9. SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE. (2003)
Directed by Park Chan-Wook
As mentioned earlier in this list, Park Chan-Wook has become one of cinema’s most important and exciting filmmakers. If his latest film, THIRST, disappointed somewhat, it was only because of the insanely high standards he had set for himself with his seminal ‘Vengeance’ trilogy, a trilogy only in theme, but the best series of films of the decade. This is where that trilogy began, and amongst some strong competition, it’s probably the bleakest film on this list.
The film follows Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun), a deaf and dumb factory worker at Ilshin Electronics, who is desperately looking for a kidney donor for his beloved sister (Lim Ji-eun). Crushed by the fact that his blood-type means that he isn’t a compatible donor, and then by his sacking he agrees to buy an organ on the black market for a huge sum of cash and his own kidney. When he can’t afford the payment, his anarchist girlfriend (Bae Du-na) encourages him to kidnap Yu-Sun (Han Bo-bae), the daughter of Park (Song Kang-ho), his former boss.
As you would expect, if you’ve seen any films, ever, such a plan is doomed to tragic failure, and such is the case here, and the tragedy begets a cycle of guilt, vengeance and violence that encompasses each of the characters. As with the other two films in the trilogy, Park does a magnificent job in orchestrating the action, making each of the main characters sympathetic, and swathing the film in a kind of extra-sensory bleakness. He’s aided, of course, by his exceptional cast, particularly Song Kang-ho, who played the leads in THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD and THE HOST, as well as Park’s own THIRST and the peerless Bae Du-na.
There’s no doubt that the impinging bleakness of Park’s vision won’t be to everybody’s taste, but I would contend, strongly, that nobody came close to this level of brutality and skill anywhere in world cinema in the 2000s. A number of scenes test the stomach of the viewer, including the autopsy of Yu-sun, which is viewed by both audience and grieving father, giving us the same level of outrage as he, which fosters our sympathy for his vengeance. That sympathy becomes tested, as we begin to become increasingly sensitive to the violence he augurs. The death of a female character, through an unbearably slow torture by electrocution is as difficult to watch as anything by any of the baroque masters of horror.
Park hit the nail on the head when he mentioned that each of these characters’ single most dominant trait is a guilty conscience. It’s something that the film has in common with Shane Meadows’ extraordinary DEAD MAN’S SHOES; that the avengers are as damaged by their actions as they are by the crimes that brought them to bear. It’s what sets both films (and OLDBOY and SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE) apart from odious nonsense like Tony Scott’s MAN ON FIRE, where vengeance is treated as heroic, and each death comes unsettlingly easily for both perpetrator and audience. Park, simply, isn’t interested in black-and-white morality as anything other than a stick to beat us with.
It’s therefore an even more excoriating experience, because of the level of humanity and feeling that Park invests in the film. To do so much with a genre is an extraordinary showcase for a prodigious talent, and each member of the cast benefits from that as well. The visual audacity is more muted here, than in OLDBOY, but understandably as SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE is a more muted film. The final twenty minutes here are devastating, there’s no escape for anyone who sits through it. Many horror films fell under the ‘Asia Extreme’ banner in the zeroes, but no other exemplified it in the manner of Park’s masterpiece.
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