One of the best thriller movies ever is airing on TV tonight

A truly unforgettable film, though it is not for the faint of heart.

The film centres on Oh Dae-su (played by an absolutely electric Choi Min-sik - I Saw the Devil, Lucy), a businessman and alcoholic who is abducted in 1988.

Awakening confused and terrified in a sealed room containing a TV, he learns that he has been framed for his wife's murder.

Dae-su remains trapped in the room for 15 years and is frequently drugged unconscious whenever his captors need to make human contact with him.

Growing deranged from the complete solitude, the abducted man passes the time by theorising about the identity of his captor and training himself in martial arts.

One day in 2003, Dae-su springs from a wooden box on a rooftop patch of grass.

Releasing that he has been released, he seeks brutal revenge on his captors, as well as answers for why he was abducted in the first place.

Oldboy Poster

A loose adaptation of a Japanese manga, Oldboy was the international breakthrough for the acclaimed director Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden, The Sympathizer, the now-in-cinemas No Other Choice).

The 2003 film is the middle entry in Park's Vengeance Trilogy (that also includes Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Lady Vengeance), three stand-alone thrillers made back-to-back, exploring the concept of revenge.

While the entire trilogy is incredible, Oldboy is widely considered its best entry, thanks to the movie's strange yet gripping and mysterious story, its shocking plot twists, its hard-hitting (and incredibly violent!) action sequences, its gorgeous visuals, and its unexpected moments of poeticism.

The latter is best summed up by the following two quotes:

"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."

"Even though I'm no better than a beast, don't I have the right to live too?"

Having earned an American remake 10 years later starring Josh Brolin, the original Oldboy is airing on TV tonight/tomorrow morning on the channel Sky Sci-Fi at 1am.

The film is also available to stream on the service NOW.

Here are the other movies airing on TV tonight:

Armageddon - Comedy Central - 8pm

Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck are blue-collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to stop a gigantic asteroid on a collision course with Earth in this hugely entertaining sci-fi disaster flick.

The Bourne Ultimatum - Sky Showcase - 9pm

Matt Damon's third outing as amnesiac former CIA assassin Jason Bourne.

Braveheart - Film4 - 9pm

'They may take our lives, but they'll never take… OUR FREEDOM!'

Survivor - Legend - 9pm

Milla Jovovich and Pierce Brosnan star in this action spy thriller with a very low 8% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Imposter - Legend Xtra - 9pm

A decent sci-fi thriller based on a Philip K. Dick story about a man (Gary Sinise) in a near-future who is accused of being an alien replicant.

Old - RTÉ2 - 9.10pm

One of the most underrated movies of recent years, this M. Night Shyamalan-directed horror thriller follows a group of vacationers who travel to a secluded tropical beach that holds very strange powers.

Cocaine Bear - Channel 4 - 9.30pm

A fun Ireland-shot creature flick about an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens who converge in a forest in Georgia, USA, where a 500-pound bear has discovered and ingested a large amount of cocaine and gone on a rampage.

Infinitely Polar Bear - TG4 - 10.20pm

Mark Ruffalo stars in this acclaimed comedy-drama about a father in 1970s Boston diagnosed with bipolar disorder who struggles to look after his two children.

This is while his wife (Zoe Saldaña) moves to New York for 18 months to obtain a degree from Columbia University.

Dead Man Running - Legend - 10.55pm

The 2009 British crime comedy starring Danny Dyer and Tamer Hassan.

Momentum - Legend Xtra - 10.55pm

Olga Kurylenko and Morgan Freeman headline this 2015 action thriller.

8 Heads in a Duffle Bag - Virgin Media Three - 11pm

Oscar-winner Joe Pesci stars in this '90s black comedy that did not fare well at the box office or with critics.

Afire - BBC Four - 11pm

This very good German drama focuses on a self-important struggling author (Thomas Schubert) who joins his best friend on a summer holiday near the Baltic Sea to complete his novel.

When they arrive, they find their house is already occupied by a carefree woman (Paula Beer) who challenges the writer to open up, as forest wildfires slowly approach their area.

The Russia House - RTÉ2 - 11.05pm

Based on the John le Carré novel of the same name, this well-liked 1990 spy thriller stars Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Transporter 3 - Channel 4 - 11.25pm

Jason Statham's fun final outing as... the transporter.

Mulholland Drive - RTÉ One - 11.30pm

David Lynch's incredible neo-noir about an aspiring actress (Naomi Watts) who travels to Hollywood and quickly becomes entangled in a mystery.

The thriller contains one of the scariest scenes in the history of cinema.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Sky Arts - 11.45pm

Arguably the greatest Western movie ever made.

Just Mercy - BBC One - 11.50pm

The well-reviewed 2019 legal drama starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx and Brie Larson.

Censor - Film4 - 12.30am

This clever and stylish psychological horror follows a film censor (Irish actress Niamh Algar) in 1980s Britain who believes she has spotted her long-missing sister in a low-budget slasher she is sent to assess.

Turn your home into a cinema with this projector 

Do you love movies? Have you ever dreamt of turning your home into your own cinema?

If so, then you may be interested in a home theatre projector we spotted on sale on Amazon with “impressive quality”.

The 4K projector has the likes of YouTube, Netflix and Prime Video built-in, so you can access thousands of films and shows without an additional TV stick, and you can also connect it to bluetooth on your phone and laptop.

It’s currently priced from €36.99 on the Amazon website.

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