manohla Dargis of the New York Times called the film "a trivial genre movie," writing, "The fact that Oldboy is embraced by some cinephiles is symptomatic of a bankrupt, reductive postmodernism: one that promotes a spurious aesthetic relativism (it's all good) and finds its crudest expression in the hermetically sealed world of fan boys."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> J.R. Jones of the Chicago Reader was also not impressed, saying that "there's a lot less here than meets the eye."<ref>Review by J.R. Jones Template:Webarchive, Chicago Reader.</ref>

The film is regarded as one of the best films ever made and has been included in numerous "best-of" lists by many publications.<ref name="Film's Top 100 Movies Of All Time"/><ref name="bbc.com"/><ref name="empireonline.com"/><ref name="timeout.com"/> In 2008, Oldboy was placed 64th on an Empire list of the top 500 movies of all time.<ref name="Empire Magazine's 500 Greatest Movi"/> The same year, voters on CNN named it one of the ten best Asian films ever made.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was ranked #18 in the same magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In a 2016 BBC poll, critics voted the film the 30th greatest since 2000.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2020, The Guardian ranked it number 3 among the classics of modern South Korean Cinema.<ref name="Bradshaw"/> In 2025, the film ranked number 43 on The New York TimesTemplate:' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" and number 40 on the "Readers' Choice" edition of the list.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Oedipus the King inspiration

Park Chan-wook stated that he named the main character Oh Dae-su "to remind the viewer of Oedipus."<ref>"Sympathy for the Old Boy... An Interview with Park Chan Wook" Template:Webarchive by Choi Aryong</ref> In one of the film's iconic shots, Yoo Ji-tae, who played Woo-jin, strikes an extraordinary yoga pose. Park Chan-wook said he designed this pose to convey "the image of Apollo."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was Apollo's prophecy that revealed Oedipus' fate in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. The link to Oedipus Rex is only a minor element in most English-language criticism of the movie, while Koreans have made it a central theme. Sung Hee Kim wrote "Family seen through Greek tragedy and Korean movie – Oedipus the King and Old Boy."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Kim Kyungae offers a different analysis, with Dae-su and Woo-jin both representing Oedipus.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Besides the theme of unknown incest revealed, Oedipus gouges his eyes out to avoid seeing a world that despises the truth, while Oh Dae-su cuts off his tongue to prevent the truth from being revealed.

More parallels with Greek tragedy include how Lee Woo-jin is portrayed as akin to an immortal Greek god while Oh Dae-su is merely an aged mortal. Lee Woo-jin looks young compared to Oh Dae-su, though they are supposed to be contemporaries at school. Throughout the movie Lee Woo-jin is portrayed as an obscenely rich young man who lives in a lofty tower and is omnipresent due to having listening devices planted on Oh Dae-Su and others, which furthers the parallel between his character and the secrecy of Greek gods.Template:Citation needed

Mi-do, throughout the movie, comes across as a strong-willed, young and innocent girl, and has been compared to Sophocles' Antigone, Oedipus' daughter. Though Antigone does not commit incest with her father, she remains faithful and loyal to him, similar to how Mi-do reunites with Oh Dae-Su and takes care of him in the wilderness (cf. Oedipus at Colonus). Another interesting character is the hypnotist, who, apart from being able to hypnotise people, also has the power to make people fall in love (e.g. Dae-Su and Mi-do), which is characteristic of the power of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, whose classic act is to make Paris and Helen fall in love before and during the Trojan War.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Better source needed

Park Chan-wook's focus on the irrational

Park Chan-wook has said there is a deep influence from author Franz Kafka in this movie, and that this provides the absurdity and surrealism.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> In interviews, Park Chan-wook has also spoken about his movies "portraying something irrational: a phenomenon that cannot be explained logically. A portrait of humanity as neither good nor evil but rather as a complex existence."<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> This is not only evident in Oldboy but also other movies made by Park and Bong Joon-ho. For example, Parasite, Memories of Murder, and Decision to Leave do not contain archetypal good characters. There is no moral protagonist for the audience to follow. Korean Studies professor and cultural critic David Tizzard has described this as a quality of Asian cinema: "Gone are the simple ideas of good and evil. Erased are the ideas of a moral protagonist and their immoral antagonist. But because they are not good, or at least defined as such by their creators, they become something much larger, realer, and more complete than the archetypes we are spoon-fed elsewhere."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Home media

In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 300,000 television viewers on Channel 4 in 2011. This made it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on a non-BBC television channel in the UK.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
Asia-Pacific Film Festival	Best Director	Park Chan-wook	Template:Won
	Best Actor	Choi Min-sik	Template:Won
Austin Film Critics Association	Best Film	Oldboy	Template:Nom
	Best Foreign Film		Template:Won
Bangkok International Film Festival	Best Film		Template:Nom
	Best Director Template:Small	Park Chan-wook	Template:Won
Belgian Film Critics Association<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>	Grand Prix	Oldboy	Template:Won
Bergen International Film Festival<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>		Audience Award	Template:Won
Blue Dragon Film Awards<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Best Director	Park Chan-wook	Template:Won
	Best Actor	Choi Min-sik	Template:Won
	Best Supporting Actress	Kang Hye-jung	Template:Won
British Independent Film Awards<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Best Foreign Independent Film	Oldboy	Template:Won
Cannes Film Festival<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Palme d'Or		Template:Nom
	Grand Prix	Template:Won
Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Foreign Language Film	Template:Nom
Critics' Choice Movie Award	Best Foreign Language Film	Template:Nom
Director's Cut Awards	Best Director	Park Chan-wook	Template:Won
	Best Actor	Choi Min-sik	Template:Won
	Best Producer	Kim Dong-joo	Template:Won
European Film Awards<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Best Non-European Film	Park Chan-wook	Template:Nom
Golden Trailer Awards	Best Foreign Action Trailer Template:Small	Oldboy	Template:Won
Grand Bell Awards	Best Film		Template:Nom
	Best Director	Park Chan-wook	Template:Won
	Best Actor	Choi Min-sik	Template:Won
	Best New Actress	Kang Hye-jung	Template:Nom
	Best Adapted Screenplay	Park Chan-wook	Template:Nom
	Best Cinematography	Chung Chung-hoon	Template:Nom
	Best Editing	Kim Sang-bum	Template:Won
	Best Art Direction	Ryu Seong-hie	Template:Nom
	Best Lighting	Park Hyun-won	Template:Won
	Best Music	Jo Yeong-wook	Template:Won
	Best Visual Effects	Lee Jeon-hyeong, Shin Jae-ho, Jeong Do-an	Template:Nom
Hong Kong Film Awards	Best Asian Film	Oldboy	Template:Won
Korean Film Awards	Best Film		Template:Won
	Best Director	Park Chan-wook	Template:Won
	Best Actor	Choi Min-sik	Template:Won
	Best Actress	Kang Hye-jung	Template:Nom
	Best Supporting Actress	Yoon Jin-seo	Template:Nom
	Best Cinematography	Chung Chung-hoon	Template:Nom
	Best Editing	Kim Sang-bum	Template:Nom
	Best Art Direction	Ryu Seong-hie	Template:Nom
	Best Music	Jo Yeong-wook	Template:Won
	Best Sound	Oldboy	Template:Nom
Online Film Critics Society	Best Foreign Language Film		Template:Nom
Saturn Awards	Best Action or Adventure Film		Template:Nom
	Best DVD or Blu-ray Special Edition Release	Ultimate Collector's Edition	Template:Nom
Sitges Film Festival	Best Film	Oldboy	Template:Won
	José Luis Guarner Critic's Award		Template:Won
Stockholm International Film Festival	Audience Award		Template:Won

Remakes

Bollywood controversy

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Zinda, a Bollywood film directed by writer-director Sanjay Gupta, bears a striking resemblance to Oldboy and is not an officially sanctioned remake. It was reported in 2005 that Zinda was under investigation for copyright violation. A spokesman for original distributor Show East said, "If we find out there's indeed a strong similarity between the two, it looks like we'll have to talk with our lawyers."<ref>Oldboy Makers Plan Vengeance on Zinda Template:Webarchive, TwitchFilm.</ref> Show East had already sold the film's rights to DreamWorks in 2004, and initially expressed legal concerns but no legal action was taken as the studio had shut down.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="starnews">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

American remake

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Steven Spielberg originally intended to produce a remake starring Will Smith in 2008. He commissioned screenwriter Mark Protosevich to adapt the screenplay. Spielberg pulled out in 2009.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

An official remake directed by Spike Lee was released on 27 November 2013.<ref name="slashfilm.com">Template:Cite news</ref> 39 percent of critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes were positive for the remake, indicating mostly negative reviews.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

• Revenge play
• List of cult films

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0364569

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