Oldboy [2003]

Country of Origin: South Korea
Year of Production: 2003
Running Times: 120 mins
Format: colour
Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: Dolby Digital

CREDITS

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Show East
Executive Producer: Kim Jang-Wook
Producer: Kim Dong-Joo
Marketing Producer: Kim Yuki
Co-Producer: Syd Lim
Line Producer: Han Jae-Duk
New Zealand Line Producer: Jeong In-Hee
Associate Producer: Ji Young-Joon
Production Manager: Kook Soo-Ran

SCRIPT
Script: Hwang Jo-Yoon, Im Joon-Hyung, Park Chanwook
Story: Garon Tsuchiya, Nobuaki Minegishi

DIRECTION
Director: Park Chanwook

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Jung Jung-Hoon

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editors: Kim Sang-Bum, Kim Jae-Bum

MUSIC
Music: Shim Hyun-Jung, Lee Ji-Soo; Antonio Vivaldi [Winter from The Four Seasons]

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Yoo Seong-Hee

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Accountant: Choi Eun-Young

LOCATIONS
Locations: Busan, South Korea; Seoul, South Korea

CAST
Min-sik Choi [Dae-su Oh]
Ji-tae Yu [Woo-jin Lee]
Hye-jeong Kang [Mi-do]
Dae-han Ji
Dal-su Oh
Byeong-ok Kim
Su-hyeon Kim
Seung-jin Lee
Su-kyeong Yun
Myeong-shin Park
Jin-seo Yun [Su-a / girl in hairshop]

SUMMARY

1988: Oh Dae-Su is kidnapped and finds himself in a cell with no idea who his captor is. He tries many times to either escape or kill himself, his torment made worse by a television broadcast informing him that that his wife has been murdered. Fifteen years later, Oh Dae-Su is suddenly released and given a wallet full of money and a mobile phone over which he is told that he has five days to work out what has happened to him and get his revenge...

AVAILABILITY

Germany
Theatrical Distributors: 3L Filmverleih
DVD Distributors: e-m-s new media

Netherlands
Theatrical Distributors: Bright Angel Distribution

South Korea
Theatrical Distributors: Show East

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

South Korea
Rating: 18

AWARDS

2004
Cannes Film Festival, France
Grand Prize of the Jury [Chan-wook Park] - winner
Golden Palm [Chan-wook Park] - nominated

Grand Bell Awards, South Korea
Best Actor [Min-sik Choi] - winner
Best Director [Chan-wook Park] - winner
Best Film Editing [Sang-Beom Kim] - winner
Best Lighting - winner
Best Music [Yeong-wook Jo] - winner

TIMELINE

2002
November
Day Unknown: South Korea – production begins

2003
May
12: South Korea – filming begins

October
2: South Korea – filming ends

November
Day Unknown: South Korea – production ends
21: South Korea – theatrical release

2004
May
15: France – shown at the Cannes Film Festival

July
4: Czech Republic – shown at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival

August
27: UK – shown at Frightfest, London

September
29: France – theatrical release

November
25: Netherlands – theatrical release

POSTER TAGS

End of confrontation, one must die.

15 years forced in a cell, only 5 days given to seek revenge.

LINKS

INCLUDES FOOTAGE FROM
Frankenstein [1931]

REFERENCES

MAGAZINES

Sight and Sound vol.15 no.1 [January 2005] p.6 [UK]
illustrated note [Stranger in LA: Make way for Mr Vengeance by Mike Goodridge]

KEYWORDS

flashbacks, hypnotism, incest, revenge, squids, suicide, torture

Last Updated: 6 March, 2007