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As a whole
- All Men Are Perverts: Dae-su is a serial cheater who can't keep it in his pants, Woo-jin is sexually attracted to his own sister, Mr. Park sexually assaults Mi-do and Joo-hwan's reaction to hearing of Soo-ah's suicide is to say that he should have slept with her.
- Adaptational Name Change:
- Shinichi Gotō to Dae-su Oh.
- Takāki Kakinuma to Woo-jin Lee.
- Eri to Mi-do/Yeon-hee Oh.
- Race Lift: In the original Oldboy manga, all the characters were Japanese. Here, as a result of the Adaptational Location Change, they're all Korean, with the exception of Mi-do. That is, until The Reveal that she's been hypnotized to think that, and in reality she's actually Dae-su's daughter (i.e. a full-blooded Korean woman).
Heroes
Oh Dae-su
Oh Dae-su, Dae-su Oh, 오대수
Played by: Choi Min-Shik (adult), Oh Tae-kyung (young)
Voiced by (English dub): Michael McConnohie (adult), Joe Cappellatti (young)
Voiced by (German dub): Wolfgang Condrus (adult), Julius Jellinek (young)
Voiced by (Spanish dub): Carlos Ysbert (adult), Iván Jara (young)
Voiced by (Portugueuse dub): Tatá Guarnieri (adult), Vagner Fagundes (young)
Voiced by (Italian dub): Robert Draghetti (adult), Stefano Crescentini (young)
A salaryman with a bad drinking habit, who is framed for the murder of his wife and subsequently imprisoned. Having no idea who's behind it, Dae-su swears to find out his captor's identity and get revenge on them.
Oh Dae-su
Click here to see Dae-su 15 years ago
Click here to see him as a boy
- The Alcoholic: Dae-su has a history of being arrested for alcoholism. His drinking addiction is so severe that is causes him to miss Yeon-hee's fourth birthday and is behind his arguements with his wife. It is also implied that Joo-hwan regularly had to bail him out of arrest.
- Always Save the Girl: Oh Dae-su cuts out his own tongue to ensure he can never let Mi-do know that she is his daughter.
- The Atoner: Repeatably attempts to do this, but is pretty damn awful at it.
- Attempted Rape: One of the first things he does to Mi-do is attack her while she's using the bathroom; she has to fend him off using a knife.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Manages to track down the prison he was kept in by recognising the fried dumplings being delivered there.
- Awful Wedded Life: The news broadcast discussing Dae-su's alleged murder of his wife, Kim Ja-hyun, noted that this was the state of their marriage. They would frequently get into arguements due to Dae-su being addicted to drinking.
- Book Dumb: In his flashback, Dae-su was shown to not take his studies seriously and be told off by his teachers. In the present, him being none too bright allows Woo-jin to play him like a fiddle with ease.
- Broken Ace: He's an undeniable badass who has some of the coolest fight scenes in all of cinema, fucks a woman half his age, and manages to track down his prison using gyoza. He's also a foolish, alcoholic, pathetic, self-centred, incestuous puppet.
- Broken Smile: Pulls off some incredibly hideous ones.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Lampshaded. Woo-jin says the day he revealed his relationship with his sister wasn't important to Dae-su, as he just forgot.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: Dae-su does this both while drunk and sober. In the opening scene of the film, he rambles about his life and shows pictures of his family, and even as a child he couldn't hold his tongue about Woo-jin's sexual relationship with his sister. While talking to Mr. Han, Woo-jin mentions Dae-su "talks too much", and after Woo-jin reveals that Dae-su running his mouth is why Soo-ah committed suicide, he repents by cutting off his tongue.
- Childhood Friends: Ever since Dae-su was a boy, he was best friends with Joo-hwan. He doubles as his Only Friend.
- Class Clown: In his flashback from his childhood, Dae-su was seen writing an inappropriate phrase on the chalkboard while the classroom was empty. He also tried to impress Soo-ah with an inappropriate joke about a father and a son at a swimming pool.
- Does Not Like Spam: Spending 15 years in a prison eating fried takeout dumplings for every meal gives him a serious hatred of them.
- Epic Fail: Repeatably. The effect is somewhere between funny and soul-destroying.
- Everyone Has Standards: Dae-su may be an awful husband, a drunkard, an attempted rapist and all around an unpleasant person, but when Woo-jin gleefully reveals that Mi-do, that the woman he was having sex with, is actually his biological daughter, Yeon-hee, he becomes so horrified he wants to commit suicide.
- Failure Hero: For a given value of hero. Almost every accomplishment Dae-su makes over the course of the film is snatched away from him or otherwise negated somehow. He spends years digging out of prison, only to be released anyway right before he can get out by himself. He manages to work out details about why he was imprisoned, but only as part of a mocking game held by Woo-jin who was leading him to all the answers, and he still manages to get critical details wrong; Woo-jin didn't kill his sister, or remove his memories of what he did to her. He manages to develop a romance with a beautiful young woman, only to find out it's his daughter. He manages to hold his own against the formidable Mr Han, only for Woo-jin to just anticlimatically kill him. He believes that he can erase his memories of Mi-do's true identity to live happily with her using hypnosis, but the final shot implies he failed.
- Foil: To Joo-hwan. At the beginning of the movie, Dae-su is depicted as careless and abrasive, while Joo-hwan has a more polite demeanor. While they're at the police station, Dae-su swears at the cops and calls them "assholes" while Jooh-hwan apologizes profusely and bows. However when they re-unite after Dae-su has been let go from prison, Dae-su has lost weight and cleaned up his appearance whle Joo-hwan has let himself go. Joo-hwan also portrays the same reckless behaviour as Dae-su did at the start of the film, and it gets him killed.
- To Woo-jin as well: Millenial Cinema: Memory in Global Film
states, It is this revenge that connects both characters, both are consumed by the past and are in many ways each other's double. Park underlines their emotional connection by manipulating mise-en-scene and using splitscreen editing techniques to connect their faces or by having them frequently adopt the same body position within the shot. While it is always ambiguous as to what Lee Woo-jin wants, it appears he needs Dae-su to experience the same pain he has so his elaborate plan is to become the architect of Dae-su's life. However, he is much more aware of their predicament than the mercurial Dae su: Lee Woo jin knows that the quest for revenge is ultimately futile, despite claiming that seeking revenge is the best cure for someone who has been hurt," he continues: What comes after?
- To Woo-jin as well: Millenial Cinema: Memory in Global Film
- Foreshadowing:
- In YourMovieSucks.org's review, he observed that, Oldboy begins with Dae-su in captivity at the police station, something Woo-jin would later subject him to. The movie also opens with Dae-Su holding a suicidal stranger by the tie, similar to how Woo-Jin held his sister's hand and begged her not to die. Dae-su also begins his flashback by oversharing without thinking of the consequences - the same thing he did to Soo-ah and Woo-jin. The man on the roof is also disheveled and hideous, similar to how Dae-su was while he was imprisoned.
- Dae-su gets the idea that he may be wiretapped after watching an incident of wiretapping on TV.
- Remember Dae-su's breakdown at the start of the film, where he begins by desperately begging for mercy, then threatens violence, then apologizes, and then starts desperately begging again? It's near-identical to his breakdown after Woo-jin reveals he made him sleep with his own daughter.
- The hideous gagging sounds Mr Park makes after Dae-su smashes his teeth out anticipate the equally hideous sounds Dae-su makes after removing his own tongue.
- In YourMovieSucks.org's review, he observed that
- Frame-Up: Oh Dae-su is framed for the murder of his wife by a mysterious party. It turns that the one responsible for the murder was Lee Woo-jin.
- Funny Afro: The hotel room Dae-su is locked in has a bathroom and basic toileteries, but no combs or other grooming material, though his hair is occasionally cut while he's not conscious.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Dae-su is left completely broken by spending fifteen years locked inside a small hotel room.
- Go Mad from the Revelation:
- Dae-su after learning he has been framed for the murder of his wife.
- And when he finds out that Mi-do is his daughter.
- Hallucinations: After discovering that it's believed he killed his wife, he hallucinates ants coming out of his skin and pouring all over his body.note Mi-do later muses on how hallucinating ants is a sign of loneliness because they're social animals, having done so herself; like father, like daughter.
- Hate Sink: He refuses to listen to his wife's legitimate concerns of his alcoholism, refuses to put away his drinking habit on his daughter's birthday, being arrested on the same day because he couldn't control himself, refuses to listen to the suicidal man's story on the rooftop and abandons him, steals a bike from an old lady and attempts to rape Mi-do.
- Howl of Sorrow: Manages to combine this with Screaming Warrior when he learns that Mi-do is his daughter. He rushes at Woo-jin, letting out an agonised scream as he does.
- Incest-ant Admirer: After learning the horrid truth that his lover Mi-do is his long-lost daughter, Dae-su gets his memory of the revelation wiped just so he can move on and continue to happily date his child (perhaps). Dae-su knew the truth, but Mi-do never finds out.
- Jerkass: It's made clear Dae-su wasn't a swell guy even before his lockup. We're introduced to him absolutely sauced and goading the cops into repeatedly beating him up when the cops are just trying to do their jobs, and it's apparent that this isn't the first time he's made a drunken ass out of himself in public. He's a womanizer, too. In high school, Dae-su smoked, goofed around instead of studying, blew off teachers right to their faces, shamelessly hit on girls only to break their hearts, and also stalked said girls, which is how he found out about Woo-jin's incest. He casually spreads a rumour that that winds up ruining Woo-jin's life and making his sister commit suicide as easily as one breathes, and doesn't even remember starting the rumour.
- Kavorka Man: Dae-su earns the affections of Mi-do despite having poor grooming skills, a lot of body hair, an ugly face and a lot of weight.
- Lack of Empathy: Tells his entire story to a suicidal man, then refuses to listen to the man's story in turn; the man dies, bringing his dog with him.
- Made of Iron: Dae-su. The man spends years punching a wall until his joints and calluses make his hands into virtual knuckledusters, but that's the least of it. Stabbed, stomped on, and beaten with sticks, anything his assailants try, he'll just get up and continue pummeling his way through that hallway.
- Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: During the montage of his time imprisoned, he is shown masturbating to female singers in non-sexual attire, showing how desperate he is for human connection.
- Meaningful Name: While drunk, Dae-su has a meltdown and confesses "My name, Oh Dae-su, means getting through one day at atime. Tha's what Oh Dae-su means. But......why can't I get through today?"
- Out of universe, his name is deliberately close to a korean rendering of...Oedipus.
- One-Man Army: Manages to beat his way through dozens of prison guards in one of the movie's most famous scenes.
- Parental Incest: Woo-jin's revenge plan includes hypnotizing Dae-su to fall in love with Mi-do, not knowing she's his daughter, and then reveal it to him so that he can drive him to suicide. Given that Dae-su Really Gets Around, the hypnotism likely wasn't necessary.
- Punch a Wall: In the training montage, Dae-su is seen punching and kicking the walls of his prison.
- Save the Princess: Dae-su repeatably tries to do this for Mi-do, failing every time, which Woo-jin nastily mocks him for.
- Stepford Smiler: Three times over. At the start of the film, he poses as a brash and confident man, but breaks down while drunk. Secondly, while he's on the phone with Mi-do after finding out the Awful Truth, he begs her to stay calm while trying to mask his own sadness and horror. Thirdly, when Mi-do finds him in the snow, he sports a wide grin, but the pain is visible in his eyes.
- Took a Level in Badass: When he is first imprisoned, he is a fat, constantly drunk, womanizing salesman. He spends 15 years sober and on a diet of fried dumplings, and trains himself to fight. Needless to say, he's in much better physical shape when he's let out.
- Tongue Trauma: In a parallel to his namesake Oedipus gouging out his eyes after realising he's inadvertedly slept with his mother, Oh Dae-su cuts off his tongue with a pair of scissors after realising he's inadvertedly slept with his daughter.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By letting slip that he saw the Lee siblings having sex, he causes rumours to fly wildly about Soo-ah, ultimately leading to her suffering a phantom pregnancy and killing herself.
Mi-do
Mi-do, 미도, Oh Yeon-hee, Yeon-hee Oh
- Played by: Kang Hye-jeongVoiced by (English dub): Sherry LynnVoiced by (German dub): Manya DoeringVoiced by (Spanish dub): Mar BodalloVoiced by (Portugueuse dub): Eleonora PradoVoiced by (Italian dub): Ilaria Latini
While channel hopping, Dae-su comes across a pretty sushi chef named Mi-do hosting a cooking show. After he is freed from captivity, he pays a visit to her restauarant, where he faints after eating a live octopus. Mi-do and Dae-su fall in love, and he protects her after Mr. Park's thugs attack her for being his associate. Unbeknownst to him, Mi-do is actually his daughter, Oh Yeon-hee. Miss Yoo hypnotized her into thinking that she's a Japanese chef named Mi-do.
Mi-do
- Composite Character: In the original manga that Oldboy is based on, the main character's main female love interest was a hypnotized lady named Eri. The manga also had another character named Mi-do, but unlike this version of Mi-do, she was actually Japanese.
- Damsel in Distress: ''Repeatably'".
- Faints in Shock: Mi-do faints when she sees Mr. Park's severed hand in the box.
- Fauxreigner: Unlike most examples of this trope, Mi-do is innocent and genuinely believes that she is a Japanese woman due to Woo-jin's manipulation. It is obvious to the viewer that she is Korean, because her accent does not sound Japanese at all.
- Foreshadowing: In the scene where her apartment is shown for the first time, there's a film poster of King Kong. The movie is about a monstrous creature that falls in love with an innocent lady, her love for her being his ultimate weakness, much like Dae-su's love for her.
- Identity Amnesia: Mi-do forgot everything about her old life due to hypnotic suggestion from Woo-jin. She doesn't even remember that Dae-su is actually her father.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: She is a happy-go-lucky eccentric sushi chef who handles the worst of Dae-su's behaviour - ranging from outbursts in public all the way up to attempted rape - with cheery breeziness and even offers to sleep with him casually and happily. As it turns out, this is planned by Woo-jin: not only did Woo-jin isolate her and made her desperately lonely enough to want any kind of attachment, he also hypnotised and conditioned her into loving in love with Dae-su.
- Nice Girl: In contrast to the other leads of the movie, Mi-do is a genuinely kind person who wants to do the right thing and took pity on Dae-su.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Mi-do is said to be Japanese but Kang Hye-jeong's accent is obviously Korean. This is on purpose.
- Supreme Chef: Mi-do is successful enough to run her own restuarant and make appearances on television.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Mi-do is completely oblivious to the fact that the man she's attracted to is her biological father. She is initially led to believe that her attraction to Dae-su is innocent in nature, and comments that she herself doesn't know why she's drawn to him.
No Joo-hwan
No Jooh-wan, Joo-hwan No, 노주환
- Played by: Dae-han Ji, Il-han Oo (young)Voiced by (English dub): Unknown (adult), Unknown (young)Voiced by (German dub): Erich Räuker (adult), Unknown (young)Voiced by (Spanish dub): Juan Amador Pulido (adult), Jesús Alberto Pinillos (young)Voiced by (Portugueuse dub): Ricardo Sawaya (adult), Márcio Araújo (young)Voiced by (Italian dub): Roberto Stocchi (adult), Marco Baroni (young)
Dae-su's best friend since childhood. He makes sure Dae-su stays on the right track when he's drunk, and is very doting to his daughter, Yeon-hee. He also runs an internet cafe.
No Joo-hwan
Click here to see Joo-hwan 15 years ago
Click here to see him as a boy
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite appearing to be a crude, misogynistic Jerkass, Joo-hwan runs an internet cafe and helps Dae-su pinpoint his potential kidnapper.
- Childhood Friends: Ever since Joo-hwan was a boy, he was best friends with Dae-su, and the two attended school together. He doubles as his Only Friend.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: While Joo-hwan is making fun of Soo-ah to Dae-su, he calls her a "slut", setting off Woo-jin's Berserk Button, who was secretly spying on him after Dae-su had his wiretap removed. Woo-jin then removes a CD from a computer and repeatedly hacks Joo-hwan's body with it. To rub it in, he tells Dae-su that is is his fault Joo-hwan is dead
- Cuddle Bug: Once he reunites with Dae-su after 15 years, Joo-hwan eclipses Dae-su in multiple, glomping hugs.
- Fat Bastard: When he was young, he was a skinny, polite young man. As a 40-year-old, he's unpleasant, dismissive and has a huge belly.
- Formerly Fit: He's notably gained a lot of weight in the 15 years between Dae-su getting kidnapped and the two of them reuniting. This is in contrast to Dae-su, who was fat in the opening, but then Took a Level in Badass.
- Jerkass: At first, he seems like a pleasant person in contrast to Dae-su, but he shares his view of women and also makes fun of a child who committed suicide.
- Lack of Empathy: The way he speaks of Soo-ah reeks of this.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Joo-hwan has a low view of women. He is best friends with Dae-su, a serial philanderer despite being married, and he calls Soo-ah, a dead girl, a "whore", despite earlier salivating at the thought of sleeping with her.
- Sacrificial Lion: Joo-hwan's death establishes the insane side of Woo-jin and how his calm composure is merely a facade. It turns Dae-su in a blind rage, having lost his Only Friend since childhood.
Villains
Lee Woo-jin
Lee Woo-jin, Woo-jin Lee, 이우진
- Played by: Yoo Ji Tae (adult), Yoo Yeon-Seok (young)Voiced by (English dub): Crispin Freeman (adult), Unknown (young)Voiced by (German dub): Johannes Berenz (adult), Konrad Bösherz (young)Voiced by (Spanish dub): Roberto Encinas (adult), Adolfo Moreno (young)Voiced by (Portugueuse dub): Alexandre Marconato (adult), Ricardo Sawaya (young)Voiced by (Italian dub): Massimo Lodolo (adult), Unknown (young)
A wealthy CEO who has such a severe grudge against Dae-su that he had him framed for a murder and locked up for years, despite Dae-su not knowing who he is at all. Like Dae-su and Jooh-wan, Woo-jin was a graduate of Evergreen High school's class of '79, and went to America afterwards. He seeks revenge on Dae-su for spreading the rumours of his sister being a slut after he caught the two in a sexual act and failed to recognize they were siblings.
Lee Woo-jin
Click here to see him as a boy
- Alas, Poor Villain: Right before Woo-jin commits suicide, we have a sad flashback to when his sister committed suicide. Quentin Tarantino was at a screening of the film, and was shocked to find himself crying for a character who had been completely despicable for the entire prior duration of the movie.
- Allegorical Character: Woo-jin can be seen as an allegory to Fate itself; earlier in the film, while trying to find out who kidnapped him, Dae-su fills various notebooks with the names of people he's wronged and what slights he's committed against them, only for none of them to have Woo-jin's name. At the same time, anyone could have stumbled upon what Woo-jin and Soo-ah were doing in the classroom that day, and that person happened to be Dae-su. One analysis states the following:"The simple fact is that the protagonist cared precious little about the harm he did to his fellow man. He acted with wanton spite against what appears to be nearly everyone he came across. Behaving as he did, it’s actually no wonder that eventually one of the myriad people he would sleight would be someone as exceptional as Lee Woo-Jin. In this way, Oh Dae-Su was fated to eventually do something that would attract the vengeance of the most exceptional student in his school. He was always going to one day be a jerk to the wrong person, and that person was always going to be Lee Woo-Jin."
- The same analysis also notes the following:
"Let’s consider briefly what he needed to do in order to reach the heights of villainy he achieves in the movie:* Not allow the trauma of the death of his lover prevent him from material success.* Become financially successful and skillful enough that he becomes the head of a multi-million dollar trading conglomerate.* Hold on to his yearning for vengeance through several decades without letting it interfere with his normal life or his planning/execution of said revenge.* Know how to convert his financial holdings into the formation and maintenance of contacts capable of locating, surveying, and perhaps subtly manipulating any given individual.That’s a lot to ask of a person, to the point that it is almost literally unbelievable. Lee Woo-Jin is an incredible person. He must have had, at highschool age, the dedication necessary to metabolize rage and grief into studying and training in order to have climbed as far up the corporate ladder as fast as he did. Unless his family was already rich, he must’ve also maintained an industriousness that would fund the prestigious schools he’s need to attend and a charisma that’d give him access to the social class he was aspiring towards. Lee could’ve already been aiming to become a corporate success before he started his path for revenge, of course. But his strength of character to keep himself on that path despite the intense trauma he experienced is nonetheless impressive. And however justified you may think his actions are or are not regarding his revenge on Oh Dae-Su, there’s no denying that he was, however indirectly, a cause of the worst thing to ever happen in Lee’s life. He watched his sister, and his lover, kill herself and failed to save her. The weight of that trauma is literally unimaginable. It does ultimately claim him, as we see at the end that his devotion to his sister was so great that once she is avenged he sees no reason to continue living, even after all that he has accomplished. I would expect an average person would be overwhelmed by grief, unable to function in normal society and possibly even ready to resign themselves to death after the passing of a few days, much less decades. But Lee Woo-Jin is not average, he is exceptional." - Ambiguously Christian: Quotes the Bible at one pointnote and has a cross tattoo.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Woo-jin was born into wealth and finished his education in America. He became a company CEO (the specifics of his workplace are never clarified) and uses his wealth to hire a private prison to unfairly imporison Dae-su, hire thugs to have him tortured, hire a hypnotist to trick Dae-su into sleeping with his daughter and other schemes.
- Armor-Piercing Question: After he shows Dae-su that he slept with his very own daughter, he asks "My sister and I loved each other, despite everything. Can you two do the same?". The point of this question is to emphasize that while both men committed incest, Woo-jin and Soo-ah did it knowingly, while Dae-su and Mi-do didn't....for the most part. It could also be a guilt trip to how Dae-su is stringing on Mi-do because he knows that she may reject him if she knows the truth.
- Bad Boss: As part of his schemes, he cuts off Mr Park's hand and shoots Mr Han dead.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Woo-jin's revenge goes exactly as planned. The hypnotism works, Dae-su is left a broken man, Joo-hwan is dead and Mi-do is oblivious to the fact that she is sleeping with her father. That said, despite his gloating, all Woo-jin can do in the end is depressedly relive his sister's suicide and breaks down into tears before shooting himself.
- Batman Gambit: Woo-jin's plans for Dae-su consist largely of one of these, as he manages to manipulate the man into doing everything exactly as he wants, although it's somewhat subverted in that in order to kick off all these manipulations, Woo-jin had to hypnotize Dae-su and Mi-do into acting in specific ways.
- Beauty Is Bad: This trope is invoked to show him in contrast to Dae-su. According to director commentary, Yoo Ji-tae has quite the fandom.
- Berserk Button: Throughout the film, Woo-jin carries himself as a pleasant, Affably Evil, Sharp-Dressed Man. However, when Joo-hwan insults his sister, Woo-jin becomes a completely different person and hacks him to death with a broken CD.
- Berserker Tears: Is shown performing yoga with tears in his rage-filled eyes. He's weeping for Soo-ah.
- Big Bad Friend: Woo-jin is this two times over; first to Dae-su as they went to school togethernote , and secondly to Mi-do as the two enjoy talking about sushi over online chatrooms.
- Big Brother Instinct: Dae-su assumes that this is Woo-jin's view of Soo-ah, not realizing that they are in an incestous relationship until much later.
- Brother–Sister Incest: The Reveal of Oldboy is that Woo-jin and Soo-ah, despite being siblings, were in love with one another ever since their school days. However, they engaged in sexual activities, which led to Soo-ah being pregnant. The pregnancy was actually a phantom pregnancy, but Soo-ah believed it to be real, and feared that of she gave birth then people would know that Woo-jin was the father. She decided to commit suicide to save Woo-jin's reputation, her final words to him being that she had no regrets for her actions. However Woo-jin opposed this and begged her to live, and after dedicating years of his life to getting revenge for her, he committed suicide too.
- The Chessmaster: Woo-Jin has planned EVERYTHING. And as the film picks up speed, he gets faster.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Woo-jin often associates himself with the colour purple, which is how Dae-su recognizes the gift packages are from him - they arrive in sparkly purple boxes. In the scene where Dae-su and Mi-do browse various yearbooks, the page that tips them off about Woo-jin is obscured by an envelope with a purple ribbon. It can also be considered a Visual Pun to the idiom "Born to the purple". Another reason Woo-jin possibly holds the colour purple near to his heart is that Soo-ah was wearing a purple dress when she died.
- Driven to Suicide: Woo-jin wanted to die ever since the loss of Soo-ah, but the only thing keeping him alive was a desire to exact revenge. Once he finished this and was able to revel in the suffering he inflicted to Dae-su, he saw no reason to keep living, and shot himself in the head.
- Dastardly Dapper Derby: Woo-jin often dons one in his civilian disguise. See here.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Woo-jin loved Soo-ah very much, and everything he does in the movie is for her.
- Faux Affably Evil: He smiles and acts genial to Dae-su and hails a cab for him when he collapses in the street. It is only near the end of the film when his monstrous nature becomes more and more apparent.
- Gambit Roulette: Woo-jin's plan. In fact, he spends part of the final act genuinely annoyed that it went so well, chiding Dae-su for walking right into an obvious trap by leaving Mi-do with his previous captor Park.
- Hidden Depths: Many:
- He quotes a lot of poetry and classic literature.
- He enjoys talking to Mi-do about sushi.
- He has an affinity for purple, sparkly things.
- He is frequently seen partaking in yoga.
- Ever since he was young, his hobby was photography, and he owns a lot of albums.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Woo-jin was so hormone-addled as a teenger that he tried to have sex with his sister in public, while they were at school, and also photographed her underneath her clothing.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Post-Awful Truth, and mocks him further by dangling the possibility of informing Mi-do of the incest over his head. To break and humiliate him further, after he informed him that Mi-do was his daughter, he played audio of her losing her virginity to him
- Large Ham: Manages to carry the aura of an over the top anime villain despite being in a serious, live-action tragedy movie. Rather than being silly, it's absolutely bloodcurdingly terrifying.
- Lonely Rich Kid: In contrast to his sister, who was bubbly and outgoing, Woo-jin was more reserved as a child, and many of his classmates don't even remember him. Even as an adult, all of Woo-jin's associates are only with him due to him offering them capital in exchange for their services, the only one who he has a genuine connection is his dead sister.
- Manipulative Bastard:
- Probably the uktimate examples of this.
Woo-jin: Isn't it fun? One word gets you pregnant, another makes you fall in love. - Man of Wealth and Taste: Eagle-eyed viewers will note that Woo-jin owns a lot of goods from designer brands, including S.T. Dupont.
- Mr. Fanservice: The film has several scenes of him being naked and completely clothesless, including a Shower Scene followed by him putting on a suit. He was also supposed to have a scene involving Male Frontal Nudity, but his actor was uncomfortable with it, so it was edited out of the final cut. However, there are many scenes where his bare ass (and ass tattoo) can be seen.
- Never My Fault: He appears pathologically incapable of taking responsibility for the harm he himself causes. Soo-ah's reputation was ruined because Oh Dae-su talked about her incestuous relationship — and not because Woo-jin pushed her for sex without explicit consent. She became pregnantnote "because of Dae-su's tongue" — not because Woo-jin had unprotected sex with her. She committed suicide because of the rumors — not because Woo-jin failed first to physically prevent it and then to provide adequate support to the suicidal.note Dae-su was imprisoned for 15 years because "he talked too much" — not because Woo-jin failed to find any reason to live other than misguided revenge. Joo-hwan had to die because Dae-su found the bug in his shoe — not because Woo-jin snuck into Joo-hwan's workplace to eavesdrop on him and then failed to regulate his brotherly rage. Freudian Excuse or not, and no matter how deserving his victims are, Woo-jin is himself the root cause of all of his misfortunes, who, even in the end, chooses the easy way out rather than dealing with the fallout of his schemes.
- Older Than They Look: Woo-jin is 40, the same age as Dae-su, but his actor was 26 at time of filming.
- Psychopathic Man Child: After remaining calm and collected for most of the movie up to that point, he starts to become this in the final third, throwing temper tantrums, gleefully taking joy in revealing his plan, and mentally reverting to the moment in his teen years when his sister died.
- Psychotic Smirk: Repeatably. It's terrifying.
- Sadist: When Dae-su cries and has a breakdown after The Reveal, Woo-jin just laughs into his handkerchief. What makes this even more disturbing is that this is the first time that we, the audience, see him laugh. He also thinks nothing of locking up Dae-su and ruining his life, speaking calmly of the matter to Mr. Park. The biggest example of Woo-jin being a Sadist is that after seeing Dae-su completely broken and begging for mercy, Woo-jin offers to put him out of his misery, but then offers him a device to shut off his pacemaker to kill him. Eager to kill Woo-jin, Dae-su takes it....only to find out that Woo-jin never had heart problems and the device plays audio of him and his own daughter engaging in sex, complete with her sounds of discomfort.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Woo-jin is usually seen wearing a suit, as expected of a CEO. His closet took inspiration from Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. In the scene before Woo-jin commits suicide, we get several shots of him dressing in each article of clothing.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Woo-jin often peppers his quotes with Purple Prose and classic sayings.Woo-jin: "Be it a rock or a grain of sand, in water they sink as one and the same."
- Star Crossed Lover: With Soo-ah.Woo-jin: "My sister and I loved each other, despite everything. Can you two do the same?" *smirks, before the elevator doors shut*.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Very heavily downplayed, but he gives into Dae-su's pleads to not reveal the truth to Mi-do after he cuts out his own tongue.
- Tragic Villain: Woo-jin is one of the best examples in cinema. Through the course of the movie, he murders people, imprisons a man for 15 years, tortures him, and tricks him into sleeping with his daughter, all for revealing a nasty secret. But when the film flashes back to Woo-jin on the bridge, desperately holding on to his sister as she hangs over the water, you realize that he is ultimately a broken man who needed an excuse, no matter how flimsy, to continue living, as once he gets his revenge, he promptly commits suicide.
- Villainous Breakdown: One of the most tragic in all of cinema. A okfter getting his revenge on Dae-su, His smile fades from his face. Remembering his sister's death, he weeps, and kills himself.
- Wicked Cultured: Woo-jin often quotes classic literature in his speech. His sister also enjoyed reading classic literature, and was seen reading a book by Sylvia Plath.
Mr. Han
- Played by: Kim Byeong-OkVoiced by (English dub): UnknownVoiced by (German dub): Jan SpitzerVoiced by (Spanish dub): Roberto Cuenca Rodríguez Jr.Voiced by (Portugueuse dub): Márcio AraújoVoiced by (Italian dub): Marco Mete
Woo-jin's right hand man.
Mr. Han
- Karmic Death: He is stabbed in the ear by Dae-su, and then shot by Woo-jin himself, fitting to how he heard all of Woo-jin's evil and turned a deaf ear to it.
- The Silent Bob: Mr. Han often communicates non-verbally, for example showing a briefcase full of money to Mr. Park to indicate that he's been sent by Woo-jin.
- White Hair, Black Heart: He has bleached white hair, and is a villain.
- You Have Failed Me: Woo-jin kills him.
Park Cheol-woong
Park Cheolwoong, Cheol-woong Park, 철웅
- Played by: Dal-Su OhVoiced by (English dub): UnknownVoiced by (German dub): Udo SchenkVoiced by (Spanish dub): Iñaki CrespoVoiced by (Portugueuse dub): Sérgio MorenoVoiced by (Italian dub): Unknown
The owner of the private maximum security prison that Dae-su was jailed in for 15 years. He also leads a gang of thugs to further antagonize Dae-su and Mi-do.
Mr. Park
- An Arm and a Leg: Woo-jin has his hand cut off for aiding Dae-su. Sike. He actually agreed to have his hand cut off.
- Gold Tooth of Wealth: Mr. Park has multiple golden teeth after Dae-su plies out fifteen of his natural ones, which imply that doing favours for the wealthy is nothing new for him.
- Greed: Essentially what drives him throughout the movie. He sees no problem making Dae-su suffer as long as he names a price, knowing that the loaded Woo-jin will indulge him.
- Hate Sink: Unlike the tragic Woo-jin, or the barely characterised Mr Han, Mr Park is utterly and completely repulsive in every conceivable way, with no humanising or depth-giving features whatsoever.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: To Mi-do.
- Karma Houdini: Mr. Park makes it out alright in the end in spite of all the pain he inflicted on Dae-su due to his imprisonment. After getting his teeth yanked out, he simply visits a dentist and gets new ones, and he consented to lose his hand to receive a bigger and better building so he can continue his criminal activities. It is, however, implied that he's understandably not happy about losing the hand.
- To the Pain: Does a fakeout tooth removal on Dae-su, then monologues on how imagination can physically harm a person.
- Wardens Are Evil: Runs an illegal prison, no questions asked.
Yoo Hyung-Ja
- Played by: Seung-shin LeeVoiced by (English dub): UnknownVoiced by (German dub): UnknownVoiced by (Spanish dub): Pepa CastroVoiced by (Portugueuse dub): Alessandra AraújoVoiced by (Italian dub): Andrea Lavagnino
The hypnotist hired by Woo-jin to trick Dae-su into sleeping with his own daughter.
Miss Yoo
- Affably Evil: Despite delivering the ultimate blow to Dae-su in Woo-jin's revenge, she personally holds no hatred in her heart for him and hypnotizes him to forget that Mi-do is his daughter to soothe him. .
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: She doesn't seem to be the slightest bit fazed after tricking a man into sleeping with his daughter and knowing her client committed suicide. She even complements and praises Dae-su's letter to Mi-do at the end of the film, despite the sad tone of it all.
- Greater-Scope Villain: It was her hypnosis that created Mi-do and drove her into Dae-su's arms, hence starting the Parental Incest between the two.
- Secret-Keeper: Miss Yoo is the only living person apart from Dae-su who knows that the woman he fell in love and had sexual relations with is his biological daughter.
Other
Lee Soo-ah (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
- Played by: Jin-Seo YoonVoiced by (English dub): Stephanie ShehVoiced by (German dub): Magdalena TurbaVoiced by (Spanish dub): Sandra JaraVoiced by (Portugueuse dub): Tatiane KeplmairVoiced by (Italian dub): Stefanella Marrama
Woo-jin's sister. And lover.
Soo-ah
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Soo-ah is a pretty girl and has a heart of gold.
- Brother–Sister Incest: The Reveal of Oldboy is that Woo-jin and Soo-ah, despite being siblings, were in love with one another ever since their school days. They engaged in sexual activities, which led to Soo-ah being pregnant. The pregnancy was actually a phantom pregnancy, but Soo-ah believed it to be real, and feared that of she gave birth then people would know that Woo-jin was the father. She decided to commit suicide to save Woo-jin's reputation, her final words to him being that she had no regrets for her actions. However Woo-jin opposed this and begged her to live, and after dedicating years of his life to getting revenge for her, he committed suicide too.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Similar to how Woo-jin's colour motif is purple, Soo-ah's is red, as her red bike is what triggers Dae-su's memories.
- Driven to Suicide: After rumours starting spreading around at school that she was a "slut" that would "fuck anyone", Soo-ah deliberately threw herself in the Habchun Dam.
- Dude Magnet: Soo-ah earns the attention of Woo-jin, Joo-hwan and Dae-su.
- Foreshadowing: While torturing Dae-su, Mr Park fakes out removing his teeth, then tells him that imagination can cause physical effects on a person. Soo-ah imagining that she was pregnant and physically manifesting its symptoms lead to her death.
- Go Out with a Smile: Smiles sweetly, and even uses Woo-jin's camera to take a final selfie of herself doing so, before falling to her death.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: From Soo-ah's point of view, her committing suicide was the only way to make sure their secret didn't get out and he stayed clear of any accusations that he impregnated her. As much as she wanted to have a future with him, she decided that committing suicide was the better option. Her final words to Woo-jin are that she has no regrets for her actions.
- The Lost Lenore: Soo-ah is this to her own brother.
- Mistaken for Pregnant: A rumour begins to circulate that Woo-jin got her pregnant; she starts to believe it so much that she develops a phantom pregnancy, leading to her suicide.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Her suicide is what causes Woo-jin to want revenge against Dae-su.
- Posthumous Character: She's already been dead for years at the start of the movie, even before the Time Skip.
- Walking Spoiler: It's impossible to talk about her without revealing her incestuous relationship with Woo-jin or her death being the catalyst for the films' plot.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Begins to believe the rumours of Woo-jin impregnating her so much that she develops symptoms of it.
