Oldboy - 2003

Oldboy (Hangul: 올드보이; RR: Oldeuboi; MR: Oldŭboi), the phonetic transliteration of "old boy") is a 2003 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook. It is based on the Japanese manga of the same name written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. Oldboy is the second installment of The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and followed by Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.

The film follows the story of one Oh Dae-su, who is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls for an attractive sushi chef.
The film won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and high praise from the President of the Jury, director Quentin Tarantino. Critically, the film has been well received in the United States, with an 80% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[1] Film critic Roger Ebert has claimed Oldboy to be a "...powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare".In 2008, voters on CNN named it one of the ten best Asian films ever made.

Plot:-
Korean businessman Oh Dae-su is bailed out from a local police station by his close friend Joo-Hwan after a drunken fight, on the night of Dae-su's daughter's birthday. Dae-su calls her on a public phone, but as Joo-Hwan takes the phone, Dae-su disappears. Kidnapped and confined to a shabby room with no explanation, Dae-su is not allowed any contact and is fed only fried dumplings through a narrow slot. While watching television, he discovers that his wife has been murdered, his daughter sent to foster parents and that he himself is the prime suspect. Experiencing hallucinations from the isolation, his attempts at suicide are prevented, while he is regularly being gassed into unconsciousness. Bent on revenge, he keeps himself fit and occupied with shadowboxing; hardening his knuckles by punching the wall. Over the years, he uses a chopstick to scratch an opening in the wall, hoping for a way to escape.

Shortly before his own escape plans can come to fruition, Dae-su is suddenly set free on the rooftop of a building, 15 years after his imprisonment began. Dae-su is given a cellphone by a stranger and goes to a local restaurant, where he meets young sushi chef Mi-do (Kang Hye-jeong), who brings him to her home. Dae-su realizes he is being tracked through phone calls from his unidentified captor and instant messaging on Mi-do's computer. Dae-su locates the Chinese restaurant that provided the fried dumplings during his imprisonment (following a scrap of paper found accidentally cooked into one, giving Dae-su the Chinese character "dragon" to go off of in his search), and subsequently the building he was held captive in, torturing the warden for information. He finds tape recordings of his captor that reveal little. He then fights his way out past numerous goons, suffering a knife wound to his back. When he collapses on the street, a stranger places him in a taxi, only to direct him to Mi-do's address and identify Dae-su by name.

The man, named Woo-jin (Yu Ji-tae), reveals himself as Dae-su's kidnapper and tells him that Dae-su must discover his motives. Mi-do will die if he fails, but if he succeeds, Woo-jin will kill himself. Later, Dae-su and Mi-do grow emotionally closer together and have sex. Dae-su discovers he and Woo-jin briefly attended the same high school and remembers spying on Woo-jin's incestuous relationship with his sister, Soo-ah (Yun Jin-seo). Dae-su, unaware of their familial relationship, inadvertently spread the rumor before transferring to another school in Seoul. Soo-ah's mental turmoil grew, causing physical signs of pregnancy and her eventual suicide. During the investigation, Woo-jin kills Joo-Hwan for insulting Soo-ah, enraging Dae-su further.

Dae-su confronts Woo-jin at his penthouse with the information but instead Woo-jin gives Dae-su a photo album. As Dae-su flips through the album, he witnesses his daughter grow older in the pictures, until discovering that Mi-do is actually his daughter. Woo-jin reveals that the events surrounding Dae-su were orchestrated to cause Dae-su and Mi-do to commit incest. It is also revealed that hypnosis and post-hypnotic suggestion were involved with Dae-su's imprisonment, and had been performed on Mi-do as well. A horrified Dae-su begs Woo-jin to conceal the secret from Mi-do, groveling for forgiveness before slicing out his own tongue and offering it to Woo-jin as a symbol of his silence. Woo-jin agrees to spare Mi-do from the knowledge and leaves Dae-su in his penthouse. As he rides alone in the elevator, he is struck by the vivid memory of his sister's death, in which he was complicit, and shoots himself in the head.

Dae-su sits in a winter landscape, where he makes a deal with the same hypnotist who conditioned him during his imprisonment, asking for her help to allow him to forget the secret. She reads his pleas from a handwritten letter and, touched by his words, begins the hypnosis process, lulling him into unconsciousness. Hours later, Dae-su wakes up, the hypnotist gone, and stumbles about before finally meeting with Mi-do. They embrace, and Mi-do tells Dae-su that she loves him, though whether Dae-su knows the secret is uncertain, as Dae-su smiles and his face slowly crumbles into one of anguish.