Old Boy is a Korean film about a man who was imprisoned with no explanation and his quest for revenge.
The story follows Oh Dae-Su shortly before he is imprisoned in a small hotel style reinforced room for no apparent reason. Oh Dae-Su spends 15 years in this room held by captors who never show their face and who routinely play a certain piece of music and then pour gas into the room knocking Oh Dae-Su unconscious for hours. During this time the captors groom him and perform room maintainence.
Oh Dae-Su decides that he is going to try to escape and for the next 10 years, scrapes away at a section of wall behind his bed. He also is determined to get revenge on the person who placed him here and practices martial arts by punching a wall for hours until his hands bleed. Just as he is about to make is escape, Oh Dae-Su is released with a suit, a cell phone and a whole lot of rage.
He meets a woman after his release who he feels he can trust with his story and they begin to search out the ones responsible for his detention.
Oh Dae-Su finds that the truth of his imprisonment affects many more people than just himself.
This movie is pretty fucked up when you get right down to it. There is a very interesting dynamic in all of these Asian films that deals with tradition, loyalty and respect and does not exist in our culture. But it really adds an element of intrigue. There are some decent fighting scenes as well as a pretty gruesome torture sequence. At the end of the movie it becomes obvious that the ideas and concepts displayed would never be seen in American cinema, but that I think is why this film is so affective.
Cliff notes: Cool movie, good fighting, disturbing torture, freaky concept, not your ordinary revenge flick.
Rating: 4.4 out of 5