Oldboy is not for the faint of heart. The film’s plot is bizarre, but its acting and screenplay are powerful. Just make sure you watch it when you’re in a good mood and don’t mind being emotionally jarred.

It starts off strangely enough with the main character Oh Dae-Su holding onto a suicidal man about to teeter off the edge of a building by his tie. Flashback to a police station where a drunk Oh Da -Su is being held. Before you know it, he’s locked up in some nasty dungeon. There’s no context or explanation. After 15 long years of imprisonment, Oh Dae-Su has five days for payback.

This is a revenge movie. It’s a story about how two men’s quest for revenge leaves them either dead or wish they were dead. But it’s also a story about spiritual salvation. It is an allegory of “an icy rather than fiery vision of hell,” according to one critic.

There’s a disgusting scene where the main character eats a live octopus whole – its tentacles squirming as he inhales it down his throat. There’s a scene where one man has his teeth extracted one by one with the claw end of a hammer.

Captivating story line, beautiful cinematography, weird-as-fuck turn of events, amazing acting, and a haunting ending scene.