10 Movies Like Oldboy to Check Out

You have to feel a little bad for Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake. The film was poorly reviewed upon release, bombed badly at the box office, and was so badly edited by the studio that Lee removed his trademark “A Spike Lee Joint” from the movie entirely. While it’s not completely without anything of interest, including a compelling performance by Josh Brolin, the 2013 Oldboy is now considered to be one of the worst remakes of all time.

Does it deserve that reputation? Absolutely. However, given the people involved, the movie should have come out at least a little better. But even with that in mind, it would have to face the cold reality of knowing it will always be inferior to one of the most thrilling, unique, and overall best movies ever made. Luckily, while nothing is exactly like director Park Chan-wook’s most impressive film to date, you’ll find a number of films to satisfy your desire for movies like Oldboy.

We’ve come up with ten perfect titles to check out if you want the kind of cinematic rush that only something on the tier of Oldboy can provide.

 

Movies Like Oldboy

10. Confessions (2010)

Director: Tetsuya Nakashima

A mother seeks revenge in the most brutal fashion possible, against the ones responsible for the death of her daughter.

With Confessions and other films, a common thread to look for among movies like Oldboy isn’t just the baseline concept of revenge — it’s what happens when revenge consumes. When vengeance basically becomes a completely distinct character in the film, it allows for writers, directors, and actors, and others to create chilling, shocking, and thrilling experiences. Confessions is one of the most unflinching and unique entries on this list in that regard, despite the main premise being one you’ve probably come across before.

Confessions builds serious suspense, and then blows that apart in the best way possible with genuinely affecting plot twists. The performances remain consistently excellent, as well, with Takako Matsu in particular being the dark, sometimes appallingly humorous force against the young students she holds responsible for her tragedy.

Confessions is heavy on character development, which pays off in a pretty stunning way by the time we get to a conclusion that is almost intoxicating in its glorious construction and audacity.

 

9. Dredd (2012)

Director: Pete Travis

Dredd is one of the best action movies of the 2010s.

Based on the long-running comic book series by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, Dredd also doesn’t really deal in revenge in the fashion many of the other films in this article do. Where it does feel similar to Oldboy however is in how the film creates relentless violent tension with confining, even claustrophobic circumstances. Both films also share the triumph of using said spaces to create some of the most engaging action sequences in movie history.

Dredd also benefits from a story that doesn’t waste a whole lot of time. The future sucks. Everyone’s living in massive skyscrapers masquerading as barely-functional cities. Police act as the judge, jury, and executioner of the people, and Dredd is the scariest enforcer of them all.

Whether or not you get behind Dredd (definitively played by Karl Urban) as a sympathetic hero is up to you. There’s just something deeply satisfying about watching Dredd and his young trainee (a scene-stealing Olivia Thirlby) survive and destroy a gang running rampant over the citizens of one of the complexes.

 

8. The Handmaiden (2016)

Director: Park Chan-wook

If you’re in the mood for movies like Oldboy, you’re definitely going to want to spend some time with the filmography of its director.

Set during the Victorian Era during Japan’s colonial control of Korea, a con man (Ha Jung-woo) enlists an orphaned pickpocket working as a handmaiden (standout work by Kim Tae-ri) to help him seduce and then rob a Japanese woman (Kim Min-hee) of noble background. There’s more than enough dramatic tension for this thread alone. The movie kicks into a much higher gear, however, as the relationships between our three main characters become increasingly complex and dangerous.

Like Oldboy, The Handmaiden is an interesting meditation on what happens when you get to the finish line of a terrible endeavor. The surprisingly sympathetic characters at times seem helpless to stop the wheel of motion of current events, trapped by their desire and decisions. The desire side of things gives The Handmaiden an erotic psychological thriller element. The full culmination of what these characters aspire is captured with equal skill.

 

7. Hard Candy (2005)

Director: David Slade

Watching a protagonist be driven by a very understandable desire for justice is one thing. Hard Candy takes what should be a pure experience of watching a young girl (a devastating Elliot Page) eviscerate a probable sexual predator of children (Patrick Wilson, in one of his best), and turns it into something drawn-out and almost unbearable. There are no easy moments or answers to be found in Hard Candy, which remains deeply compelling from start to finish with (for the most part) only two major characters to tell its troubling story.

Hard Candy plays some pretty sadistic games with your expectations. Anchored by beautiful editing and minimalist set design, the film is a lean masterwork in tension and surprise. You never get to feel like you’re on firm ground with the movie, even in the very beginning.

The frayed nerves Hard Candy can leave you with are going to stay with you for a while. The stakes are consistently shifting here, and the film’s finale in particular is logical but still harrowing.

 

6. I Saw the Devil (2010)

Director: Kim Jee-woon

A trained secret agent (Lee Byung-hun, in an unforgettable role) catches up with the man (Choi Min-sik) who murdered his pregnant wife, chopping off her head.

His revenge is something most of us can understand, but the crazed obsession with destroying the human being responsible for such an unfathomable evil is only one piece of I Saw the Devil. When the revenge becomes a prolonged affair, we dive deep and mournfully into one of the most disconcerting stories about madness of anything on this list.

This would be another extremely violent film built on strong characterization, combined with a plot that punctuates a simple premise with dramatic plot shifts and shocking resolutions to monstrous situations. The movie seems to almost beat you down with these qualities, creating its own kind of noir atmosphere that also manages to be a pretty twisted horror movie from South Korea.

I Saw the Devil is widely praised for being not just a strong example of the current wave of South Korean horror masterpieces, but also as one of the best in a long line of powerful modern horror movies.

 

5. John Wick (2014)

Director: Chad Stahelski

Keanu Reeves revitalized his career and helped establish a juggernaut franchise with John Wick. One of the most satisfying, well-made, and stylistically engaging action films of the decade, this is another movie that goes well beyond simple revenge.

A retired assassin comes back with guns blazing when gangsters steal his favorite car and kill the dog that had been given to him by his late wife. It’s a good premise for an action movie. More specifically, it’s a good premise for an action movie starring Keanu Reeves.

So, what made John Wick a much bigger hit than anyone perhaps had anticipated?

Perhaps for the simple reason that it’s just very, very well made. Featuring memorable performances from the villains, a stellar soundtrack, and a structure that utilizes an actor like Keanu Reeves in the most meaningful fashion possible, John Wick is a revenge story with considerable charm. It’s also considerably lighter in tone than many of the other entries here.

 

4. Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 (2003-2004)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Once again paying homage to a certain type of movie he’s really fond of, writer/director Quentin Tarantino helmed one of the most incredible two-parters in movie history from 2003 to 2004.

Another assassin who has been done dirty by their associates, Kill Bill’s The Bride (played by Uma Thurman in a role she certainly should have won 1-2 Oscars for) goes through just as much as John Wick to get retribution. Honestly, when you watch both of these captivating classics back-to-back, you’re probably going to feel like The Bride went through just a little more to get what she wanted.

Kill Bill rests much of its strength on its performances, dialog, and fight choreography. Featuring particularly breathtaking fights against killers played by Lucy Liu and Vivica A. Fox, Kill Bill is gritty, gorgeous martial arts entertainment. It’s certainly as violent as you might be hoping, although the final showdown with the titular Bill (perfection from the late David Carradine) is specifically designed to go against your expectations.

While you’re at it, make sure to check out Lady Snowblood. Of the many, many influences Tarantino likes to delve into, particularly here, Lady Snowblood is the best and most significant.

 

3. Lady Vengeance (2006)

Director: Park Chan-wook

While not narratively connected to Oldboy, the fantastic and at-times disturbing Lady Vengeance is another in what would eventually become a thematic trilogy. Three films dealing in revenge and the fallout from the choices made in service of that hunger to see the wicked brought to heel and slaughtered whole.

Lady Vengeance goes far with Lee Young-ae as a woman who gets out of prison after a 13-year stint and sets her sights on the people who put her there, despite her innocence. While it’s impossible to choose the best of the three, Lady Vengeance is not simply just a chapter in a larger story or subject. It stands as its own vicious creation entirely, with director and co-screenwriter Park Chan-wook finding a meditation on the subject that at times feels similar to Oldboy, and yet very clearly is not.

It’s easy to see the similarities to Oldboy, though it must be said again that you don’t need to even watch Oldboy to appreciate this. With savage bouts of violence and very black humor, this is a movie you can appreciate by itself.

 

2. The Raid (2011)

Director: Gareth Evans

A team of commandos falls into a dangerous situation when their attempt to raid a crime lord’s high rise apartment building ends in being trapped. A rookie member of the unit named Rama, played with empathy and sometimes fury by Iko Uwais, is forced to lead the members of his unit who survived a crushing ambush out of the building in one piece.

Another story that doesn’t really spend any meaningful time on the subject of revenge, The Raid taps into the one of the other elements of Oldboy that we love so much.

Namely, it’s perfect for those who particularly want something that might emulate Oldboy’s attention to high stakes violence in close quarters. In a small space that you don’t have an ounce of control over, the only thing you can do is fight and survive. Rama embodies that determination with a severity that keeps us deeply committed to seeing how this nightmare turns out for him.

The Raid is a wonder of murderous set pieces and never stopping to think if maybe it should slow down.

 

1. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

Director: Park Chan-wook

Continuing the extraordinary thematic trilogy of director and writer Park Chan-wook, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is sometimes the odd entry out.

Another story of vengeance not going according to plan, this one concerns a young man (Shin Ha-kyun), his ailing sister (Im Ji-eun), and his girlfriend (Bae Doona) taking the daughter of a wealthy businessman for ransom. You might be expecting things to go awry, and you’d be right to have that suspicion.

That doesn’t mean you should expect anything that could be called a standard cinematic viewing experience by any conventions. If this happens to be last on your own list of movies like Oldboy to check out, you’ve figured out by now that Park Chan-wook is not someone who likes the audience to be comfortable.

One of the most interesting elements of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is that it’s more of an ensemble than the other films in Park’s trilogy. The shared traits between these films are quite clear, but Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance differs itself by spending more time with a greater assortment of people. We witness a complicated array of consequences in the first entry of one of the most inventive and essential movie trilogies of all time.

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