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Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Front Cover Actor
Kang-ho Song
Ha-kyun Shin
Du-na Bae
Ji-Eun Lim
Bo-bae Han
Se-dong Kim
Dae-yeon Lee
Kwang-rok Oh
Seung-beom Ryu
Gyu-su Jeong
Movie Details
Director Chan-wook Park
Language English
Audience Rating R (Restricted)
Running Time 121 mins
Country USA
Color Color
Plot
Before he made the notorious cult hit Oldboy, South Korean director Chan-wook Park created Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, an equally gruesome yet elegant meditation on revenge. Desperate to get a kidney transplant for his dying sister, a deaf and dumb young man named Ryu (Ha-kyun Shin, Save the Green Planet!) kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy industrialist named Park (Kang-ho Song, Shiri). Despite Ryu's best intentions, things go horribly awry, setting in motion a series of escalating revenges--to describe the plot in more detail would undercut the movie, because much of its power comes from the spare and skillful storytelling. Chan-wook Park is careful to ground the audience in the characters' emotional lives; when the violence begins, the bloody events unfold with the hypnotic power of the revenge tragedies of the Shakespearean era, which had over-the-top plots and littered the stage with bodies, yet were full of rich poetry. Park's eye for startling images and careful editing creates a visual poetry, grotesque yet often haunting. Certainly not a film for everyone--squeamish viewers had best beware, while anyone who wants their violence flagrant and guilt-free will be disappointed--but cinephiles looking to have their hearts squeezed along with their stomachs will enjoy Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. --Bret Fetzer
Personal Details
Seen It Yes
Index 445
Collection Status In Collection
Links Amazon US
Product Details
Format DVD
Region Region 1
Screen Ratio 2.35:1
UPC (Barcode) 842498030127
Release Date 11/22/2005
Subtitles English; Spanish
Nr of Disks/Tapes 1