oldboy be set in korea and start a a drunken dae su oh ( min sik choi ) be bail out of the police station by his friend only to be abduct and dae su wake up and find himself in a small room which he will be imprison in for the next fifteen year . dae su be feed and look after by his unknown captor but be never allow out of the room and dae su begin to train himself to avenge himself after he get out which he intend to do by scrap away the cement from the brickwork with a chopstick . however before dae su finish he be gas and render unconscious and when he wake up dae su find himself free on the roof of a tall building dress and all moneyed up . dae su instantly set about try to find out who imprison him and after meet the pretty mido ( hye jeong kang ) the two fall in love and together with her help dae su finally find what he be look for but the truth come at a price . this south korean production be co write and direct by chan wook park and have get any number of glow review ( the sort that distributor can pick quote out and plaster them on the video box ) and even win the grand prize of the jury at cannes while it be also nominate for the golden palm so surely oldboy be a true classic . well not for me it isn not since a i can not understand why it so like and i would go as far a to say i pretty much hat it apart from one or two isolated moment . for a start i couldn not get into the story at all and i just do not like it a i think it be slow and boring and while many out there would have you believe oldboy have the best most shocking twist ever i think it be rather plain and not very well execute either . the end in which dae su go to the new zealand alps to be hypnotise feel tag on as well almost a if the maker want some sort of happy end . at almost two hour i almost fell asleep i be so bored and the violence be tame and it the thought of what happen that i would imagine most people have a problem with rather than what be actually show . in fact oldboy have a very low body count of about seven and one mild sex scene and it really not that graphic or memorable . i do not warm to any of the character and while i accept oldboy have an alright concept and premise it fail to deliver and it one film that i will never understand why so many people seem to like . base on a japanese manga of the same name oldboy the film look alright and there one or two nice visual moment here although while everyone rave about the hallway fight that take place in one continuous shot i be pretty unimpressed and think the fight choreography be quite dull . the actual on screen gore violence amount to very little and dae su eat a live octopus which be apparently quite normal in korea anyway and there be some fight scene and a severed hand and someone teeth be pull out and there a bit of blood at the end . the budget be supposedly around the $ 4 and 000 and 000 mark which be actually a fair bit and film in south korea and new zealand . the act look alright but it hard to tell when actor be speak a different language . oldboy be a film that i find an absolute chore to sit through and i do not mind subtitled film or foreign film or pay attention to the plot a i follow the thing perfectly but i just do not like any of it and it as simple and straightforward a that . apparently the second in director choi wook park revenge trilogy which also include sympathy for mr. vengeance ( 2002 ) and lady vengeance ( 2005 ) .