Oldboy (2003) quotes

Director
Chan-wook Park.

Cast
Min-sik Choi.
Ji-tae Yu.
Hye-jeong Kang.

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.

Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone.
Dae-su Oh

Remember this: “Be it a rock or a grain of sand, in water they sink as the same.”
– Woo-jin Lee

Even though I’m no more than a monster – don’t I, too, have the right to live?
– Dae-su Oh

If they had told me it was going to be fifteen years, would it have been easier to endure?
– Dae-su Oh

Your gravest mistake wasn’t failing to find the answer. You can’t find the right answer if you ask the wrong questions.
– Woo-jin Lee

Can 10 years’ worth of imaginary training… be put to use?
– Dae-su Oh
[Dae-su beats up his assailants] Apparently, it can.
– Dae-su Oh

[on receiving three chopsticks with his prison rations] All I could think about in that moment was the guy in the next room was eating with only one chopstick.
– Dae-su Oh

[after getting knocked over and taking a drag of a cigarette] “Dick-shit”… a new word. Television doesn’t teach you swear words.
– Dae-su Oh

Who the hell are you?
– Dae-su Oh
Me? I’m a sort of scholar. And my major is you. A scholar studying Dae-su Oh; an expert on Dae-su Oh.
– Woo-jin Lee

Can the imaginary training of fifteen years be put to use?
– Dae-su Oh
[Dae-su tries to sexually assault Mi-do and gets clobbered] No. It can’t.
– Dae-su Oh

Your tongue got my sister pregnant! It wasn’t Woo-jin Lee’s dick; it was Dae-su Oh’s tongue!
– Woo-jin Lee

[after a huge fight] As I expected, I can’t get along with anyone today either.
– Dae-su Oh

[looking around the inside of Dae-su’s “cell”] You stayed in a place like this for fifteen years?
– Mi-do
Yeah, but after the first eleven it felt like home.
– Dae-su Oh

How’s life in a bigger prison, Dae-su?
– Dae-su Oh

Revenge is good for your health, but pain will find you again.
– Dae-su Oh

Why’d you lock me up, you.
– Dae-su Oh
[tries to think of the word]
… dick-shit?
– Dae-su Oh

You need not worry about the future, Imagine nothing.
– Dae-su Oh

If by any chance Mido should find out the truth, you son of a bitch, I’m going to rip you limb from limb. And your remains will never be found. Why? Because I’m going to swallow every last bit.
– Dae-su Oh

You want to torture me, but I can simply kill myself first. Do you want revenge, or do you want the truth?
– Woo-jin Lee

You see, they say that people shrivel up because they have an imagination. So, don’t imagine anything, you’ll become brave as hell.
– Mr. Park