| Released | 2013 | Rating (UK) | 18 |
| Source of story | A South Korean film similarly named and apparently a manga comic. | ||
| Writer/s Script | Mark Protosevich | ||
| Writer/s Story | Garon Tsuchiya, Nobuaki Minegisha (the manga comic) | ||
| Director | Spike Lee | ||
| Starring | Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Imperioli | ||
| Elevator Pitch | An alcoholic marketing executive is imprisoned in a room, bare but for a wall painting and a TV, for 20 years, during which he sobers up, becomes super fit and learned martial arts from films on TV. He is unaccountably released and finds his way back by following the Chinese food which he was fed back to the source. He is helped by the owner of a bar and by a young social worker who falls for him, but even then he has no knowledge of why he had been imprisoned, and he must find the answer or his daughter will die. | ||
| Content | Time with the alcoholic being drunk, and the 20 years in the same room, during which he follows a story indicating that he has apparently raped and killed his wife and his daughter has been adopted. Then extended violence of one sort or another. Some interaction with the apparent perpetrator of the plot, some nudity and some quite graphic sex. | ||
| A View | The critics were divided about this work, many comparing it unfavourably with the original, but some liking it better. It is pretty gritty, but at times this version seemed to descend into parody. I had seen the original so I knew the plot, and maybe some aspects of this screenplay skewed it a bit, but I found that the revelations at the end were still impressive. Not family viewing. | ||
A MOTION PICTURE LIST
A list to help you choose which movie to watch
Old Boy (2013)
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