I had to think a little to decide if I also wanted to “code” this blog entry as “Movies - Horror,” since I was quite frankly repulsed by a variety of scenes in this South Korean film by Park Chanwook. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is the first film in Park’s revenge trilogy, the second of which is Oldboy that I mentioned in a previous posting. This film won the Fant-Asia Film Festival Best Asian film and the jury award at the Philadelphia Film Fest, both in 2003.

This film is not for the squeamish, but it is an interesting story. A deaf young man lives with his sister who needs a new kidney. She’d gotten sick working at a factory and her brother schemes ways to find a new kidney and the money to pay for the operation. He tries to buy a kidney but that fails. A kidney becomes available via the health service but they need money to pay for it and they don’t have it. Ryu, the young man, and his anarchist girlfriend plot to kidnap the daughter of Ryu’s mean boss. The ransom would be enough to pay for his sister’s operation.

The kidnaping and exchange of ransom goes well, but things spiral ridiculously out of control after that. Suicide, then accidental deaths, then torture, murder, and more murder. It made Reservoir Dogs look like a Disney Film at times, both in the graphic and emotional nature of the violence. But, you still feel for Ryu and his boss. I’d love to give out more details, but the film does have some twisted closure at the end. By this, I mean, if you sit down to watch this film, hang on through the end.