Oldboy (2003)
15 years of imprisonment, five days of vengeance.
With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.
| Type | Movie |
|---|---|
| Released | 21 November 2003 |
| Genre | Thriller, Mystery |
| Director | Park Chan-wook |
| Starring | Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae and Kang Hye-jung |
| Runtime | 120 min |
| Rated | R |
| Scores | Rotten Tomatoes (average) 7.4/10 · Rotten Tomatoes 83% · Metacritic 78/100 · IMDb 8.3/10 · Rotten Tomatoes 82% · Letterboxd 4.4/5 · TMDB users 8.2/10 |
| Budget | $3 million |
| Box office | $15 million worldwide |
Where to watch Oldboy
We could not find Oldboy on any of the subscription services we track in the US right now. That changes often; open it in Binge Boss and we will show you where it lands.
Where to watch Oldboy in 11 other countries
| Country | Streaming on (price a month) |
|---|---|
| Canada | Tubi |
| Denmark | Prime Video 69 kr DKK |
| Finland | Prime Video €6.99 |
| India | Prime Video ₹299 |
| Italy | Prime Video €4.99, Skygo, Now TV |
| Japan | Netflix ¥1590 JPY, Hulu, U-NEXT ¥2189 JPY |
| Norway | Prime Video 79 kr NOK |
| San Marino | Prime Video |
| South Korea | Netflix ₩13500, Tving ₩10900 |
| Sweden | Prime Video 69 kr SEK |
| Vatican City | Prime Video |
Subscription, free and ad-supported services we track. All countries as data.
What kind of watch this is
Park Chan-wook’s 2003 thriller runs exactly 2 hours. That is enough time to explain 15 years of imprisonment and 5 days of vengeance. Choi Min-sik plays a man who wakes up in a cell with no memory of why he was there. He has been drugged, tortured, and kept in a cage. Now he is free. He wants answers. The film leans into the mystery genre, but it behaves like a thriller. It asks what happens when a person is broken down to nothing and then forced to rebuild. The tone is cold and deliberate. It does not rush the reveal. It lets the weight of the silence settle before the violence starts.
What the critics said
Critics largely embraced the film, though not without some friction. Rotten Tomatoes reports an 82% approval rating, while Metacritic assigns it a 78 out of 100, a score it labels generally favorable. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 4 out of 4 stars, noting the action "makes a statement and has a purpose." Peter Bradshaw echoed the intensity, calling it "cinema that holds an edge of cold steel to your throat." Not everyone was won over. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times dismissed it as "a trivial genre movie.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched Oldboy.
Sources
- Oldboy on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q475693 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “Oldboy (2003 film)” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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