After his return to feature filmmaking with last year’s Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook recently jumped back into the world of TV with The Sympathizer, set to debut on HBO in 2024. Before that, his twisted revenge thriller Oldboy is getting a theatrical re-release in celebration of its 20th anniversary, and ahead of the summer debut, NEON has released a new trailer.
The 2003 film, starring Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, and Kang Hye-jeong, has now been restored and remastered for a August 16 theatrical release. In case you somehow still haven’t seen the film, here’s the spoiler-free logline: “After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in five days.”
If you are in the mood for spoilers, the director opened up to EW about crafting the ending, “The producer made a deal to adapt the movie, but I didn’t like the ending, so I had to think of a new ending. But I couldn’t think of the right one. So while I was discussing this matter with my producer at a cafe, I went to the restroom for a bit. While I was in the restroom, I thought of this new ending for the film, everything about the incest. So I returned and I described everything to my producer. I can remember this moment so clearly because it was a moment where I explosively thought of so many ideas in such a short amount of time. It really remains a very happy memory for me.”
See the new trailer and poster below, along with the teaser for Park Chan-wook’s The Sympathizer.
Oldboy returns to theaters on August 16.