Oldboy 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		5.0

Oldboy 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

"Do you want revenge? Or do you want the truth?"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 11, 2024

After twenty years, what's left to say about Park Chan-wook's stunning, dizzying, jaw-dropping, ultraviolent cinematic puzzle box, Oldboy? Not much more than I can pack into that single sentence. I've written extensively about what is easily one of the best foreign films to gouge out these film-worn eyes, and if you're really hungry to dig in, you can search and find a number of my reviews from yesteryear elsewhere on the net. But you're not here to read another rundown of what makes Oldboy a masterpiece. You're here for the 4K goods. And goodness, are they good. Decal's 2-disc casebound edition of Oldboy and its filmmaker-supervised 4K remaster is as stunning and technically sound as you hoped it would be, and packs a lossless audio punch to match. Add to that more than eighteen -- yep, eighteen -- hours of special features, including three audio commentaries and two feature-length documentaries, and you have one of the first, if not the first, must-own 4K releases of 2024.

Synopsis: Often cited as one of the best films of the 2000s and possibly the definitive example of extreme Asian cinema, Oldboy is a brutal, lyrical modern classic of the revenge genre. Based on the Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi Japanese manga of the same name, the film tells the horrific tale of Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a businessman who is inexplicably kidnapped and imprisoned in a grim hotel room cell for more than a decade, without knowing the identity of his captor or the reason for his incarceration. Over time, his fury builds to a single-minded focus of revenge, and he hones his strength and prowess in the hopes he will one day meet the madman who's holding him. Released fifteen years later, given a new suit and cell phone, and freed into a world he doesn't recognize, he learns of his wife’s tragic murder and is told he has just five days to solve the mystery of his imprisonment. He immediately sets out to settle the score, leaving a trail of bloody bodies in his wake and seeking comfort in the arms of an attractive sushi chef named Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung). He eventually finds his tormentor, but their final encounter yields more horrors than Oh Dae-su can possibly imagine. Directed with immense flair by Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden) as the second instalment of his "Vengeance Trilogy", Oldboy blazed a trail at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival where it was lauded by the President of the Jury, director Quentin Tarantino. The film went on to become a huge international smash, blowing audiences' minds with its concoction of filmmaking virtuosity, ingenious plotting, violence and pathos.

Oldboy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like the 2021 UK UltraHD 4K edition from Arrow Video, Decal Releasing's 2-disc Oldboy set features a striking, fully revitalized AVC-encoded filmmaker-supervised presentation of the film that looks every bit as good as it feasibly could. Park Chan-wook's visual and thematic stunner isn't beautiful by traditional means. Its original photography is teeming with at-times aggressive grain, a hotly contrasted palette, a heavy green tint, ravenous black levels that gorge on shadow detail, and other less-than-attractive qualities. But it's all a part of Oldboy's brutal, punishing intentions. Crush is really the only thing you could criticize the 4K remaster for, although again, this is the film as Park Chan-wook and cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon envisioned and shot. And it works wonders. What some might consider ugly, others will see for what it is: a disorienting plunge into unsteady, unhinged madness, realized in unyielding inconsistencies that keep the viewer off-balance. And yet it rarely, if ever, distracts or detracts. Within minutes, you'll acclimate to the aesthetics and sit amazed as you take in just how much of an improvement this new 4K remaster represents over all previous releases (even the 2019 Arrow Video Blu-ray, which was minted from the same 4K scan). Colors hit hard, primaries kick, black levels are bottomless, and detail? Detail is exceptional. Other than the occasional bit of softness (always a product of the source, not the encode), edges are crisp and clean, fine textures are exacting, and everything Park Chan-wook and Chung Chung-hoon want you to see, you'll see like you've never seen it before. Pay particular attention when the camera presses in on hands, cassette tapes, business cards, needles, knives, shattered glass and other small elements, and note the transfer's remarkable clarity. Moreover, other than spikes in the grain field, there isn't any errant noise, artifacting, banding or other anomalies to report. This is as good as Oldboy will presumably ever look and stands apart from previous releases as the go-to domestic reference disc for the film.

The only arguable disappointment for some will be that the 2-disc release isn't a 3-disc release, with a standard Blu-ray disc featuring a 1080p presentation of the remastered film, created from the same 4K scan. Whether available as a separate release or bundled here, it would have added value and flexibility, and given more film fans the opportunity to see Oldboy at its best.

Oldboy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Oldboy's audio package follows suit, offering the same options as the Arrow Video 4K release before it. The spotlight is, of course, the central DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. And while it doesn't offer the same obvious upgrade from previous Blu-ray releases, it is nevertheless a remastered experience that represents the best lossless presentation the film has been granted. Voices are intelligible and nicely prioritized, even if the nature of some of the sequences delivers dialogue more imprecisely than a polished blockbuster might. (The subtitles appear to be almost entirely problem-free as well, though those sensitive to translation quirks will no doubt still have some quibbles. Visit the Decal and Arrow forum threads for examples.) LFE output is heavy and assertive, throwing its weight behind hammer strikes, gun shots, fist fights and all the violence Oldboy can muster. The rear speakers have a blast with the soundscape as well, crafting an immersive soundfield rife with pinpoint directional effects, convincing environmental ambience and spatial acoustics, and other subtleties that lend realism to even the film's most bizarre breaks in reality. I was thoroughly pleased; so much so that I had to continually force myself to pay attention to the experience rather than letting the film lure me in too deep.

Oldboy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Decal's 4K Blu-ray release of Oldboy features handsome packaging that I'd love to see more studios and distributors emulate. Contained within a standard-sized hardcover clothbound slipcase, the 2-disc release is most similar to a DigiBook, without the flimsiness and plastic cheapness of lesser DigiBooks. Inside is a casebound 68-page hardcover book, with sleeves on the interior of the front and rear covers that safely house the set's two discs. The book itself offers three new essays by Stephanie Zacharek, David Sims and Phoebe Chen, with a separate sealed envelope that contains six collector cards (pictured above). The discs feature a wealth of supplemental content too: the 4K disc with three audio commentaries, and the standard Blu-ray disc with more than ten additional hours of new and classic special features, among them the fan-favorite three-and-a-half-hour production documentary found on previous releases.

That said, the set doesn't include everything ever produced for Oldboy. "Missing" (if you'd like to use that term) are Arrow Video exclusive features available on the 4K release in the UK; most notably an audio commentary with critic Jasper Sharp and writer Simon Ward, and a 30-minute interview with Asian film expert Tony Rayns. Completionists will need to purchase both sets and own a region free player to scrape out every last morsel of content (the Rayns interview on the Arrow edition is on a region B-locked BD, and the standard Blu-ray disc in this set is locked to region A), but is it necessary? Not really. Either release will more than satiate your appetite.

• Audio commentaries - The 4K disc features three audio commentaries: the first with director Park Chan-wook, the second with Park Chan-wook and cinematographer Jung Jung-hoon, and the third with Park Chan-wook and actors Choi Min-sik, Yu Ji-tae and Kang Hye-jung. All can be found on previous releases, but those new to Oldboy and its cast and filmmakers will find a lot to enjoy in this trio of deep dives. Suffice to say, there aren't many things you won't know after poring through this 2-disc set. And that's before you get to the real draw: the chunk-o-doc, "Autobiography of Oldboy".

• Park Chan-wook + Refn Interview (HD, 29:02) - A newly produced interview with Park Chan-wook featuring contemporary Nicolas Winding Refn (who's been trying to shorten his name to NWR of late).

• Autobiography of Oldboy (SD, 3:29:26) - This 2005 feature-length video diary-style documentary is stuffed to the gills with buried treasure, and a must see for any fan of the film. Tracking the production from its first to final days, this oftentimes fly on the wall "Autobiography" is as revealing as it is entertaining. And God help us all, to watch the filming of the infamous octopus chow down... ooph. It's difficult to imagine the need for other supplemental content at this point in the set, and yet, there are literal hours of features left to go.

• Old Days (HD, 1:51:20) - The set's second feature-length documentary is Han Sun-Hee's 2016 "Old Days", created for Plain Archive's Blu-ray release and first screened at the Jeonju International Film Festival. Unlike "Autobiography of Oldboy", this one functions as more of a retrospective, digging into the film's legacy, impact and influence as much as it does its production.

• Deleted Scenes and Outtakes (SD, 24:52) - Eighteen scenes are available, with optional director's audio commentary. Truth be told, the commentary bits are more worthwhile than the cut scenes, but it's all still worth watching.

• Behind the Scenes Featurettes (SD, 92:00) - Eleven featurettes have been ported over from previous releases: "The Cast Remembers", "Audition", "First Reading Scout", "Location Scout", "Training", "Start of Principal Photography", "Production Design", "CGI", "The Music Score", "Le Grand Prix at Cannes" and "Flashback".

• Archival Interviews (SD, 58:04) - Twelve interviews are also included, among them a Q&A session with Park Chan-wook and an interview Mark Salisbury, along with shorter bits with the filmmakers, Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Gang Hye-jung, Yoon Jin-seo, Chi Dae-han, Kim Byoung-ok, Oh Dal-su, Oh Kwang-rok, and Lee Seung-shin.

• Music & FX Audio Track (HD) - The 4K disc also includes an isolated Music & FX DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track (the same mix that was originally found on the Arrow release).

• Original Teaser Trailer (SD, 0:34)

• Original release Trailer 1 (SD, 1:12)

• Original release Trailer 2 (SD, 2:23)

• 20th Anniversary Re-Release Trailer (HD, 1:55)

• "Bring My Love" Starsailor Music Video (SD, 2:44)

• Photo Gallery & Storyboards (HD)

Oldboy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hm, how can I put this? Buy it. Add it to your collection. Grab it before it's gone. Yeah, it's pricey (consider the UK Arrow Video release if so), but the packaging is top grade (one of my favorites in recent memory actually), the special features are extensive (and "extensive" might be an understatement), and the real draw -- its must-see filmmaker-supervised 4K remaster, striking 4K video presentation, and excellent lossless audio track -- is as precise, rejuvenating and engaging as it could and should be. Don't wait. Fans and newcomers can't go wrong with this one.