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Oldboy poster
Synopsis

With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.

Year2013
CountryUnited States
DirectorSpike Lee
Cinematic DNA
Oldboy is itself world cinema DNA — a South Korean film that influenced Western filmmakers profoundly, including Tarantino and Spike Lee. But its own roots are in a Korean cinema tradition that found in genre films a way to process the country's traumatic history. The hallway fight — one man against many, a single continuous take — became one of the most imitated action sequences in cinema. Oldboy is streaming on the Criterion Channel alongside the full vengeance trilogy.

That Oldboy corridor fight... that's been a massive influence on me because it's not stylish, it's brutal, it's ugly, it's messy, and it's just one guy beating everyone down.

— Gareth Evans · Den of Geek
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This Film Influenced
→ John Wick (2014)

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Films with Similar Themes

revenge · imprisonment · mystery · torture · redemption

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