Sympathy for Mr Vengeance
TARTAN FILMS: A TRIBUTE
Director: Park Chan-Wook.
Starring: Bae Du-na, Song Kang-ho, Shin Ha-kyun, Lim Ji-Eun.
Korea (South), 2002.
121 mins. Korean with English subtitles.
Q + A session with Hamish MacAlpine
The first of Park Chan-wook's remarkable vengeance trilogy (with OLDBOY and LADY VENGEANCE) is as brutal a revenge movie as you're ever likely to see. For want of a suitable donor, the deaf-mute brother of a young woman visits a black-market ring, which leads to organ theft, which in turn prompts kidnapping, suicide and several revenge killings of Jacobean savagery. No director diagnoses the dolorous underbelly of contemporary Asia as perceptively as Park, who examines a Korean nation reeling from economic free fall. Though a deserving avenger, Ryu acts out of a determined miasma of human indifference, and somehow unexpectedly elicits sympathy as he carries out his murderous retribution.
The first of Park Chan-wook's remarkable vengeance trilogy (with OLDBOY and LADY VENGEANCE) is as brutal a revenge movie as you're ever likely to see. For want of a suitable donor, the deaf-mute brother of a young woman visits a black-market ring, which leads to organ theft, which in turn prompts kidnapping, suicide and several revenge killings of Jacobean savagery. No director diagnoses the dolorous underbelly of contemporary Asia as perceptively as Park, who examines a Korean nation reeling from economic free fall. Though a deserving avenger, Ryu acts out of a determined miasma of human indifference, and somehow unexpectedly elicits sympathy as he carries out his murderous retribution.
Screenings
Arts Picturehouse
Monday 19 September, 10:30PM
Reviews
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance by Take One
22 Sep 2011
To most, director Park Chan-Wook is best known for OLDBOY, where he...
Read more
Reviews are currently closed for this film
