Movies: "Oldboy" Remains One of the All-Time Greats

A hallucinogenic thriller that relentlessly heaps taboos on top of images of extreme brutality, "Oldboy" is surely not for the squeamish.

In one scene, the protagonist eagerly chows down on a live octopus, its tentacles wriggling between his lips. In another scene, he uses the claw end of a hammer to tear out the teeth of one of his tormentors. It's a scene more graphic than anything seen in any of the "Saw" movies.

But taken on its own twisted terms, this 2003 film by Korean director Park Chan-wook is a visually hoodwinking trip that keeps pulling you along and keeps you wondering what could possibly come next. And that makes it considerably more compelling than a lot of the latest from Hollywood.

"Oldboy" opens with drunk and disorderly businessman Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) being detained at a Seoul police station instead of at home, where he should be celebrating his young daughter's birthday. But then, in the best film noir tradition, it all fades to black.

Dae-su wakes up imprisoned in a nightmarish cell that looks like a surrealist vision of a motel room Ñ ("enye") with flashing colored lights, a frightening, face-shifting painting, and a glowing console television set that eventually beams in the news that he's been accused of murdering his wife.

Fifteen years pass, and he becomes something like the Korean "Count of Monte Cristo"—just barely warding off insanity by punching at the walls and plotting his revenge behind wild baggy eyes and electric socket hair.

Then, as abruptly as he was locked up, Dae-su is made a free man again. And instead of the fried dumplings he's been living on, he wants to "eat something alive." That's when the disorienting narrative structure and perverse plot really gets twisted.

At a sushi bar, he meets a young chef, Mido (the vibrant Gang Hye-jung), whom he impresses by devouring a living octopus.

She then takes him home and ushers him into another spiral of secrets. And suddenly, given five days to find his captor and figure out why he was put away—or else something even more horrific will happen—Dae-su sets out on a bloody rampage that ultimately brings him to a Job-like passage of self-discovery.

Along the way, a love story nestles between Dae-su and Mido. But the story never trails off; the sex scene is pretty steamy for this gorefest of a movie.

Dae-su finds the man who imprisoned him, Lee Woo-Jin, and we find out why. It was because Dae-su found out that Woo-Jin had a love interest with his own sister. Dae-su convinced the sister she was pregnant with her brother's child, so she kills herself.

Then, just to really mess with your head, we find a shocking twist that Mido is Dae-su's own daughter. Yes, he was having sex with her! And then Dae-su has to decide if he wants to tell his daughter that she was in love with her father, or not say anything and just live with the information.

So he cuts off his tongue and then kills Woo-jin and decides to live his life without saying anything to his love interest, his daughter.

There's a reason why "Oldboy" is frequently ranked among the top movies of all time. It delivers.

In every aspect—gore, suspense, action, sexuality, and twist after twist—this movie has it all. At the end of it, your only thought will be "Golly gee! If that wasn't a mighty fine picture show!"

Hands down, this movie gets an A. 10 out of 10.