Original subtitles

The picture opens in slow motion, with a silhouette of a guy clutching a rope-like item like a necktie with which one man is dangling another down the side of a building.

Oh Dae-Su, the man with the necktie, commands the other man to listen to his narrative.

The film then flashes back to 1988.

Dae-Su is a married Korean businessman with a daughter.

On the fourth birthday of his daughter, he gets arrested by police for being drunk and unruly.

He harasses many other officers at the police station by showing them the angel wings he purchased for his kid.

Finally, he gets bailed out by Joo-Hwan, an old buddy.

While Joo-Hwan is in a phone booth conversing with Dae-daughter, Su's Yeun-Hee, and his wife, Kim Ja-Hyun, Dae-Su is abducted by unknown individuals.

Dae-Su next appears in a private prison resembling a shabby hotel room.

He has been kept there for two months without knowing who is holding him there or why.

He receives food through a small hatch at the bottom of the door and is gassed into unconsciousness whenever he becomes suicidal or when his holders need access to the room.

His only contact with the outside world is through the television, from which he learns one day that his wife has been murdered, his daughter has been sent to foster parents, and that

he is himself the prime suspect; his captors took blood and other items from him, and have presumably left enough evidence at the crime scene to implicate him as the perpetrator.

This, together with his continued captivity, causes Dae-Su to slide into near-madness and violent hallucinations.

To regain his sanity and track down his captor, Dae-Su fills many notebooks with an autobiography-prison journal, naming everyone he may have offended in the past but cannot figure out who would despise him so thoroughly to jail him in this manner.

He begins tattooing lines on his arm for each year he is imprisoned and drives himself to practice by shadowboxing, striking at the jail walls until thick calluses grow on his knuckles.

When one of his fried dumpling deliveries has an extra metal chopstick, he conceals it and uses it to drill a hole in one of the walls gradually.

He works out for the next ten years, watches current events on television, and progressively loosens enough bricks to see the outside world.

He figures that it will take another month to enlarge the hole sufficiently to allow him to escape.

That night, he gets gassed again and hypnotized by a lady.

He awakens in strange circumstances.

Just as abruptly as he was apprehended, Dae-Su is let free on the rooftop of a building erected over the site of his disappearance.

He is wearing a new set of clothing and is carrying his jail diaries.

He notices another man sitting on the side of the building with his tiny dog as he adjusts to the bright afternoon light.

Oh, Dae-Su is taken aback, unable to thoroughly discuss with him, as this is the first human being he has communicated within fifteen years.

We find that the guy is suicidal when he asks to Dae-Su, "Even if I am nothing more than a beast, don't I have the right to live?"

He then attempts to leap from the ledge, but Oh Dae-Su snatches his necktie and saves him.

Dae-Su advises the guy to postpone his execution because he wishes to learn his tale, to which the man responds, "What?"

The sequence concludes where the film began.

Following his account, Oh Dae-Su exits the building, disregarding the sorrowful man's appeal to listen to his story in turn.

The suicidal guy jumps from the front entry onto a car behind Dae-Su, killing himself and his pet.

Dae-Su pauses, then smiles widely.

"Laugh, and the world will join you in your joy.

Cry, and you alone weep ", he thinks to himself, a straight paraphrase from Ella Wheeler Wilcox's celebrated poem, Solitude.

Throughout the film, Oh Dae-Su utilizes this statement as a mantra to guide him through difficult situations.

Wandering the city's streets, Dae-Su does not know what to do with his newfound freedom due to his enemies framing him as the murderer of his wife.

When a gang of thugs attacks him, he finds that his ten out of fifteen years of solitary training have paid off; he fends them off with only his fists.

Next, Dae-Su stands on the street looking at fish swimming in an aquarium when a homeless man walks up and gives him a wallet full of cash and a cellphone.

He then meets Mi-do, a girl who works in a sushi bar; he recognizes her from a cooking show he often watched while imprisoned, and she says he looks familiar too.

An unknown man contacts Dae-Su via his cellphone and claims to be the one who imprisoned him.

He mentions it was an experiment and taunts Dae-Su to come and find him and learn the reason for the imprisonment.

He gives a mysterious clue: "a grain of sand and a rock sink in water with the same speed."

Dae-Su asks Mi-do for something alive to eat and gulps down an entire living squid, much to Mi-do's shock.

Dae-Su collapses with a high fever; Mi-do takes pity on him and takes him in.

At her apartment, Dae-Su experiences a moment of weakness and tries to assault Mi-do sexually.

She fends him off but understands he did it out of desperation.

She tells him that she will make love to him soon, indicating when she is ready for it.

Over the next few days, Mi-do makes some inquiries and finds out that a couple has adopted Dae-Su's daughter in Sweden.

Dae-Su decides not to contact her yet and goes home with Mi-do, only to find out that she has been chatting on her computer for some time with a person, who subsequently reveals to be Dae-Su's captor.

Dae-Su feels he cannot trust Mi-do and leaves.

Based on the taste of the dumplings that he ate for 15 years while imprisoned, and having seen the name "Blue Dragon" on a receipt fragment once, Dae-Su goes to various Chinese restaurants with "Blue Dragon" in the title to determine precisely which restaurant it was.

When he finally finds the right one, called "Magic Blue Dragon," he follows the delivery boy on one of his calls and discovers the prison.

Once there, he finds and ties up the prison's manager, Mr.

Park, and tortures him by pulling out the man's teeth with a claw hammer 15, one for each year he was imprisoned.

Mr.

Park points him to tape recordings, one bearing his name.

Dae-Su learns that the facility is a private prison for people who want someone locked away from the recording.

His captor had him booked for 15 years and even suggested what drugs to give him if he'd go insane.

The only reason the captor would give is: "Oh, Dae-Su talks too much."

The prison guards gang up on Dae-Su upon leaving, but he fights them all off with nothing more than his clawhammer and bare fists, although he gets stabbed in the back.

Gravely injured, Dae-Su is put into a taxi by a man passing by.

The man sends the cab off to Mi-do's exact address, revealing he is Dae-Su's captor, but Dae-Su cannot do anything about it in his weakened state.

Mi-do nurses him back to health at home.

Dae-Su visits his old buddy Joo-Hwan at his online business and plays him the cassette recording.

Joo-Hwan cannot identify the voice but can identify Mi-online do's chat acquaintance, a man who goes by the name "Evergreen."

They strike up a conversation, and Evergreen congratulates Dae-us on dismissing his wife's murder case and teases him more.

Dae-Su arrives home and forcibly coerces further information from Mi-do, believing she is still working with Evergreen.

Suddenly, Joo-Hwan phones to inform her that he has located Evergreen's user ID and obtained the owner's information.

Su Dae-oh is the owner's name, and there is also an address.

Dae-Su discovers it is an apartment in the same building as Mi- do's.

He flees, searches the apartment, and eventually comes face to face with his prisoner, a guy named Woo-jin, and his bodyguard, Mr.

Han, in one of the rooms.

Dae-Su attempts an assault but is rendered immobile by Han.

Woo-jin informs Dae-Su that he cannot murder him since he will never understand why he was imprisoned.

Woo-jin would remotely disable the pacemaker he had surgically implanted in his chest if he attempts to torture him.

However, Woo-jin proposes a game with Dae-Su: he must figure out why all of this occurred during the next five days.

Mi-do will die on July 5 if he fails.

Woo-jin pledges that if he succeeds, he will commit suicide.

Woo-jin casually notes as he leaves that Dae-Su left his front door open.

Dae-Su returns home to discover Mr.

Park and his thugs had kidnapped and sexually tortured Mi-do.

Mr.

Park has roughed up Dae-Su and is ready to execute the same teeth-pulling torture technique on her when Mr.

Han appears at the door and gives Mr.

Park a bag full of money in exchange for his departure.

Park accepts it, and as he walks away, Dae-Su threatens to sever Park's hand.

Dae-Su and Mi-do make their way out of the apartment.

They become closer as they travel, and Mi-do signals she is ready to make love.

They are gassed following the lovemaking, and Woo-jin leaves a gift in their room.

It contains a severed hand belonging to Mr.

Park.

Dae-Su knows Woo-jin can hear every word he says and concludes that he must have bugged him.

They proceed to a store where a wire is extracted from his shoe.

The next day, with the assistance of Mi-do, Dae-Su discovers that 'Evergreen' refers to his former high school, where he finds Woo-jin was once a classmate.

He contacts his buddy Joo-Hwan, who verifies the discovery and adds that Woo-sister, jin's who attended the same school and had a promiscuous reputation, subsequently committed herself.

However, because he can no longer spy on Dae-Su, Woo-jin goes to Joo-internet Hwan's store and, outraged by the insults made about his sister, beats Joo-Hwan to death as Dae-Su listens over the phone.

Strongly suspecting that the reason for his imprisonment has something to do with the sister's death, Dae-Su tracks down Mr.

Park.

Due to losing a hand to Woo-jin, he is cooperative now and agrees to hold Mi-do in Dae-Su's old prison facility to keep her safe from Woo-jin.

He also confirms that Dae-Su was drugged and hypnotized several times while imprisoned.

Dae-Su finds another classmate and discusses Woo-jin and his sister with her.

There were growing rumors about the sister's sex life and her possibly being pregnant at the time.

Joo-Hwan spread the stories, but it seems Dae-Su himself was the source.

Then he has a sudden recollection of memory.

One day at school, as it turned out, Dae-Su had unintentionally witnessed Woo-jin and his sister Soo-ah while engaging in a sexual encounter.

Not knowing that the two were related and the scene he was witnessing was an instance of incest, Dae-Su casually mentioned what he had seen to one of his friends just before transferring to a school in Seoul.

Eventually, the rumor started a life of its own, and Soo-ah threw herself over a dam on July 5, killing herself.

Dae-Su finally realizes the solution to the first clue: "a grain of sand and a rock both sink in water with the same speed," means that a casual remark

and an outright accusation may both have the same devastating consequences to a person, so Woo-jin holds Dae-Su responsible for his sister's death.

Dae-Su finally finds out where Woo-jin lives and confronts him with all of this information.

He accuses Woo-jin of creating a search for a memory that was erased using hypnosis, but Woo-jin claims not to have messed with Dae-Su's memory; Dae-Su had simply forgotten it himself because he thought it was insignificant.

However, his little slip of the tongue grew out of proportion, to the point where it was rumored that Soo-ah had become pregnant.

It was never clear whether this had occurred, but she killed herself believing it and fearing public humiliation.

Dae-Su, however, implies that Woo-jin killed his sister, afraid of fathering her child, and tried to shift the blame to Dae-Su to cope with the guilt.

Woo-jin indeed possesses a photo of Soo-ah on the dam, dated the day of her death, July 5.

He took the picture, so he was present at her suicide.

But Woo-jin then side-steps these allegations with an even more devastating revelation.

He gives Dae-Su a photo album, the first picture of a family portrait of himself, his wife, and his daughter.

The remaining photos in the album are of his daughter growing older until, in horror, Dae-Su discovers that his daughter is none other than Mi-do.

By carefully manipulating both of their lives - secretly taking care of Mi-do from the age of 3 - Dae-Su's since his incarceration and Mi-do's since her father vanished - and hypnotizing each of them independently, Woo-jin was able to cause Dae-Su and Mi-do to commit incest as well.

Dae-Su goes into a rage and fights with Mr.

Han.

Despite being mortally wounded, Mr.

Han keeps him subdued until Woo-jin shoots and kills him.

Dae-Su then learns that Mr.

Park is still working for Woo-jin, having been granted the ownership of the prison in exchange for severing his hand.

Mr.

Park is with Mi-do and is ordered to give a similar album to her at Woo-jin's command.

Dae-Su is horrified and begs Woo-jin not to let this happen.

He then gets on his hands and knees and starts to bark like a dog, eventually going so far as to cut off his tongue so that he will never talk too much again.

During this scene, Woo-jin holds a handkerchief to his mouth, and it looks as if he is crying, but then it shows he is laughing with smugness and struggling to hide it so he can continue to watch Dae-Su torture himself.

With his thirst for vengeance that was his sole reason for living finally spent, Woo-jin spares Mi-do from knowing and readies to kill himself and Dae-Su with the same bullet.

He changes his mind, however, and gives Dae-Su the remote switch to his pacemaker.

Dae-Su immediately grabs it and uses it, only to find that it doesn't kill Woo-jin but activates a tape recorder.

Woo-jin exits the penthouse in an elevator, leaving Dae-Su alone to be tormented by a tape recording of his incestuous lovemaking with his daughter.

As Woo-jin leaves, we are taken back into his guilt-ridden memory of his sister's death.

He is holding Soo-ah over the dam, trying to save her from killing herself, and she says that she has always known that Woo-jin was afraid, that she regrets nothing, and asks him to let go of her.

She seems at peace, and eventually, he releases his grip.

Back in the elevator, Woo-jin realizes that nothing will take his pain away even after getting his revenge against Dae-Su.

The camera is focused on his open hand, which slowly closes as if around a gun, cocks an imaginary hammer -- and fires the real gun into his head in the elevator.

In an epilogue set in a wintry landscape, Dae-Su goes to a hypnotist and asks for her help to forget the secret.

He writes her a letter since he can no longer talk.

The hypnotist said that she initially did not want to help him, but his last sentence touched her: "Even though I'm no more than a beast, don't I, too, have the right to live?".

It is the same sentence Oh Dae-Su heard from the suicidal man who appeared at the movie's beginning.

Oh, Dae-Su is instructed by the hypnotist to picture himself returning to Woo-apartment.

Jin's She divides Dae-Su into two identities through hypnosis: the "Beast," who recalls the secret, and the "ignorant" Dae-Su, who is unaware.

When the hypnotist instructs Dae-Su to divide into two individuals, his reflection emerges in the window.

The hypnotist informs him that the monster will walk away, and with each step he takes, he will age one year and eventually die at the age of 70.

The reflection is the "Beast" - he maintains a nasty face and remains immobile, reluctant to budge from his position in Dae-thoughts.

Su's Reflected in the glass, the "ignorant" Dae-Su laments the loss of a large portion of his life.

The camera then pans to the tape player, which has completed playing the music that established the scenario.

Oh, Dae-Su is wished luck, and the screen dims.

Dae-Su regains consciousness.

The hypnotist has already departed, and he is left lying on the cold ground, experiencing hallucinations.

He fumbles around, and ultimately, after some reluctance, he meets and embraces Mi-do.

Mi-do softly tells Dae-Su that she loves him, and a broad smile spreads across his face, gradually dissolving into a painful grimace.