One of the most important films in contemporary cinema will return to the big screen in 2023: oldboy. It will do so on the 20th anniversary of its premiere. For this, Neon, the company that has the distribution rights of the tape in the United States, presented this May 10 a new poster about the feature film. But she did not stop there.
Along with the promotional poster, Neon brought an announcement: on May 11 a trailer for oldboy. The notification was accompanied by a brief but significant message: “He’s back” (“He’s back”), along with the image of the actor Choi Min Sik. This, one of the most recognized interpreters of Asian cinema, holds the iconic hammer with which, in one of the scenes of the film, he hits dozens of men.
This sequence is considered one of the best in terms of action cinema (and it is not ruled out that of contemporary cinema). That is why the symbolic value of that detail in the new production poster.
The new trailer for oldboy:
theatrical re-release and 20th anniversary
oldboy was released in South Korea on November 21, 2003. The film, in an environment in which streaming video was not yet thought of and accessing premieres was not easy, it reached various countries over the following years (in Argentina and in Spain, for example, it was presented in 2005). Progressively, the feature film became a classic due to its tone, aesthetic proposal, violence and its outcome. These factors, of course, are revived in this trailer.
In the middle of last year, Variety reported that the company Neon had obtained the distribution rights of the feature film in the United States. Already at that time there was talk about the final objective of this step: bring the film directed by Park Chan-wook to movie theaters and thus commemorate the twentieth anniversary of its release. At that time, no date or season of the year had been specified for the revival of oldboy. Nor is it known whether this intention can be replicated in other countries.
The script for this film was written by six hands. Director Park Chan-wook worked together with Hwang Jo-yun and Lim Joon-hyung on the text. After debuting in 2003, oldboy won the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix in 2004. The film’s reputation rose to position itself as a cult feature film, a key production in contemporary cinema.
oldboy is the story Oh Dae-Su, played by Choi Min-sik. They kidnapped him and imprisoned him for 15 years. After being released, they have five days to exact revenge on those who imprisoned him. This argument unleashes a wave of violence and surprising narrative twists. The film will be re-released in theaters on August 16.