What is Oldboy rated, and is it OK for kids?

Rated R, and it earns it: strong sex and nudity, brutal violence, and frequent strong language. Not one for kids.

Oldboy (2013)

Film · 1h 44m · Rated R

Action, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

A man's relentless hunt for answers unravels a bleak, pulpy mystery after two decades of unexplained captivity.

Suspenseful. A full-attention watch at full speed. Emotionally it is devastating.

Streaming on The Roku Channel (free).

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Oldboy parents guide

For an R, this one goes further: strong sex and nudity. Beyond that, brutal violence and frequent 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: Strong; Frequent strong profanity or slurs.

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?: Rated R, and it earns it: strong sex and nudity, brutal violence, and frequent strong language. Not one for kids.

What is Oldboy about?

A man has only three and a half days and limited resources to discover why he was imprisoned in a nondescript room for 20 years without any explanation.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

There is a twist, and that is all we are saying.