On the day of his infant daughter’s birthday Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-Sik) gets blinding drunk and winds up in police custody. On his release he is abducted and finds himself held prisoner for fifteen years. Unaware of his captor or the reason for his incarceration he slowly tries to dig out of his prison. But before he can escape he is released. With revenge on his mind he tries to find out the most important questions, who and why.

Oldboy had been on my “to watch” list for years. Winner of the Grand Prix and nominated for a Palme D’Or at Cannes in 2004 and widely praised it was something I somehow never found the time for. Prompted by an upcoming podcast where we were to discuss critically lauded films we had not seen and the fact that it would mean I had now seen all 100 of Empire Magazine’s greatest films of all time I decided to dive in. I was not prepared for Oldboy!

The two main plot points I was aware of in this film were the shocking eating of a live octopus and the legendary one take corridor fight and whilst they had the requisite impact on me nothing could prepare me for the twists and turns of the plot. I will absolutely not elaborate on those twists and turns because you have to go in as fresh as possible, but the originality on display is refreshing and exhilarating.

Over the course of its 2 hour running time the level of mental and physical torture dealt to Oh Dae-Su reach baffling levels and you will be constantly on edge as to what exactly will happen next as we inch closer to understanding why he is being tormented.

Choi Min-Sik’s performance is as committed as they come. He appears in every scene and actually ate a live Octopus for real (they did 4 takes!). His wiry hair and pained looks will live in your memory for some time after.

Ultimately this is a must watch film and I can not believe I took so long to get round to it. It is only streaming on Shudder in the UK at the moment, but is well worth renting or buying (or borrowing the Blu-Ray from my brother as I did). I would also highly recommend seeking out Park Chan-Wook’s only English language film Stoker which is equally fantastic.