1. Oldboy (2003)
Directed by Korean golden boy Park Chan-Wook, Oldboy is a blistering ride of a film and established Korea firmly on the map as a serious player in the horror film stakes. Oh Dae-su is a drunken business man who suddenly gets kidnapped on the night of his daughter's birthday. He is kept for 15 years in a room with no human contact or no reason. He learns from the news on his TV that his wife has been killed and he is the main suspect. Exactly 15 years after he was first captured, he is set free on a roof of a building. Dae-su goes to a sushi restaurant where he tries to rape Mi-do the chef. She confesses to feelings for Dae-su and says she will have sex with him when she is ready. Dae-su eventually finds out his daughter was adopted in Stockholm. Uncovering more clues about his captor he learns that he was put into a private jail by Woo-jin Lee who comes forward and gives Dae-su an ultimatum - if he can find out Woo-jin's motives for imprisoning him in the next 5 days, Woo-jin will kill himself. If he fails, Mi-do will be killed. Dae-su and Mi-do grow close and have sex. Dae-su realises he went to the same school as Woo-jin and mocked him for his incestuous relationship with his sister. He was unaware of the familial ties and Woo-jin's sister suffered false pregnancy symptoms and killed herself. Dae-su goes to Woo-jin and admits that he inadvertently drove his sister to suicide. Woo-jin reveals Mi-do is Dae-su's daughter and he has used hypnosis to make them fall in love and have an incestuous affair. Dae-su is horrified and begs Woo-jin never to tell Mi-do. He cuts out his tongue to show his silence. Woo-jin has flashbacks to his sister's death and shoots himself dead. Dae-su is later hypnotised but the ending is ambiguous as to whether it worked or not. The plot of Oldboy is so original, so fresh, so ambitious, whenever you watch it for the first time, it is like looking at cinema as a medium with new eyes. It gives one hope for the future of cinema, that we have such innovative directors as Park Chan-Wook who can set new precedents for direction and storytelling. It is not sensationalist in its gore and violence and relies more upon plot to carry the film forward. It is also beautifully and sensitively scored. Oldboy has put Korea on the map as producer of disturbing gripping psychodramas.