15 Chilling Movie Villains That Are Harrowing To Watch
3. Lee Woo-Jin - Oldboy
After protagonist Oh Dae-Su sees this villain having sex with his sister, the sister kills herself. Devastated, he then locks Dae-Su up for 15 years, kills everyone he cares about and then tricks him into having sex with his own daughter... they don't come much sicker than Lee Woo-Jin.
Like most great villains, Woo-Jin works on several levels. Firstly, he's a truly vile, discomforting villain. Played to cold, charismatic perfection by Yoo Ji-tae, Woo-Jin is a sadistic and patient killer who manipulates with skill and kills without hesitation. The sight of him laughing in the face of his screaming victim is utterly chilling.
The other way in which he's so hard to watch is as a tragic representation of what revenge does to people, which is the movie's main theme. Woo-Jin is a tragic figure who's evidently emotionally-broken in his quieter moments. He sadly states "What will I live for?" once his revenge is complete and, as sick as he is, you do end up feeling very sorry for him since he is clearly a broken man destroyed by his grief.
The less said about Sharlto Copley's abominable interpretation of the character in the terrible US remake, the better.