Sympathy For Mr Vengeance Details

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.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Bleak, terse ,brutal but wonderfully filmed

As is so often the case with truly challenging cinema I couldn’t make up my mind wether I liked this film or not. It started slowly, enveloping the viewer in the torpid misery of its characters and even when things started to develop it never really changed pace although the plot became bleaker and so unremittingly dark that it occurred to me it may be a pitch black comedy.

It could never be classed as entertainment but is grimly fascinating and as a moral lesson in the futility of violence and the intractable way acts of vengeance have a relentless cyclic effect it is possibly one of the finest I’ve seen.

What however really makes this film stand out is the stylish direction and cinematography, and the wonderful composition of some the scenes. Even the moments when the characters aren’t really doing anything, and there are a lot of those, carry a real beauty to them. Wandering down a stone flanked alley half in light, half in shade or trudging agonisingly through rippling water trailing plumes of blood every scene has something to admire and should you find the narrative too terse and the plot too grim just let the ravishing visuals assault your senses.

So while not a film I enjoyed in the normal sense of the word Sympathy for Mr Vengeance is a film I’d recommend anybody see at least once. I’d even watch it again…just not right away.