it definately falls under the exploitation umbrella which is always talked about here...

i've never seen a horror forum where films like oldboy werent discussed because they arent horror ...

the list is definately going to have to include a broader range that will have to include exploitation because like Zwoti said - you're going to be hard pressed to come up with a list of 100 GOOD asian strictly horror - in the most rigid sense - films

Here's food for thought. My DVDAficionado account lists Oldboy as a Suspense/Thriller.

Select others in my collection listed under the same category:
Fight Club
From Hell
The Jacket
Open Water
Raising Cain
Red Dragon
Unbreakable

Regardless of taste (sigh all you want about Red Dragon) I think those are interesting choices to think about when considering where Oldboy really belongs.

My opinion regarding the issue I said before.....

Plus I like to add.....

Old Boy is as much a horror film as Audition or Battle Royale. The main character Dae-su goes through so many horrendous and tragic moments that he becomes the ultimate victim. He's a man who is finally freed from his incredibly long captivity, only to discover that he's still a prisoner, and one marked for more torment than any man deserves to undergo. Old Boy could...and would...become just another revenge flick if it went like "wrongly accused man gets out of 'prison' and seeks revenge on his captors", the difference between who fucked up whose life more...captive or captor...becomes rather blurred. The revenge does come in Old Boy, but by the time it does, it clearly becomes an afterthought, and the common taste of revenge becomes bitter and sour because Dae-su discovers that revenge won't give him back those fifteen years...can't give him back his daughter and wife...and won't change the fact that he is, in essence, may not a very good person.
This film can disturb the living hell out of any new viewers for many years with its themes of murder, rape, revenge, incest, and more. Old Boy is challenging, absorbing, disturbing, and ultimately gratifying a "true shocking horror" film.

Would you classify Oldboy as an exploitation movie?

How??

Roshiq - I think that you've articulated where perhaps I could not. Very well said!!



Not necessarily a contradiction. See, I would consider that, in comparison to, say The Godfather, there are more classically gothic horror themes in Oldboy than in The Godfather; this is where I think that the Angra Conglomerate are making a slippery slope argument. (The only reason why I haven't addressed On The Waterfront is that it's among one of the many "classic" movies that I NEED to see. :o )

Re: Full Metal Jacket and 2001; I would DEFINITELY consider them within the horror genre (Full Metal Jacket especially; I find the first 1/2 of it to be absolutely chilling). 2001 has too many overall sci-fi themes, though, that I would classify it more as scifi...

Which brings me to what I think most of our issue is... So movies like Oldboy (or any of the above - Full Betal and 2001 especially) have elements of quite a few genres; as I have mentioned - Drama, Action, Pulp, Thriller, Horror, etc; I think what it comes down to is the elements of the movie that speak to you most. Personally, for me, the horror themes in Oldboy stood out more than any of its other sub-genre elements. Honestly, though, I can see why other people would classify it as "action/revenge," etc. It's just that the human horror stuck with me more than anything else - The twists, the turns, the extremes that a human would go to - Is horrifying.

Thanks Flayed, seeing what the masses think can actually help when trying to stuff something into a genre. I looked it up on Amazon and...

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,949 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#1 in Movies & TV > Horror > Asian Horror
#2 in Movies & TV > Horror > J-Horror
#2 in Movies & TV > Art House & International > By Original Language > Korean

I say yes.
I typically call it a Thriller and when i think of the thriller genera i think of a slightly more realistic horror movie.

Oldboy was pitched to me as an action film, and my kneejerk reaction upon watching it was that it was pychological horror. I never for a second considered Oldboy a thriller. Of course if someone explained the premise to me I'd say "Oh it sounds like a good thriller", but it doesn't dwell on those elements.

It's constructed around the breaking down of a man through violence and manipulation, we are less focused on finding answers, less focused on a "thrilling discovery" and more on the violent and disturbing process that the protagonist carries out his search with.

It has mystery certainly, the mystery here is only used to drive the plot, thematically the entire film is about destroying a man completely.

Looking at say the examply of 2001, the idea of a computer siezing control is a horrific one, but the themes design is one of a thriller. "How can we beat it? What do we need to do to beat it?" This develops the tensions it is less about being trapped on a ship under computer control, which would be the horrific elements.

The climax of the film is hinged on the horrific, not the thrill of ending the search, not some large set piece battle, but the brutal horror of how corrupted and destroyed the lead had become.

In the end, I truly hate genre classification its a social thing designed for simplicity of description, but if I had to I can't think of a more appriopriate genre then horror for Oldboy.

I have to say no, for the same reasons that both sides have argued. Oldboy has too many other elements from other genres to classify it as just one. It's a suspenseful mystery, with murder and revenge, it's a twisted love story that pushes the will of one man. It was a great movie, that IMO, was more than a horror movie.

of course - the theme , the violence ...

the hammer scene alone