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
That Oldboy corridor fight has been a massive influence on me because it's not stylish, it's brutal, it's ugly, it's messy. That's something that really informed what we did.
— Gareth Evans · Den of Geek
Directors like Kim Ki-young and Alfred Hitchcock definitely had an influence on my style of film-making for 'Oldboy' and others.
— Park Chan-wook · Film Comment
Films That Influenced Oldboy
