Review of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) by Jack M — 11 Apr 2017

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is definitely a good film, but not a great one. Stylistically it can compete with the other efforts in director Park Chan-Wook's beloved Vengeance Trilogy, but all things considered, it is clearly the weakest of the three. Where it misfires for me is its reliance on its sumptuous mise-en-scene and stylised gore, as opposed to being a story with a thrilling and riveting narrative and likeable and relatable characters.

The story is about a deaf-mute worker, Ryu. He is laid off by his rich boss, Park Dong-jin, and can't afford the kidney transplant his sister needs. He kidnaps his bosses daughter in order to get both revenge for his sacking and ransom money, but when she unintentionally dies whilst kidnapped, Dong-jin seeks his revenge. It's an interesting story, with communist and classist undertones, also exploring the national pandemic of organ thievery. It is rich with possibilities, but director Park Chan-Wook's stubborn insistence on hammering in his singular visual style hugely detracts from the narrative and is the film's major problem. It's undeniably stunning aesthetically, but without a focussed plot and fleshed out, relatable characters, it's impossible to care about the outcome of the story, to fully immerse oneself in this, or to keep your attention span. It is full of needless plot-twists and contrivances, and it's frustrating that a story with so much potential goes largely unexplored. This is a blatant example of style over substance.

The film for its aestheticism alone is worth a watch and this may potentially be enough for some viewers to see beyond the thin plot. It is unique visually and establishes Chan-Wook's auteurist style. It's a noble effort and is by no means a disastrous start to the trilogy. However, it luckily goes up from here, and Chan-Wook realises his potential as not just a man with an eye for an image, but as a storyteller with real craft, ingenuity and depth.