Oldboy (2005) Critic Reviews

Oldboy is a powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare.Read the full review

As always with Park Chanwook, you just hold on and let him rip.Read the full review

A wild, intensely cinematic ride into two men's burning desire to get even.Read the full review

The result is a powerfully visceral experience that justifies itself almost entirely on surface chops, with striking color composition and a complex sound design that elevates the story to an operatic scale.Read the full review

You will surely leave this movie shocked, shaken and surprisingly moved. And definitely stuck on that poor octopus.Read the full review

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

Obviously, this sort of taboo-flouting imagery isn't for everyone, but Park's vision is all of a piece.Read the full review

His film is not for the weak of stomach or heart, but it's a stunner all the same.Read the full review

More than anything else, Oldboy recalls Alfred Hitchcock with all restraint tossed to the wind, or Hitchcock's most obsessed devotee, Brian De Palma, at his most nastily inspired.Read the full review