Movie Details
| Title: | Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance | |
| Director: | Chan-wook Park | |
| Year: | 2002 | |
| Genre: | Revenge | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 11.08.05 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (4)
- I'm A Cyborg but That's OK
- Joint Security Area
- Oldboy
- Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 11.08.05 | Alamo Downtown | AFS screened this so I got to see it at the Alamo for free(!). I guess this is out on DVD now but it must've just come out because when I added JSA to my queue it wasn't available. Anyway, this is the first part of Park's Vengeance trilogy (continuing with Oldboy and ending with his new Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) that's not really a directly-connected trilogy by anything more than thematic similarity. No same characters or anything like that. This movie is a pretty evident bridge between JSA and Oldboy. It's brutal and un-forgiving like Oldboy is but it feels constrained and a bit too long like JSA. It's still really good though.... REALLY good, and manages to mess with your allegiances as far as which characters you are sympathetic towards and which you aren't (just like both). The main character is also a deaf mute, which makes things interesting. The story is a little like that fable/Tales from the Crypt episode where a guy is forced to kill someone and take his money to afford an operation for his sick sister/mother/whatever just to find out that the only doctor skilled enough to perform the operation was the guy he just killed... but this is actually a bit more twisted than that and also telescopes outward to what would happen to the guy after he has to watch his mother die... and what would happen to the doctor's wife after he's been murdered. OK I am stretching the analogy a little bit thin and also mixing between what actually happens in the movie and what kinda sorta happens. I'm just very impressed is all... So I'm looking forward to seeing Oldboy again next week... This was really really good. |
