Park Chan Wook is a mastermind - First Joint Security Area and then The Vengeance Trilogy! It says something about film journalists that nobody wrote about Park Chan Wook before Oldboy won the grand jury prize at Cannes 2004. Oldboy is the second part (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance was the first) in a planned revenge trilogy. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is the third and final instalment.

Dae-su wakes up in an empty room. The door is locked, no windows. His only company is the television. He gets food through a hatch. He works out, writes in his diary. Via the television, he learns that he is wanted for the murder of his wife. His daughter has been adopted by a Swedish couple (a fun small detail because a Swedish soldier also figures in Joint Security Area.) He has been stripped of everything that matters and worst of all, he doesn't know what he did to deserve it! He is fixed, every day is the same. Claustrophobia turns to despair. He tries to commit suicide but fails. After 15 years he is released. Who locked him up?! Why was he locked up!? Why was he released?!

The film is based on a Japanese manga.