BTS’ Oldboy-inspired music video was the perfect start for their tour
The "2.0" music video just pulls from the film visually and draws parallels between the boy band's and director Park Chan-Wook's careers
The "Oldboy" references in the “2.0” music video are not subtle.
YouTube/@HYBELABELS
Words by Kayti Burt
When BTS decided to reference Park Chan-Wook's Oldboy with the music video for their trap track, “2.0,” the members of the global pop phenomenon weren’t just doing something cool, they were drawing a line between the film noir’s role in breaking South Korean cinema through to an international audience and their own journey of bringing K-pop to the west. Right now, BTS is in the process of literally bringing their music to the west. Having begun the North American leg of their Arirang tour in Tampa last month, they are playing three Mexico City shows this week before continuing on to the Bay Area. But the “2.0” music video, which dropped a week before the group’s world tour launch in South Korea in early April, was the thesis statement.
If you haven’t seen the film, Oldboy is Park’s masterful 2003 adaptation of a Japanese manga of the same name. It follows Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a man who has been imprisoned for 15 years, knowing neither the name nor the motivation of his captor. When he is suddenly released one day, he goes on a single-minded mission to find the man responsible for his imprisonment, never stopping to consider that he may still be caught in his mysterious captor’s torturous machinations. The film is memorable for its shocking, twisted, and thematically complex ending, but also for its visceral fight scenes and precise visual language. Park would go on to become one of the world’s most respected modern directors, releasing films like Lady Vengeance, The Handmaiden, and No Other Choice.
When Oldboy was released in 2003, it wasn’t just a landmark for Park’s career, it was a turning point for South Korean cinema as a whole. Coming out of a creatively rich film scene that also produced Bong Joon-ho’s true crime thriller Memories of Murder and Kim Jee-woon’s psychological horror A Tale of Two Sisters, Oldboy became the first South Korean film to break into western cinephile circles. It would go on to win Park the Grand Prix at 2004’s Cannes Film Festival, and to earn $15 million dollars internationally, which was an unprecedented amount for a South Korean film at the time. With Oldboy, South Korean cinema was finally on the west’s radar.
The Oldboy references in the “2.0” music video are not subtle. The video starts with a hallway of thugs hanging out, interrupted by the arrival of an elevator containing the seven members of BTS. Like the thugs, the guys are dressed in the period styles of early naughts-era Seoul. Oldboy’s most famous scene features Dae-su in a similar setup. Getting closer to the identity of his captor, Dae-su faces off against a hallway of henchmen armed only with a hammer. The brutal fight scene is filmed in one shot, an incredibly difficult technical feat in action filmmaking—especially in 2003.
In “2.0,” the members of BTS have their own hallway face-off—except, rather than resorting to physical violence, they use the physicality of their synchronized dance movement to take down the henchmen. The song’s sharp, precise, and unpredictable choreography—crafted by Nick Joseph, who also did the choreo for the special “3J” performance of “Butter (feat. Megan Thee Stallion)”—has the thugs cowering in fear (and probably confusion). From there, the group continues their choreography in other Oldboy-coded spaces, including a magically expanded version of the hallway and a dingy bathroom.
While the music video’s hallway fight scene reference has gotten a lot of attention, the music video also recycles the penthouse office apartment setting where Oldboy’s jawdropping final reveal plays out. In the final act of the video, BTS rides the elevator up, changing into modern clothing in a silly frenzy that momentarily breaks the seriousness of the vibe. Thankfully, Oldboy bad guy Lee Woo-jin (Yoo Ji-tae) isn’t in his penthouse, but the set has many of the same features as the 2003 film, including white, bench-like couches, an impractical water feature, and windows filled with Seoul skyscrapers. BTS dance their way across this iconic set too, their bodies casting larger-than-life shadows behind them.
Like Oldboy before them, BTS broke through to the west in a way that no other South Korean musical artist ever had, becoming the first K-pop group to land an album at the top of the Billboard Top 200 in 2018. But their story isn’t over. “2.0.” is a song about the next era of BTS’ musicmaking and story, and its lyrics make clear that the South Korean group is not interested in resting on their laurels. They want to keep experimenting artistically; they want to keep moving forward; and they want to be recognized for the sincerity of their musicmaking. In this way, the intentional alignment with Park and Oldboy is particularly meaningful.
BTS broke through to the west in a way that no other South Korean musical artist ever had.
BIGHIT MUSIC(HYBE)
As is evident in this interview with Park, done as part of BTS’ promotions for their single “SWIM,” the South Korean director is driven by a passion, perfectionism, and collective kind of filmmaking—more than money or fame. Yes, Park and BTS share something in common as South Korean artists bringing their country’s culture to a more global recognition. But, with the homage to Oldboy, BTS are also making a statement about their motivations and goals as artists. In a world that mostly still doesn’t take South Korean idols seriously, BTS refuses to stay neatly in their pop culture box, kept separate from the depth of artistic aspiration allowed an auteur.
Published on May 7, 2026
Words by Kayti Burt
Kayti Burt (she/her) is a pop culture journalist based in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her areas of expertise include Korean entertainment and fan culture. She is a member of the Television Critics Association and the Freelance Solidarity Project. Find her on BlueSky @kaytiburt.bsky.social.