What is Oldboy about?
With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
There is a twist, and that is all we are saying.
Oldboy (2003)
A man's brutal quest for revenge unfolds with relentless, darkly comic twists and bleak revelations.
Suspenseful and pulpy, with dark satire. A full-attention watch at full speed. Emotionally it is devastating.
Streaming on Kanopy (free) and Plex (free).
Oldboy parents guide
Strong sex and nudity, which is more than most R titles carry. Beyond that, brutal violence and some strong language.
- Scare
- Mildly scary
- A few tense or eerie moments.
- Jump scares
- A couple
- One or two sudden jolts.
- Gore
- Graphic gore
- Blood and wounds shown clearly.
- Violence
- Brutal violence
- Our top level for violence.
- Sex and nudity
- Strong
- Strong means explicit or repeated sex, extended nudity, or sexual assault shown on screen, attempted or completed, even partly off screen. Any one of these is enough.
- Language
- Moderate
- Some strong profanity, a few f-words.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Three questions
- Is Oldboy scary?
- Only a little. Oldboy has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
- How gory is Oldboy?
- Graphic gore and brutal violence. If graphic gore is a dealbreaker, skip it.
- What is Oldboy rated, and is it OK for kids?
- No. It is rated R, with strong sex and nudity, brutal violence, and some strong language.
Cast and crew
Directed byPark Chan-wook
StarringChoi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jung, Kim Byeong-ok, Ji Dae-han, Oh Dal-su
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Oldboy is on our Most violent, Edge of your seat, Revenge, Noir and neo-noir and Martial arts lists.
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Lists with the same feel: Dark.
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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.