Synopsis

After being abducted and imprisoned in a private room for 15 years, Oh Dae-su is suddenly released without explanation. Given only money and a phone, he begins hunting for the person responsible. His search leads through violence, buried memories, and a mysterious young woman, while his captor sets him a five-day deadline to uncover the truth.

Factoids & Trivia

• Oldboy is a loose adaptation of the Japanese manga Old Boy, written by Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi.

• The film won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, making it a major international breakthrough for South Korean cinema.

• Choi Min-sik trained for six weeks, lost approximately 20 pounds, and performed much of his own stunt work for the role.

• The famous hallway fight was designed as a continuous tracking shot. The sequence was filmed 17 times over three days.

• The scene in which Dae-su bangs his head on a table was an unscripted accident. The mistake was retained because the performers continued naturally through the moment.

• The recurring painting in the prison is The Man of Sorrow by Belgian artist James Ensor.

• The film later inspired an unauthorized Indian adaptation, Zinda (2006), and an official American remake released in 2013.