Oh Dae-Su is just another common man, with a family, often living it up with friends. One night he is suddenly kidnapped. The reason is unknown, as he is not rich or famous. And his incarceration in a room is not for one day or one year - but for full 15 years. And then suddenly without preamble, without any apparent reason, he is released - with a mobile phone and a wad of currency notes. As he wanders around, he meets a young chef in a wayside café and they fall in love with each other. And then he is told that he has five days to work out why he was jailed for all these years, otherwise he would lose whatever else he had to lose.

‘Old Boy’ is a typical South-Korean film in its depiction of graphic violence. But, uniquely, it is not typical in its delineation of the preciousness of life and the unpredictability of love.

Official Synopsis: An ordinary man named Oh Dae-su, who lives with his wife and adorable daughter, is kidnapped and later wakes up to find himself in a private makeshift… An ordinary man named Oh Dae-su, who lives with his wife and adorable daughter, is kidnapped and later wakes up to find himself in a private makeshift prison. Dae-su makes numerous attempts to escape and to commit suicide, but they all end up in failure. All the while Dae-su asks himself what made a man hate him so much enough to imprison him without any reason. While suffering from his debacle, Dae-su becomes shocked when he watches the news and hears that his beloved wife was brutally murdered. At this very moment, Dae-su swears to take revenge on the man who destroyed his happy life. Fifteen years later Dae-su is released with a wallet filled with money and a mobile phone. An unknown man calls Dae-su and asks him to figure out why he was imprisoned.
In all the gore and torture, which its main characters are put through, the vein which runs through the skein of the movie is that of hope and hopelessness: to get ahead, to get out, or get even.

Director Park Chan-wook holds the film together by marrying lyricism to blood. Scenes of incredible pathos come when Oh Dae-Su attains freedom and tenderly touches a person for the first time after 15 years. His first cigarette after a decade & a half becomes an almost sensual experience.

Even the numerous single-cut action scenes have an innate tragedy embedded in them. And when the couple makes love, there is a dangerous edge in the pleasure.

The flashbacks, shot in sepia, are suffused with nostalgia and bring out the shocking revelation behind the revenge. The denouement is extreme in its rawness, almost unbearable to see, but hard to resist.

This is a masterpiece not for the weak-hearted; but bountiful to the cineaste who is able to hold on to his chair and see the movie to its last poignant scene.