Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) November 19, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Drama, 2000s films , trackbackDirector: Park Chan-wook Cast: Ha-kyun Shin; Kang-ho Song; Du-na Bae; Ji-eun Lim Territory: South Korea Production Company: CJ Entertainment
Ryu (Ha-kyun Shin), a deaf-mute factory worker, has a sister in desperate need of a kidney transplant. Not having enough money for such an operation, he approaches underground organ traders. They rip him off (and steal a kidney in the process) and he has to come up with another plan. His girlfriend (Du-na Bae) comes up with the idea of kidnapping the young daughter of Ryu’s wealthy ex-boss Park (Kang-ho Song). When this also goes wrong, resulting in tragedy, Park goes after Ryu.
The first film in director Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance trilogy is sometimes overshadowed by its successor, Oldboy, and it’s easy to see why. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is pretty tough viewing: it’s bloody and brutal, has very little dialogue and is occasionally pretty hard to follow (not helped by the DVD’s shortcomings – more on that later).
It’s magnificently filmed and often looks breathtaking in the shot composition. It also has a top-notch cast who perform brilliantly. Particular mention should go to the little girl who plays Boss Park’s daughter, who has to do some quite emotionally complex things during the film.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is never straightforward, but the obvious question is with whom do you sympathise? Ryu is an honest guy looking after his sister, faced with a series of impossible situations when things go from bad to worse to impossible. Yet Park, Ryu’s ex-boss, starts as a completely insensitive character, who, through tragedy, becomes believably sympathetic. This point is not lost on Park, who even says that he knows Ryu is a decent man.
Like Oldboy, there are certain scenes that stand out as utterly shocking in their use of the blackest of black comedy. The obvious example is the one where a group of teenage boys are jammed up against the apartment wall adjoining Ryu’s flat, furiously masturbating. They are masturbating to the sounds of Ryu’s sister, thinking she is in the throes of orgasm. In actual fact, she is screaming in pain from her sickness, and Ryu, being deaf, is oblivious to the fact. That’s a scene that will probably stay in my memory for a long time to come.
The version I watched is from Tartan, and it is usually pretty good. I have read that several versions have at least one scene played out of place - the sex scene between Ryu and his girlfriend appears much earlier in some versions (presumably to get some rumpy-pumpy on screen as early as possible to stop the casual viewer getting bored). However, it does screw up in a quite major way: text is not subtitled. Sometimes this is not necessary, but unfortunately in this particular film it is pretty crucial to at least one plot point. Thanks to the Internet, some kind soul has translated the bits shown on screen for all to see and the meaning is now clear. I must admit I think I would have appreciated the film a lot better with this information at the time rather than after the fact. Readers who have seen the film probably know what I’m alluding to here.
After watching such downbeat films like Dog Bite Dog recently, I found Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance pretty harrowing and hard to take. It is undoubtedly clever, intelligent and thought-provoking, but the constant dark tone got to me. I will return to it one day and appreciate it more, I’m sure, but now I really need a light, fluffy comedy, I think…
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