Handing out a 10 star rating for a film is not something that should be undertaken lightly. Each rating affects the overall score of the film. People may be persuaded to watch the film or avoid it based upon this score and the comments behind it.
A perfect score handed out to the most undeserving of Hollywood trash dramatically lowers the credibility of a rating system and takes away attention from genuinely deserving masterpieces. Sympathy For Mr Vengeance is most certainly one of these masterpieces, and deserves every single star there is going.
Here's the story.
Ryu (Ha-kyun Shin) is deaf and mute. His sister is dying. She needs a kidney transplant quickly or she'll die. Ryu, an intelligent sort of guy, gave up his education to work in a factory (which is eerily reminiscent of a vision of Hell itself) to pay for his sister's medical expenses. He has very little, but he is focused and motivated and never once whines about the myriad misfortunes that plague his life.
His girlfriend, Yeong-mi (the extremely cute Du-na Bae) is a minor league anarchist and activist intent on 'bringing down the corporations'. She is quite the rebel. Her relationship with Ryu began when she was a fellow student at a deaf school from which she was later expelled after it became apparent she was only pretending to be deaf.
After conversation with his sister's unhelpful doctor, Ryu decides he'll turn to the black market to get his sister a kidney. But his transaction with the organ traffickers ends catastrophically, propelling him to get involved in the kidnapping of his boss's young daughter so that the ransom money can save his sister. This kidnapping, of course, goes tragically wrong, and at this point we become ominously aware that all of the heart-breaking things we have seen so far are nothing compared to what's coming.
Things quickly spiral downwards into a magnum opus of misery for all concerned. Ryu's boss, Park (Kang-ho Song), grief-stricken and furious, haunted and genuinely mystified why anyone would do what Ryu has done, is set on an irreversible path of brutal vengeance.
Ryu, meanwhile, has his own tragedy to deal with quite apart from Park's rampage. As things around him disintegrate, he is also compelled towards vengeance, primarily on the organ traffickers, but later (in an idea we would see taken to dizzying extremes in Oldboy) he decides to take revenge on PARK for taking revenge on HIM.
Needless to say, none of this ends well for anybody. I've tried very hard to get the themes and ideas of this film across without spoilers, but really, it wouldn't matter if you knew what was coming. Surprises aren't really important here. You know right from the outset that nobody's getting out alive. What matters here are motives, emotions, reasons, and, ultimately, extreme and brutal displays of violence.
The director, Chan-wook Park, gives a story with no easy answers. In fact, it's debatable whether he's asked us any questions. He presents a group of characters in a certain set of circumstances and sets them loose. He never passes judgement over any of his creations, leaving the audience to judge for themselves. That's the mark of a masterful director who has faith in, and respect for, his audience. The actions of his characters take place in a moral vacuum, where there is no right or wrong, only choices and consequences. There is no divine or poetic justice, only revenge.
The title of the film relates to perhaps the only real question in the whole film - who do we sympathise with? Do our loyalties lie with Ryu, who is motivated only by love for his sister and subject to misfortunes on a massive scale? Or with Park, who has always tried to be a fair and honest man, only to have his beloved daughter kidnapped and killed, albeit accidentally? Both men do deplorable things. Both men become savage murderers. Both men are, ultimately, the 'Mr Vengeance' of the title. So to whom to we give our sympathy?
The acting in this film is of uniformly excellent quality, from the main characters to the smallest of walk-on parts. Ha-kyun Shin and Du-na Bae learned sign language for this film and give such effortless performances you'd believe they'd been doing it all their lives. Kang-ho Song's turn as Park is heart-breaking, particularly the scene where the camera stays on him and only him as he looks on in horror at his daughter's autopsy, complete with sounds of cracking bone and surgical saws.
The photography is beautiful, showing the beauty and the ugliness of South Korea in equal measures. There is no real soundtrack to speak of, only the background sounds of the city and the various locales within it. There's traffic, howling wind and trickling water, depending on where we are.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this film (doubly so if you've read this review to this point) is that it's a comedy. A very, very black one, but still a comedy. Chan-wook Park has given us the most tragic of revenge dramas through the filter of humour, and that's part of the reason it works so well. Unrelenting misery can only be tolerated for so long. Sooner or later you'll walk away from it unless you can give a wry smile or a genuine belly-laugh now and again. There are many of those here, although a few are definite guilty pleasures.
To sum up, this film is a solid gold masterpiece, vastly superior to anything spewed forth by Hollywood these last few decades.
The future of cinema is rising in the East.
It seems it set in the West a long, long time ago.
A perfect score handed out to the most undeserving of Hollywood trash dramatically lowers the credibility of a rating system and takes away attention from genuinely deserving masterpieces. Sympathy For Mr Vengeance is most certainly one of these masterpieces, and deserves every single star there is going.
Here's the story.
Ryu (Ha-kyun Shin) is deaf and mute. His sister is dying. She needs a kidney transplant quickly or she'll die. Ryu, an intelligent sort of guy, gave up his education to work in a factory (which is eerily reminiscent of a vision of Hell itself) to pay for his sister's medical expenses. He has very little, but he is focused and motivated and never once whines about the myriad misfortunes that plague his life.
His girlfriend, Yeong-mi (the extremely cute Du-na Bae) is a minor league anarchist and activist intent on 'bringing down the corporations'. She is quite the rebel. Her relationship with Ryu began when she was a fellow student at a deaf school from which she was later expelled after it became apparent she was only pretending to be deaf.
After conversation with his sister's unhelpful doctor, Ryu decides he'll turn to the black market to get his sister a kidney. But his transaction with the organ traffickers ends catastrophically, propelling him to get involved in the kidnapping of his boss's young daughter so that the ransom money can save his sister. This kidnapping, of course, goes tragically wrong, and at this point we become ominously aware that all of the heart-breaking things we have seen so far are nothing compared to what's coming.
Things quickly spiral downwards into a magnum opus of misery for all concerned. Ryu's boss, Park (Kang-ho Song), grief-stricken and furious, haunted and genuinely mystified why anyone would do what Ryu has done, is set on an irreversible path of brutal vengeance.
Ryu, meanwhile, has his own tragedy to deal with quite apart from Park's rampage. As things around him disintegrate, he is also compelled towards vengeance, primarily on the organ traffickers, but later (in an idea we would see taken to dizzying extremes in Oldboy) he decides to take revenge on PARK for taking revenge on HIM.
Needless to say, none of this ends well for anybody. I've tried very hard to get the themes and ideas of this film across without spoilers, but really, it wouldn't matter if you knew what was coming. Surprises aren't really important here. You know right from the outset that nobody's getting out alive. What matters here are motives, emotions, reasons, and, ultimately, extreme and brutal displays of violence.
The director, Chan-wook Park, gives a story with no easy answers. In fact, it's debatable whether he's asked us any questions. He presents a group of characters in a certain set of circumstances and sets them loose. He never passes judgement over any of his creations, leaving the audience to judge for themselves. That's the mark of a masterful director who has faith in, and respect for, his audience. The actions of his characters take place in a moral vacuum, where there is no right or wrong, only choices and consequences. There is no divine or poetic justice, only revenge.
The title of the film relates to perhaps the only real question in the whole film - who do we sympathise with? Do our loyalties lie with Ryu, who is motivated only by love for his sister and subject to misfortunes on a massive scale? Or with Park, who has always tried to be a fair and honest man, only to have his beloved daughter kidnapped and killed, albeit accidentally? Both men do deplorable things. Both men become savage murderers. Both men are, ultimately, the 'Mr Vengeance' of the title. So to whom to we give our sympathy?
The acting in this film is of uniformly excellent quality, from the main characters to the smallest of walk-on parts. Ha-kyun Shin and Du-na Bae learned sign language for this film and give such effortless performances you'd believe they'd been doing it all their lives. Kang-ho Song's turn as Park is heart-breaking, particularly the scene where the camera stays on him and only him as he looks on in horror at his daughter's autopsy, complete with sounds of cracking bone and surgical saws.
The photography is beautiful, showing the beauty and the ugliness of South Korea in equal measures. There is no real soundtrack to speak of, only the background sounds of the city and the various locales within it. There's traffic, howling wind and trickling water, depending on where we are.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this film (doubly so if you've read this review to this point) is that it's a comedy. A very, very black one, but still a comedy. Chan-wook Park has given us the most tragic of revenge dramas through the filter of humour, and that's part of the reason it works so well. Unrelenting misery can only be tolerated for so long. Sooner or later you'll walk away from it unless you can give a wry smile or a genuine belly-laugh now and again. There are many of those here, although a few are definite guilty pleasures.
To sum up, this film is a solid gold masterpiece, vastly superior to anything spewed forth by Hollywood these last few decades.
The future of cinema is rising in the East.
It seems it set in the West a long, long time ago.