One of the most shocking & disturbing tales of revenge you are ever going to come across, Oldboy is a genre-defining classic that didn't just set a new benchmark for revenge-thrillers to follow, which as of today still remains unsurpassed, but still remains the finest film to come out from the South Korean film industry, and it is in every way director Park Chan-wook's best work to date.

Oldboy tells the story of Oh Dae-su, who is abducted on the night of his young daughter’s birthday & is held captive in an apartment prison for 15 years, without any clue of why he is there & who has imprisoned him, and is later freed in the same inexplicable manner. Rest of the film…

(Part 2 of "Arielrocks5’s List of films to do for Todd Gaines’ Challenge! (George Lucas Special Edition Gen X Director’s Cut)".

Challenge: A movie listed on my favorite movies list .)

.......fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I don't know exactly how I can do justice to how much of a horrifying piece this film really is, but I can certainly try.

"Oldboy" is the film equivalent of your worst nightmare. No, not showing up to school in your underwear. Losing your loved one. Losing your own life. Or anything else you would think of as your worst nightmare.

I'm talking about the nightmare you've had, where you're simply trapped. You're left alone, within a small, isolated space. Trapped for what feels like years on…

Oldboy, the second movie of Chan-wook Park's Vegeance Trilogy, is a visceral, devastating and breathtaking ride that follows the story of Oh Dae-su, a man who's locked away for fifteen years for no apparent reason, beginning a long process of dehumanization, and who is finally released so he can find the truth behind his imprisonment and get revenge on the man who ordered the arrest.

When it comes to thrillers, there are no better contemporary filmmakers than the South Korean, and if I may choose the best and most impactful of them all, my answer is Oldboy, one of the most remarkable, brutal and emotionally sweeping stories ever filmed. Apart from the fact that Chan-wook Park's magnum opus is a…

Holy sh*t what an experience.

This was an excellent revenge film with some noir elements to boot. With plenty of style, a twisting complex plot, and great acting - this one keeps you glued to the screen from beginning to end. It was beautiful on all counts and really makes me want to see this on blu-ray. With the Canadian edition of Park's "revenge" trilogy on sale at the moment, I see no reason not to check out his other films.

A few scenes came off a tad too gratuitous and unnecessary which really prevents it from being five stars for me. Other than that it does a great job of having purpose and reason behind all this violence and…

It seemed like my annual (though it often ends up being closer to a quarterly tradition) rewatch of Oldboy was coming up so I decided to return to it once again.

Except for this time I've returned to it with a new realization. A couple of months ago I was attempting to retrace my footsteps through cinema and discover where my interest in world cinema began. It's sort of odd that I'd forgotten the contextual importance Oldboy had on me, but I came to the conclusion and recollected that Oldboy was, for the most part, my gateway to world cinema - as in foreign cinema, but also, the literal world of cinema - as in the depths and far away…