(Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance)
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Boksuneun naui geot) (2002)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310775/
Oldboy (2003)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364569/
Sympathy For Lady Vengeance (Chinjeolhan geumjassi) 2005
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451094/
All 3 films were directed by Chan-wook Park, His films “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance”, “Oldboy” and “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” are widely known as the “Vengeance Trilogy”.
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=14217
This link is where the Story of the Trilogy starts for me.
When I first started college in University of North Texas in fall 2000, I was introduced to this site. He started to recommend some really small films over the years that I managed to track down. (Twilight Samurai, Battle Royale , The Brotherhood of the Wolves, Ken Park and Tae-Guk-Gi) were all movies that I have watched and now own on DVD because Harry told me about them.
So imagine my surprise in early 2003 when I see this review having a Korean film at the top film of the year. I read the review and I decided that I need to get a copy of this film. Then later that year, Oldboy’s review comes out.
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16721
I recalled that it was a Japanese Cartoon but I also discovered that, the movie was only very loosely based on the Japanese manga of the same title. Most of the film is original story written by Chan-wook Park, the director. Now OldBoy was #2 on the end of year list. I told myself that when I took the job in Korea that I would find these 2 on DVD and see if all of the hype was true or not.
Well fate stepped in; I was able to find “Oldboy†on VCD, with English Subtitles, fast. Then I waited for a weekend at CGV, when they played Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance back to back. I then bought Mr. Vengeance on DVD and waited until Lady Vengeance arrived on DVD. Now I am ready to review all 3.
What I will do is review all 3 separately, “Lady†is already been completed and listed on the site, I will add a few things to it. Then I will put all 3 together for the Vengeance Trilogy.
HUGE SPOLIER ALERTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.
Amazon.com
Before he made the notorious cult hit Oldboy, South Korean director Chan-wook Park created Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, an equally gruesome yet elegant meditation on revenge. Desperate to get a kidney transplant for his dying sister, a deaf and dumb young man named Ryu (Ha-kyun Shin, Save the Green Planet!) kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy industrialist named Park (Kang-ho Song, Shiri). Despite Ryu’s best intentions, things go horribly awry, setting in motion a series of escalating revenges–to describe the plot in more detail would undercut the movie, because much of its power comes from the spare and skillful storytelling. Chan-wook Park is careful to ground the audience in the characters’ emotional lives; when the violence begins, the bloody events unfold with the hypnotic power of the revenge tragedies of the Shakespearean era, which had over-the-top plots and littered the stage with bodies, yet were full of rich poetry. Park’s eye for startling images and careful editing creates a visual poetry, grotesque yet often haunting. Certainly not a film for everyone–squeamish viewers had best beware, while anyone who wants their violence flagrant and guilt-free will be disappointed–but cinephiles looking to have their hearts squeezed along with their stomachs will enjoy Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. –Bret Fetzer
Product Description
Unable to afford proper care for his sister dying from kidney failure, Ryu turns to the black market to sell his own organs only to end up cheated of his life savings. His girlfriend urges Ryu to kidnap the daughter of wealthy industrialist Dong-jin, who recently laid him off. Ryu agrees, but unforeseen tragedies turn an innocent con into a merciless quest for revenge. Bound by their personal losses and deep-seated anger, the two men are thrust into a spiral of destruction.
The first few minutes of the film start out so sweet and innocent, Ryu, writes letters to a DJ, who reads them for his sister over the airwaves and you see his sick sister gaining comfort from his words. You must remember, Ryu is mute and deaf so the DJ speaks the words that he can not say. He then is fired from his job and he now has no source of income.
He tries to sell his organs to the Black market and instead he looses his organ and he lost the money, which he finds out can now save his sister. He needs money fast or his sister will die.
His Girl Friend comes up with an idea to kidnap the child of his former boss, hold her for the money that will pay for the operation. At first all goes well with the plan, he pays the money and we think that all will be well.
The sister discovers that the child has been kidnapped and learns of her brothers’ plan. Instead of turning him into the police, she writes a letter to Ryu and then kills herself by cutting open her wrist in the bathtub. Ryu then takes his sisters body to their favorite place by a river, and buries her. The child comes along and while Ryu is burying the body a strange man bothers the child and takes her necklace. The child goes after the man to get her necklace back. She slips and falls into the river, she can not swim and Ryu can not hear her cry’s for help. We then see the little girls’ dead body.
This is where the film switches gears; you then have a new person to feel sorry for, the little girls’ father. The films turns away from Ryu and you now see it through the dads request for vengeance. The scenes that got me the most were when the police detective states, “That there are good kidnapping and there are bad kidnappings.†The next was when the ghost of his daughter shows up to hug and cry while holding her father. The little girl is crying, “Why did you not teach me how to swim daddy?â€
The rest of the film is the fight for vengeance. The film ends very fast so do not miss it. I will not spoil it but you have to see it to believe it.
My grade for the film was an A+
Next is Oldboy.
HUGE SPOLER ALERT.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amazon.com
In the realm of revenge thrillers, you’d be hard pressed to find more ultra-violent vengeance and psycho thrills than in the creepy story of Oldboy. This Korean import made a pop splash at the Cannes Film Festival and during its limited theatrical run thanks to the imprimatur of Quentin Tarantino, who raved about it and its visionary director, Chan-wook Park, to anyone who would listen. It’s easy to see why QT fell in love with the grindhouse attitude, fast-paced action, violent imagery, and icy-black humor, but it’s a disservice to think of Oldboy as another Tarantino homage or knockoff. The darkly existential undercurrent in the themes that Oldboy traces over its life-long narrative arc is much more complex and deeply disturbing than anything of its kind. The movie’s tagline is, “15 years of imprisonment… 5 days of vengeance.” The imprisonee is Oh Dae-Su, an ordinary Joe who is snatched off a Seoul street corner and locked away in a dank, windowless fleabag hotel room for the aforementioned 15 years. Just as abruptly he is released, and thus the five days begin. Why did this happen to Oh Dae-Su? Ah, but that would be telling, and in fact we don’t know ourselves until the final wrenching scenes.
Oldboy breaks into a classic three-act saga, the first of which details the hallucinatory period of imprisonment in which Oh Dae-Su wades from mild insanity to outright psychosis in the hands of unseen yet attentive captors. Act 2 is the revenge, when an entirely different tone takes over and Oh Dae-Su moves with single-minded purpose and clarity. It’s this section that has gained the most notoriety, primarily for the claw-hammer dentistry scene, the one-man-army tracking shot, and the wriggling octopus that Oh Dae-Su consumes in a sushi bar (he’s been dead so long he simply needs life back inside him in any way possible). In act 3, answers finally start to emerge and the sinister atmosphere grows even more profound–not without a healthy dose of extra bloodletting, of course. Oldboy is an undeniably poetic masterpiece of tension, fury, and dynamic craft. Ultimately, its epic cycle of tragedy is of the sort that mankind has been inflicting upon itself for all time. Some of the images may be gruesome, but all converge into a kind of beauty. It’s in the telling of this lurid tale that these details become one and the memories of pain ultimately heal. –Ted Fry
Product Description
Oh Dae-su is an ordinary Seoul businessman with a wife and little daughter who, after a drunken night on the town, is abducted and locked up in a strange, private prison. No one will tell him why he’s there and who his jailer is and his fury builds to a single-minded focus of revenge. 15 years later, he is unexpectedly freed, given a new suit, a cell-phone and 5 days to discover the mysterious enemy who had him imprisoned. Seeking vengeance on all those involved, he soon finds that his enemy’s tortures are just beginning.
END SPOILER ALERT………………………………………………….
When I am asked to recommend Korean movies to people who want to get a feel for great movies, I recommend “Tae-Guk-Gi, JSA and this one Oldboy. Sad to say, but they are thinking of doing an American remake of this film, due to come out sometime in 2006 or 2007.
When I first saw the movie, the only thought in my mind was “Tarantino was so right about this movie.†I, to this day, have never quite seen a film like that. He is given 5 days to figure it out or he dies. The movie was shot in a style that makes you wonder, what else can be next in this film and when you think you have it, no you don’t. Even at the end of this film are you really seeing what you are seeing? If you do not like action and blood then stay away from renting this one
In the end there are neither real heroes nor real anti-heroes. Just vengeance. Ever since I have seen this film I have wanted to eat a live Octopus. (Once you see the film this will make sense) This film is hard to talk about because if you tell anything else besides what is in the plot you will ruin the film for anybody who has not seen the film. Just sit down, hit the play button on the DVD player and enjoy the ride. Just be ready for one very intresting ride and prehaps one very weird one.
Grade: A+ Sympathy For Lady Vengeance. http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=22103
This film doesn’t come out and slap you like OLDBOY did, instead this is a story that is structured very very differently. In fact – the first 40 or so minutes you might even begin to doubt Chan-Wook Park. But friends, it’s all brilliant set-ups and absolutely everything pays off in spades. This film builds and builds and builds with infinite patience. It unfolds like a brilliant tale should. And when you begin to get your payoff – dear god. It’s amazing. The vengeance this lady unfolds is unlike anything anyone could possibly imagine. First – we learn what it is that has been done to her. Then we learn pieces of the revenge, who the victim of her vengeance is to be… or the victims. Just think raincoats and scissors. Lee Geum-Ja. Don’t f… with her, ever. Wow.
Harry has a way of vocally saying his reviews out loud. For this film I agree with him. It is on my top 10 list also. Please see my review also of the film. http://socius.or.kr/content/view/212/238/ Now for a review of the Trilogy as a whole. All 3 films have one huge common factor, Revenge. All 3 have revenge for a daughter that was taken away. All 3 could be considered a huge chess game with all of the pawns in play and when they are all unleashed the results have been death. All 3 leave you with the fact that after the revenge is complete, what was actually achieved? In all 3 you are left to feel that they will never recover from their acts of vengeance.
Please see all 3 films back to back and after the 6+ hours is over, you will have a good look at Korean films and what their real potential can be. I made this as spolier free as possible so not to ruin the show for the people who see it for the first time. If you have any questions email me and I will be happy to answer them.
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