Parents guide

Female breast nudity is displayed when a woman is tied up & held against her will with her clothes ripped open for her bare body to be exposed.

There are three sex scenes (1 fully shown with nudity, 1 mostly implied with nudity in foreplay and another that is just heard with moaning) and two other sexual scenes including a scene of masturbation.

Around the beginning of the film is implied that a man raped a woman in an elevator, not nudity shown whatsoever.

There is a lot of strong sexual material and one lengthy graphic sex scene with nearly full nudity (genitals obscured) and explicit shots of the act with aggressive thrusting and moaning. The dialogue in the scene is also graphic and is played back later in the film.

A man violently kisses a woman against her will, and is seen noticeably attempting to grope her. However, she hits him in the head, and he simply leaves.

A man & woman have explicit sex that displays female breasts nudity as well as zoomed in female buttocks nudity when she rides him.

Explicit & closeup female breast nudity of a man sucking on a woman's exposed nipples. A woman's bare torso is shown as something is written on it. A man's buttocks is briefly glimpsed in a shower.

A man briefly masturbates while watching a clothed woman on TV. Only chest up shown, but you can hear wet noises. This happens toward the beginning.

Scenes of heavy, brutal violence which are very realistic and grisly however but consists of two graphic partially shown scenes with teeth extraction, the famous hammer fight, a hand to hand combat scene and extremely graphic self-harm.

The violence is very disturbing and is often hard to watch.

A man is seen with a bloody towel in his mouth after having his teeth extracted. He is thrown into a crowd of men.

Early into the movie, Dae-Su get into a fight with some young guys for taking a cigarette from one of them. No blood.

It should be noted that while the torture, self-harm and murder scenes are disturbing and often graphic, the hand-to-hand combat or action sequences are almost always kept to a non-fatal and PG-13 level. The infamous hammer fight scene and the other scenes of fighting are not bloody or gruesome at all.

This is not a movie for everyone, regardless of age. Some people may find elements very hard to watch and upsetting.

R violence type: blood, brutal and graphic.

One of the most violent non-horror movies of all time.

A man attempts suicide by cutting his wrist in a couple scenes, plenty of blood is seen on the ground. Only the aftermaths are shown, but the man has prominent scars on his wrist for the rest of the film.

Stock footage of disasters like 9/11 are shown for effect in one scene.

The word 'fuckhead' is seen written on a chalkboard in one shot.

The different English translations vary in how much profanity is heard. The original English translation had less uses of fuck, yet the English re-release (which is most likely to be seen today) has many more uses of fuck. The German translation substitutes a lot of swear words including the word "fucktard" replaced with "cocksucker". Currently, this is one of the more profane Korean films to be released.

NOTE: In Korean, with English subtitles.

3 uses of "God", and 1 of "Lord". 6 instances of "hell".

Around 50 uses of fuck, many uses of shit and bitch, uses of asshole, cocksucker, damn and hell along with other profanities.

Some teenagers are shown smoking.

A character gets sprayed with a gaseous form of Valium every night while imprisoned.

The opening scene shows the main character in police custody for drunkeness. Other than this there is little to no drug use.

A scene of a man having his teeth extracted using a hammer which is really intense.

A man is eating a live octopus raw which can be frighting for some viewers. Upsetting.

Mido beats Dae-Su in the head for trying to take advantage of her.

One of the most shocking and disturbing films of all time. The unflinching violence coupled with the sadistic actions and behavior of the villain make this movie a difficult watch.

An absolutely harrowing film.

Not for the faint of heart.

The entire film is very dark and depressing and the violent scenes could be very hard for some people to watch.