Saturday, August 30, 2003
Title: Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance
Cast: Kang-ho Song, Ha-kyun Shin, Du-na Bae, Ji-Eun Lim, Bo-bae Han, Se-dong Kim, Dae-yeon Lee
Director: Chanwook Park
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance showed as part of the recent Asia Extreme season, a violent Korean thriller. Quite who Mr Vengeance actually is isn't something that is clear, there are two men who are less than impressed by events and are taking actions towards revenge. Complications being provided by the fact that the two of these men are coming against each other.
The lead character is a young mute, deaf and dumb, who was being put through art school by his sister. But when she fell ill the roles were reversed and
he had to work to look after her. So when he loses his job a donor appears
for his sister, an operation which he can't afford now that he is out of work. What to do? Soon he and his girlfriend have decided to kidnap a young girl. As his girlfriend says there are good kidnappings (that go smoothly) and bad ones (where things go wrong). Despite best planning and intent, this is a bad kidnapping, a very bad one.
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is a straight out tragedy, very old school when it comes down to it. Grim dark and unforgiving. The mute man finds himself getting deeper and deeper, things going wrong at every step, taking his vengeance on those that have betrayed him. While the father of the kidnapped girl wants to track down the kidnappers and kill them. Two men go off the rails in spectacular fashion, with brutal results.
At times the film is quite stylised, going for lingering and atmospheric shots. At times the narrative feels quite slow, going for more of an Eastern paradigm than the Hollywood roller coaster style. I enjoyed this film, much better than the previous Korean contribution to this season, and I was amused to recognise one of the actresses from Take Care Of My Cat which showed here earlier in the year.
