Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

Grim, grisly, and self-infatuated, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance promises to be a stylish, resonant plunge into the dark waters of despair and revenge but ends up being little more than a series of ostentatious shocks. This 2002 thriller is the first in Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook's so-called revenge trilogy (along with Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), and like the others is long on creative brutality—including an extended torture sequence in which a major character, Yeong-mi (Bae Due-na), is given prolonged electric shocks through heavy duty cable clamps attached to her earlobes. The storyline finds Yeong-mi's boyfriend—a young, deaf factory worker named Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun)—caring for a sister dying from kidney failure. Told that he's an unsuitable donor, Ryu turns to an underground ring of organ harvesters, who steal both his life savings and one of his own kidneys. Yeong-mi, a radical leftist laid off from her factory job, encourages Ryu to raise funds by kidnapping the daughter of her former boss, industrialist Dong-jin (Song Kang-ho). Their plot sets in motion a series of catastrophes sending a bereaved and enraged Dong-jin on a collision course with the luckless Ryu. A cheeky kind of formalism runs through the film's near-grotesque close-ups, carefully-framed images of innovative bloodletting, and Park's perverse assault on the senses during autopsy and cremation scenes. But lacking any meaningful purpose, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance looks like self-referential pop art. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by writer-director Park Chan-wook, a “First Look” segment on the 2005 sequel Lady Vengeance (3 min.), a photo gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a shallow film.] (T. Keogh)[Blu-ray Review—July 29, 2014—Palisades Tartan, 129 min., in Korean w/English subtitles, R, $26.95—Making its second appearance on Blu-ray, 2002's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance features a nice transfer and a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack. Extras include audio commentary by director Park Chan-wook and actor/filmmaker Ryoo Seong-wan, crew interviews (40 min.), “The Process of Mr. Vengeance” production featurette (32 min.), a “My Boksu Story” retrospective featurette (17 min.), “Jonathan Ross on Park Chan-wook” with the presenter (17 min.), storyboards (10 min.), a soundtrack and photo montage (2 min.), and a trailer. Bottom line: this weaker opening film in the Vengeance trilogy shines on Blu-ray.]