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Sympathy For Mr Vengeance
2002
A deaf-mute man, Ryu, works in a smelting factory and inhabits his own silent world, oblivious to the din both at work and in his downscale apartment building. He idolizes his sister, who urgently needs a kidney transplant, and when he's laid off and then tricked out of his savings by organ traffickers, his wacko girlfriend, .. Read more
| Starring | Song Kang-ho, Hyun-Joon Shin, Bae Du-na, Bae Du-Na |
|---|---|
| Director | Chan-Wook Park |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
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Sympathy For Mr Vengeance
A deaf-mute man, Ryu, works in a smelting factory and inhabits his own silent world, oblivious to the din both at work and in his downscale apartment building. He idolizes his sister, who urgently needs a kidney transplant, and when he's laid off and then tricked out of his savings by organ traffickers, his wacko girlfriend, Yeong-mi, suggests kidnapping his former boss's daughter to pay for his sister's operation. Yeong-mi sees it as social revenge. Ryu, initially scared of the consequences, finally agrees after seeing another laid-off worker attempt hara-kiri outside the boss's home. After kidnapping the boss's daughter, their whole plan starts to quickly unravel with horrible consequences.
| Starring | Song Kang-ho, Hyun-Joon Shin, Bae Du-na, Bae Du-Na, Ji-Eun Lim, Bo-Bae Han |
|---|---|
| Director | Chan-Wook Park |
| Studio | PALISADES TARTAN |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 1 min |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: Korean |
| Subtitles | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 27 Oct 2003 Production year: 2002 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (6)
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Having scored a commercial hit with the checkpoint thriller, Joint Security Area, director Park Chan-wook turns to the tensions inherent within South Korean society in this combustible tale of exploitation, despair and revenge. The opening section combines social critique, black comedy and domestic melodrama, as unemployed smelter Shin Ha-gyun decides to kidnap his ex-boss's daughter after he's cheated out of the savings intended for his sister's kidney transplant. The tone darkens after the plan backfires and the girl's father, Song Kang-ho, comes after them. Some may bridle at the violence — in particular a scene in which Shin's girlfriend is tortured for information — but Park's control over his bleak vision is undeniably impressive.
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It is hard to have sympathy for anyone, other than the child, in this harsh, violent and sadistic thriller of a kidnap where everything goes wrong and bodies pile up; the movie was much admired by Asian audiences.
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Most helpful member's review
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28 out of 29 people found this review helpful
Symphony for the Devil
If this were a British film it might have been made by Ken Loach as a gritty socio-realist study in human misery, perhaps.
Chan-Wook Park, however has created a blisteringly vivid cinematic ballet of human misery with breathtaking cinematography and a vibrantly colourful art direction which makes this film deceptively easy on the eye.
It’s an uber-noir exegesis of futility that inevitably sees all the characters overwhelmed by the consequences of their actions. Mr Park builds up such a gut– wrenching level of tension through smoulderingly paced scenes, long edits and static shots that when violence sporadically erupts it seems to heighten the sense of brutality and reawakens a sense of shock (pun) the lingering effect of which is unsettling rather than cathartic.
As harrowing as it gets the film reveals at its centre a coldly humorous black heart.
A stunner rather than a thriller.
Mr. Hitchcock must be turned-on in his grave. -
Most recent members' review
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Just desserts?
Another from the Vengeance trilogy (see Old Boy & Lady Vengeance), the circumstances surrounding Park's target make it slightly more difficult to justify the motive of revenge. A quiet (the reason becomes apparent when you watch the film) thoughtful, sometimes funny film, I could not get into it as much as I did Old Boy & even Lady Vengeance. I would still recommend viewing this, if just to add another notch to your Vengeance belt. PS, this one is suitable for the faint-hearted... until the end at least.
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