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Plot:
Deaf and dumb Ryu (Ha-Kyun Shin) is romantically involved with young revolutionary Young-Mi (Dun-na Bae) and loves his older sister so much that he sells his kidney on the black market to afford her ...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:August 20, 2008Chan-wook Park definately takes a place among my favourite directors after this piece of art. It even outshines it's popular sequel, "Oldboy", because it has better cinematography, is more suspensful and doesn't rely so much on the ending. More reasons to love "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" is for the unique style, the unpredictable story, the low-voiced image and it's good message.
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MCT:August 13, 2008A deaf-mute tries to sell a kidney on the black market to pay for a life saving operation for his sister, but when he wakes up left for dead minus both the money and his kidney he hatches a scheme to kidnap his ex-boss' daughter for the ransom. When she is accidentally killed it sets in motion a sequence of events that result in bloody vengeance for both men. The first chapter in Chan-wook Park's vengeance trilogy reminded me very much of a Tikeshi Kitano film; beautifully shot but very understated with moments of surreal humour, brief outbursts of grim violence and a typically nihilistic ending. He attempts to show the motivations and context of the actions of all involved and so the brutal acts of vengeance perpetrated by the characters who have become increasingly black-hearted through grief and loss garner little sympathy from the viewer. This means the film is extremely bleak and hard going as it is difficult to relate to any of them. I also found the plot a little too far-fetched to swallow and so I felt it was easily the weakest of the three, but that is hardly damning criticism as the others are amongst the best films I've ever seen. A technically excellent film that won't be for those with a weak stomach, but a memorably visceral experience for those able to stay the course.
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MCT:August 11, 2008
The first part of Chan-wook Park's vengeance trilogy is the most disturbing & unsettling one imo & it's not just that. unlike typical revenge flicks this is oddly cold & bitter & depressing with some of the most unsettling scenes I've ever seen, anyway It's visually stunning and I liked its style and the main storyline is really good
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MCT:August 8, 2008Chan wook park is one hell of a stylish director. The use of the deaf character was inspired but the rest of the movie was really a bit plodding at parts and not close to being as good as Oldboy. It was definitely much better than some other stuff I've seen.
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MCT:July 29, 2008
a beautifully great film, but I was kind of disappointed by the amount of vengeance. Alone I think it's a great film, but in context with the trilogy I would say it is not my favorite of the three.
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MCT:July 27, 2008
It's not a movie you'll forget, no matter if you like it or not. It sort of sticks with you. It's superb.
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MCT:July 27, 2008
The austere, inexorable, wordless march toward the tragic conclusion really struck me. This will stay with me for a long time.
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MCT:July 25, 2008Not very good. I was bored after the first half hour, but i got a lot of house work done during the rest. So, it wasn't that bad!
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MCT:July 25, 2008
An excellent story is unveiled in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and the lead is fantastic in his role as deaf Ryu. My only qualm is the pacing is a bit wonky, and overall the film feels much longer than it is. Still, a great flick!
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MCT:July 11, 2008
''I know you're a good guy... but you know why I have to kill you...''
In Seoul, the deaf and dumb worker Ryu is very attached to his sister, who needs a transplantation of kidney...
Kang-ho Song: Park Dong-jin
Ha-kyun Shin: Ryu
Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance holds no bounds when it comes to dishing out lashings of violence and realistic gore.
At the center of this story is a kidnapping that ends up going completely bad. Ryu adeaf/dumb, green headed Factory Worker, needs money for his sister's operation. When he is left high and dry and victimized by a gang of organ Traders, Ryu and his girlfriend Youngmi, played by Doona Bae, kidnap the daughter of his former employer Dong-Jin Park, who's played by Kan-ho Song, and hold her hostage for money, with dismaying consequences.
Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance delivers and gives us ear-lobe torture, rape, evisceration, knife cutting and baseball bat beatings. It remains shocking yet mesmerizingly refreshing.
Park Chan-Wook, the film's maker, stages his set-pieces and sequences like an interwoven tapestry of blood drenched slaughterhouse that exceeds any other film school. Effortlessly he captures stylish unrelenting, destructive power of the violence upon each gritty realistic frame.
Not anything is too much to put on screen, for instance an autopsy scene where a rip cage is cracked apart, accompanied with recorded talking, while the father looks on in silent anguish. Mr.Vengeance is a bleak outlook on life.
Moral uncertainty and regret are made abundantly clear by Park, who turns everything destructive and dark from life into an art-form.
Those not accustomed to a slower paced, patient film may say that there is too much postulation and ambiguity in Mr Vengeance, but they would be wrong.
Never has a film managed to capture my attention so fully like Mr Vengeance has. The majority of the time, we are in thought and paused wonder of the events that just transpired. The setting is rich and South Korea is shown in all its glory as a culture emerging from a somewhat torn past.
Every moment is beautifully framed, in which the viewer becomes drawn into the web of the characters that exist in this world.
Colour is obviously very important to Park, as each single moment is perfectly balanced flowing from frame to frame in a perception that would put most Hollywood directors to shame .
The themes of vengeance and tragic fate are intertwined in such a way that almost numbs the senses after a time. Even though there is no hero or villain in this film, each character shares the spotlight in turn and the motivations for their actions are slowly revealed then torn apart as fate intervenes to bring everything to a point of complete helplessness and futility.
Mr.Vengeance is a study that ultimately executes a harrowing, realistic drama in which good people do bad actions toward each other for the wrong reasons. -
MCT:July 10, 2008
Chan-wook Park makes me laugh, because every single person in this film is a victim. The redeemable characters, although few in number, aren't spared, nor are the anti-hero protagonists. It's up to you who you find sympathy (no pun intended) for, if you can find anyone at all. Good ride, but I do prefer Oldboy.
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MCT:July 9, 2008
I was expecting something more from the first part of this trilogy... But it is still an interesting film, with good direction and some good shots... Sometimes cinema has to be tough...
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MCT:July 2, 2008
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is a dark and disturbing Korean filck that takes the classic tragedy formula and runs with it. You meet characters in a terrible situation who do terrible things to deal with it and the story gets steadily worse and worse a...(read more)nd worse for them. It's a sad, twisted, slow paced movie that, in places, speeds up and explodes with violence, only to return to the slower, depressed pacing again. It's like the characters are so emotionally gutted they only become alive when there is violence and revenge to be had. It's a jarring film you won't soon forget.
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MCT:June 26, 2008
anything i write about this movie won't make any justice to it... all i'll say is that you should get this film now!
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MCT:June 10, 2008The most poetic and subdued entry in the Vengeance trilogy. Of course there's tunning imagery. Of course there's a tight script with great form. Of course there are moments that will echo with you forever.
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MCT:June 1, 2008
Excellent movie,not as great as Oldboy or Sympathy for Ladytic Vengeance,but still a great movie about revenge and it's consequences.
The story has some flaws,but it's beautiful and well told.The direction of Park is unique,fantastic -
MCT:May 31, 2008
Chan-wook Park is an amazing filmmaker. He does not disappoint here in the first of his Vengeance series.
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MCT:May 26, 2008I was very disappointed by this movie. I'm a huge Oldboy fan and expected this to be almost as good as that. It just seemed unrealistic. I can't imagine anyone being so unsympathetic towards human life, even as he found out that Ryu wasn't directly responsibly for his daughter's death. It's called Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, but I felt no sympathy for him, instead I hated him for being inhumane and unsympathetic.
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MCT:May 13, 2008
Not as extreme as Oldboy, but as a revenge film it was satisfying, many characters had flaws and they were punished painfully for having them. Even when I thought I might be dissapointed in the end everything happened as it should with another very acceptable ending from Chan-Wook Park.
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MCT:April 27, 2008
A weaker ending compared to its sequel, but nevertheless, it's still a disturbingly deemed film. For some, it may be more cunning and practical because of the constant traps the characters fall into; for others, it may just be a more vapid film with the same premise and the same vengeful message. Not categorizing this under any dichotomous options, I simply thought that a disabled protagonist taking on such raw events amid the lack of sympathy was quite original. I liked it... despite some predictability.
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MCT:April 7, 2008
What a well told story. They don't make enough movies like these anymore. Well, if they do they dont mass release them like they do Epic Movie.
This movie grew on me as it went on. The complexity of the story grips you form the beginning. Everything from beginning to end was perfect. -
MCT:March 22, 2008
Not as good as oldboy but still impressive. Good performances from all of the cast. The idea of having the protagonist as a deaf-mute was inspired
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MCT:March 18, 2008
i thought this one is better than oldboy but i wasn't comparing it to oldboy while i watched it unlike many people. even though it is less violent than oldboy and less disturbing i guess, i found the characters emotions and their quest for vengeance to be very interesting.
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MCT:March 10, 2008BOKSUNEUN NAUI GEOT (2002)
directed by Chan-wook Park
starring Kang-ho Song, Ha-kyun Shin, Du-na BaeWith a title like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance I was expecting a cool stylish vengeance flick and man did I get out of it disappointed. There is too much going on and too many useless scene. Some of the stuff was even laughable when it wasnt meant to be, well, thats how it felt to me.The social comment about poverty is even less subtle than in a Kurosawa movie. Many themes are touched but none of them is completely developped. The irony of the screenplay was pretty interesting though and so was the cinematography. The vengeance comes a bit too late into the film and it is really unrealistic, way too violent for the characters to be doing so. Its bloody and on the edge of exploitation.
The film sure has its moment and the director shows talent but it definately was too long to keep my interest until the end. I was basically careless for any of the characters. My disppointment probably comes from the fact that I was expecting something else. Its not awful though.
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Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Boksuneun naui geot) Recent Reviews
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Comments
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dicksonahposted 321 days ago -
This is asian extreme cinema sans the high flyin martial arts, the hypnotic john woo shootouts or the cult japanese weirdness but it really blows you away. the plots a bit rag tag in places but watch it all the way through and if your'e not heartbroken at the end then you have no soul
posted 767 days ago
