Chan-wook Park’s film Oldboy has been around since 2003 but, unsurprisingly, was not a major hit in Western cinemas. The DVD has recently been released in the UK, and like other Tartan Asia Extreme releases such as Battle Royale, should see an increased audience as word of mouth spreads.

Oldboy follows the story of Dae-su Oh (Min-sok Choi). Dae-su at first appears to be your trite cliché film father – married with a daughter but often gin-soaked and getting in trouble with the police. The film opens with him arguing with police officers and being rescued by his friend.

Before we can draw breath Dae-su is imprisoned in a garish hotel room-style gaol. His captors refuse to say anything to him: who they are, why he is there, how long he will be there. 15 years later, Dae-su is released and the story of the film then follows his quest for the knowledge of who did this to him and why. Along the way he meets the beautiful Mido (Hye-jeong Kang), a young sushi chef who takes a shine to him and reluctantly agrees to help him seek vengeance.

While this is essentially just a classic revenge movie, it adds an extra twist by denying us any kind of motive for three-quarters of the film and the viewer is locked in until the film’s shocking ending. The shattered psyche of Dae-su by the plot’s conclusion put me in mind of the state of Sam Lowry in Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece Brazil.

That’s not the only similarity either, with Park’s cinematography having much in common with Gilliam’s Orwellian nightmare. Other nods to Western culture are made throughout: The hotel room is starkly reminiscent of Barton Fink’s room in the nightmare hotel in the Coen Brothers film of the same name, and during his imprisonment Dae-su comes to refer to the television as his school, religion and lover.

The direction is innovative and clever, making good use of devices such as flashbacks, and some of the photography is quite simply breathtaking. One such example is a remarkable fight scene in a tight corridor (think The Matrix Reloaded) where Dae-su is up against a posse of goons. The director removes the intrinsic claustrophobia of such scenarios by effectively “removing” the wall closer to the camera, as though the viewer is watching the scene through the wall. These techniques never hinder the viewing experience and serve to heighten the film’s allure.

If you can stomach gruesome torture sequences (Dae-su systematically removes a man’s teeth using the forked end of a hammer) then you will find Oldboy to be one of the most thought-provoking and interesting films you will ever see. What are you waiting for?