There’s a core element of emotional realism that accentuates Park’s brutal narrative beats, leaving us to ponder something more than a bloody body.

| Aug 22, 2023

A lurid, complex, introspective beast, enacting astonishing cruelty on its protagonist like a slow-acting poison.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 29, 2019

Both brutal and lyrical, writer-director Park Chan-wook's existential nail-biter has torture scenes that will have you avoiding dentists, sushi bars and badly appointed hotel rooms.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 15, 2013

Shakespearean in its violence, Oldboy also calls up nightmare images of spiritual and physical isolation that are worthy of Samuel Beckett or Dostoyevsky.

| Apr 15, 2013

There's a lot less here than meets the eye.

| Apr 17, 2007

Not to everyone's tastes, but if you have a strong stomach, OldBoy is sure to impress.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Quite an achievement then, and well worthy of its Cannes prize.

| Jan 26, 2006

Oldboy is a delirious, confronting ride, a movie full of visceral shocks and aesthetic pleasures: it has an explosive immediacy and a persistent afterlife, a lingering impact that is hard to shake.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 17, 2006

It's hard to make an argument for Oldboy based on anything other than pure cinematics, but when the style speaks this loudly, it's an argument worth making.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2005

A visually beguiling trip that keeps pulling you along and keeps you wondering what fresh hell could possibly come next.

| Original Score: B+ | Jun 2, 2005

Its magnificence is that it takes itself dead serious. It's not entertainment, but it's sure a piece of toughness.

| May 20, 2005

A dark and thrillingly horrible adventure into the realms of the unthinkable.

| May 13, 2005

Argues for its own pointlessness.

| Original Score: C+ | May 9, 2005

It's a hopelessly, helplessly original film.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 1, 2005

Combining the sinister suspense of Alfred Hitchcock with the unrepentant violence of Quentin Tarantino, South Korean director Park Chan-wook delivers a revenge tale as shocking as it is thought-provoking.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 28, 2005

The script reveals itself as an absurdly convoluted tale of betrayal and revenge.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 22, 2005

While one might argue that it loses credibility and impact as it reaches further along the ledge of outrageous, tummy churning plot developments, there's no denying the turbulence it creates.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 15, 2005

Deserves to be seen because of its relentless energy, the acting by Choi Min-sik that strikes a genuinely tragic note amid the mayhem and cartoonish excess, and the director's clear conviction that this wild story will resonate.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 15, 2005

For a while, though, this is as invigorating -- and as darkly funny -- as modern rogue moviemaking gets.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 15, 2005

A revenge film like none you have seen.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 8, 2005