10 Horror Movie Villains Who Went To Great Lengths
2. Lee Woo-jin - Oldboy
In Oldboy, teenager Oh Dae-su discovered his classmate Lee Woo-jin was having an incestuous relationship with his own sister, Lee Soo-ah. When Dae-su spread rumours that Soo-ah was pregnant with her brother's baby, she took her own life.
Blaming Dae-su for his sister/lover's death, Woo-jin swore to destroy his life, though rather than killing him, Woo-jin took revenge to a whole new level, as many years later Woo-jin had Dae-su imprisoned inside a sealed room.
Throughout his incarceration, Dae-su never saw his captors nor understood why he was put there, and when Dae-su slit his wrists, Woo-jin saves him to prolong his suffering. Despite spending 15 years locked up, it's nothing compared to what comes next.
After Dae-su is released, Woo-jin uses hypnosis to urge him to unknowingly have sex with his daughter, Mi-do. Upon later learning the truth, Dae-su is overcome with shame, acknowledging he's committed incest, just like Woo-jin had. Terrified Mi-do will learn she's slept with her father, Dae-su cuts off his own tongue out of penance. Though Woo-jin agrees not to divulge the truth to Mi-do, he plays a recording of her and Dae-su having sex on loudspeakers to humiliate him one last time.
In hindsight, it genuinely feels like Woo-jin has been scheming every day for decades to make Dae-su's punishment as unbearable as possible.