Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2397 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-02-28
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 115 minutes

DVD Description
Having knocked out judges at this year’s Cannes, winning the Grand Prix Du Jury prize and championed by Tarantino, Park Chan-Wook’s startling OLD BOY comes out on DVD in a fantastic two-disc set. Unsettling but ingenious and darkly comic, it’s a revenge movie wrapped in a mystery that twists the nerves at every scene. Following a drunken spree, a businessman is arrested and imprisoned for 15 years, not knowing his crime or who his captors are. Suddenly, he’s released and given three days to discover why he was shut away and who was responsible. A critical and box-office hit, the double disc set includes newly created English subtitles and commentaries with a exclusive Park Chan-Wook interview and original UK trailer.

Synopsis
A man who is held captive for fifteen years and whose wife is murdered is released suddenly and given money. He is asked to discover why he was held prisoner. If he finds the answer his kidnapper will kill himself. Korean dialogue with English subtitles.

Customer Reviews

Not worth the hype.
After all the hype over this film maybe I was expecting too much. But I found it dissapointing overall. ^Lady Vengence^ and ^A bittersweet Life^ I found far superior. When you find out the reason for his abduction and imprisonment for 15 years, it^s so dissapointing. You think is that it.! That^s the reason. He^s a bit of a pathetic character, his vengence could of been far better too. He doesn^t even kill the villan, instead just mutilates himself.! It was so obvious that the young woman was his daughter, long before he was told. No, I found it dissapointing, not the great film I^d expected it to be.

Stylish, Clever, Brutal
The vast number of reviews that have already been submitted will provide a good reflection of the quality of this film. I add my review primarily to comment on the levels of violence and brutality that are depicted. Although many have compared the directorial style to Tarantino, I found this film less "comic-book" in its presentation, which made the scenes of torture and violence more disturbing. The film has so many redeeming features, particularly the plot twists (most of which I didn't see coming), that I can accept that the scenes weren't gratuitous and added to the film's very substantial impact. I would just caution that this definitely isn't one for those who are easily shocked.

Old Boy - No 3 - All Time List 2008
All I need to see to sum up this film really is - What a film - see it!
I am so glad I went into this film not knowing it's twists (hence I won't give any of them away here) as it really is fantastic working them out as the film is progressing and I can't help but think the film would be a lesser (albeit still a great one) experience if you know what was going to happen - this is one of the reasons I am not a fan of synopsis based reviews - if I wanted to know what happens I'll watch the film - before watching a movie all I want to know is that I'll like it - hence I go on reputation of reviews and not back of the box blurb.
It's well documented that this is part of Chan-wook Park's excellent trilogy of Vengeance (Revenge) - Old Boy is the second - are all based (naturally) around the same theme with varying degrees of success.

Old Boy is nothing short of Brilliant compelling viewing, suspenseful and violent - you won't see many films like this one in a lifetime. It won't be for everyone - it is violent - it can be squeamish and tackles some hard issues, but we can't have Bridget Jones in every film - and we don't that either do we!

I hope we don't get a Western remake as the film doesn't need it. Although I do understand remakes from a commercial view point - there aren't enough people willing to watch subtitled films purely because they are too lazy to read them.
Take my (and everyone else's) advice and watch Old Boy! Don't try and read too much into it before hand, as you really don't want to know everything it's about until after the movie just believe me when I say - you will love this movie.