Oldboy is a korean mystery thriller directed by Chan-wook based on the manga written by Nobuaki Minegishi. It is part of The Vengeance Trilogy, with the other movies of this trilogy being Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The movie begins with a scene depicting an intoxicated Oh Dae-su(Choi Min-sik) in a police station. Upon being released, Oh Dae-su passes out, waking up in a mysterious confinement resembling a standard hotel room, with food brought to him, he is imprisoned in this room for fifteen years. Oh Dae-su has no idea as to why he has been put into this situation. He attempts to get to the bottom of this by making a list of all of those he may have wronged, speculating that he may have done so through his reputation for “having a big mouth” and his drunken ways. His only contact with the world is through television. During one of the broadcasts, Oh Dae-su realizes that his wife was murdered and he was the primary suspect, with the entire city searching for him. Growing angry and hateful over the years with no idea as to why he is being imprisoned, Oh Dae-su practices shadowboxing, plotting his revenge, and attempts to escape through a tunnel he made through chopsticks.
Oh Dae-su never successfully escapes through his self-made tunnel. Instead, he is hypnotized by a woman, causing him to pass out. Waking up on the roof of a high rise in Seoul, a phone rings, Oh Dae-su picks up and realizes that it is the man who is responsible for his imprisonment for the last fifteen years. Nothing comes out of the phone call, only taunting and further frustration on Oh Dae-su’s end. Oh Dae-su goes to a sushi restaurant, where he once again passes out. Oh Dae-su wakes up in the home of Mi-do, the chef at the sushi restaurant. Having not been in contact with woman for so long, Oh Dae-su attempts to have sex with her, forcefully. Mi-do refrains, telling him that she likes him but does not feel ready. In an attempt to figure out who imprisoned him, Oh Dae-su starts by going to every restaurant in Seoul to find the one which made the dumplings he ate for the past fifteen years. He follows the dumpling deliverer to the prison where he speaks with the warden to find out as much as he can. The warden only tells Oh Dae-su that he “talked too much.” On his way out, Oh Dae-su finds himself in danger of the gang which runs the prison, having to fight his way out to escape. Finally, Oh Dae-su meets his captor, Lee Woo-jin, who tells him that he will kill himself in five days if Oh Dae-su finds out why he was imprisoned. If Oh Dae-su fails, Mi-do will die. With their relationship developing, Mi-do and Dae-su have sex, further motivating Oh Dae-su to find out why he was imprisoned so that Mi-do will not die.
During his quest to find out why he was imprisoned, Oh Dae-su meets with an old friend who helps him realize that he and Lee Woo-jin both went to the same high school, and that he caught the Woo-jin having sex with his sister. Not knowing that they were related at the time, Dae-su told his friend before moving away and going to a different school. While he was gone, the rumour went viral and Woo-jin's sister and lover, Lee Soo-ah, suffered false signs of pregnancy. ultimately killing herself. Oh Dae-su has the prison warden, now on Dae-su’s side after Woo-jin has his hand cut off, imprison Mi-do for a while to keep her safe in case things go wrong. In confronting Woo-jin and confessing what he did, Woo-jin unleashes the truth: Mi-do is his very own daughter, and that in an elaborate scheme of revenge, imprisoned Oh Dae-su for fifteen years until Mi-do would be old enough to fall in love with Oh Dae-su, with an album to prove to him, and, contrary to belief, the warden is still loyal to Woo-jin and will show the album to Mi-do too. In a desperate rage to protect Mi-do, he begs, licks his shoes like an animal, and cuts his tongues out with scissors to show Woo-jin that he has learned from his mistakes, and, by cutting his tongue, will never be able to talk too much again. Woo-jin calls the warden, telling him not to show Mi-do the album and walks to the elevator. In his final moments, Woo-jin recounts his sisters death, puts a gun to his head, and fires. The movie ends with Oh Dae-su giving a hypnotists a handwritten account of his life(as he is now unable to speak), who then alters Oh Dae-su’s memories so that he will live the rest of his life free from the atrocities of the past. The movie concludes with Oh Dae-su and Mi-do seemingly content, but soon after, Oh Dae-su’s face turns to that of sorrow and fear, leading for one to speculate that no matter how much the hypnotists may due, he will never be able to let go of the past.
The director of Oldboy, Chan-wook, explores many themes throughout the movie. First, the theme of voyeurism. From being watched by Woo-jin throughout Dae-su’s entire imprisonment, to Dae-su seeing something he shouldn’t have, voyeurism, one of Hitchcock’s favoritism, may have been influenced by the film legend himself, for in his classics, such as Psycho and Vertigo, voyeurism is a central theme. In regards to the theme of incest and that of Freudian desires, through research, it is known that Chan-wook payed homage to Oedipus through Oh Dae-su. In both Oldboy and Oedipus Rex, the theme of incest and Freudian desires plays a crucial role in the stories respectively. Hitchcock is notorious for his theme of the Oedipus complex in Psycho, and in Oldboy, it is clear that Chan-wook was influenced heavily by Hitchcock. Also seen in Oldboy is the theme of the main character bringing about his own demise, a common theme in Hitchcock’s movies, as well as in Oedipus Rex. In Oldboy, Dae-su’s downfall is brought upon him by revenge-crazy Woo-jin. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’ downfall is arguably caused by fate. A central theme in Oldboy is also that of imprisonment, for throughout the movie, Oh Dae-su is seen imprisoned in many forms, from physical to psychological, and even to societal. Before being physically imprisoned by Woo-jin, Oh Dae-su is imprisoned in middle class life as an alcoholic. When he is put into the room for fifteen years, he is physically imprisoned and, by watching the news broadcast, realizes how trapped he was in regards to society, prior to being physically imprisoned in the room. When the movie ends, Oh Dae-su is imprisoned in another way: trapped in the past, even after trying to forget through hypnotisms.
