First and foremost, Korean drama Oldboy is a work of art. Even if a sadistic one. Seoul businessman Oh Dae-su is, by and large, your average family man. It's made clear he has a wife and young daughter in the movie's first five minutes, as we are introduced to Dae-su for the first time. Clearly enjoying a night out on the sauce, Oh Dae-su wakes up drugged, only to realise he is being detained in a strange, private "prison". No one will tell him why he's there or who his captor is. In fact, no one will tell him anything. The imprisonment lasts 15 long years until one day, Oh Dae-su finds himself unexpectedly released on a grass-covered high-rise roof, determined to discover his nameless, faceless enemy. The second title in director Chan-Wook Park's Vengeance Trilogy, Oldboy is essentially a revenge film. However, the tightly-woven plot is compelling, while the fight scenes, incest, live animal eating and amateur dentistry provide more than enough shock-value. Sure, the violence is entertaining, but Oldboy is primarily story-driven and this combination makes the flick a true classic.
