Review of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) by Julian G — 06 Sep 2009

Another brilliantly complex and ambiguous take on the nature of vengeance by Chan-wook Park.

Its very hard to watch due to its uncompromising violence and lack of emotive music (mainly due to the main character being deaf and dumb).

The acting is brilliant, I particularly enjoyed how Ha-kyun Shin and his opposite counterpart Kang-ho Song contrasted so perfectly and really made the audience question their moral allegiances. The film shows (like Ryu) how senseless vengeance is with constant twists and tragedies completely changing characters' motives and situations.

My favourite part about this film was how the camera shots seemed so artistic and coordinated (like the painting of the river in the film). Even the group masturbation scene was filmed very well and added a very dark sense of comic relief.

There are some parts of the film that seem very surreal and disturbing, but I preferred Park's 'Oldboy' for the atmosphere and plot. I've still yet to see 'Lady Vengeance' to complete his 'Vengeance' trilogy but I am very impressed and haven't seen films as brutally revealing as these before.

I will probably enjoy it more second time round.