Review of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) by Melvin W — 23 Sep 2011

Cha Yeong-mi: The bad image kidnappers get is because of kids getting killed. But we're different. Give us the money and we'll return the kid pronto.

"Revenge Was Never This Sweet".

Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is a decent revenge film. I liked it, but it could have been a lot better. The initial set up was awesome, but it lost some momentum down the stretch and didn't end up being the great film thought it was going to be. Still this movie gives me extremely high hopes for the next two parts in the trilogy, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance because I've heard those two are better than this one and this one wasn't too bad.

Like I said the set up is cool. A deaf, mute has a sister who is dying, so he gives some organ traders some all of his money and his kidney in exchange for a kidney for his sister. He gets ripped off, so he has to try something daring with his girlfriend in order to get the money they need for the operation.

Overall it's a pretty entertaining revenge film. I've seen better, but I've also seen way worse. The good thing about this film is that it never became boring or unwatchable. It just didn't elevate itself to the next level like I thought it would.