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Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance tries hard to be the be-all-end-all vengeance film by taking the plot to a point where every character wants to (and eventually does) kill someone. In a way it works, in a way not so much. I guess that’s because it gets the characterization dead-on, but the kills are just weak and too few, even though they’re exactly what the plot demands. I guess this is the perfect example of why those who say “kill when the plot demands but don’t kill anymore” are wrong. It just felt off-balance and too tame to be in the genre it was trying to be in. It gave me the same feeling I got when I watched the first Hostel and saw that every single kill was a cut-away scene and none of the gore was even on-screen. Only this time, it was the lack of gore, not just the fact that most of it happens off screen—and as a fan of extreme thrillers, that just made me mad.
I’ll get it out of the way at the start: there is nothing violent, gory, or even disturbing about this film. It isn’t as fun as other revenge movies—Kill Bill, The Machine Girl, etc.—because it isn’t trying to be fun. That just leave it in a lull between “Am I supposed to be taking this seriously?” and “Umm . . . I think I’m actually supposed to be disturbed here . . .” and it’s just awkward. The entire movie is awkward. I had no clue what it was going for, and still don’t. But at the same time, I can’t say it’s original or unlike anything I’ve ever seen, because it’s neither. Once again, it just stays between the two extremes of cliché and original. Come to think of it, the entire film stays between the two extremes on everything and it just, to me, made it weak.
The two things I can solidly say it did well were the directing and characterization. Both were far better than average. I never once felt like I was just watching a Lifetime TV drama, which is a feeling I get constantly when watching action/thriller/horror movies. All typical genre pieces try to make you care for the characters by giving them some sort of cliché death-in-the-family or dying child or mental disability or some cliché that you’ve seen in melodramas before the word melodrama was even invented. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance never once stoops to clichés like those, but makes you care for characters by their actual, you know, character.
All I can say about my final opinion is it was a great movie, but it played it way too safe. Characters this strong deserve a better plotline, and a genre piece like this deserves much more blood. Overall, I liked it, I’m sure others will too. I can’t call it original, but I can say I’ve seen something like this done less times than I’ve seen a boring action movie turned into a lame drama with something exploding every 30 minutes. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance plays it safe, but it doesn’t go that low.
A very slow moving film full of flash backs and violence. I enjoyed this movie but not as much as MR.VENGEANCE, but the director is brilliant and I look forward to more films from him!!!
in ranking order i would put sympathy for mr. vengeance at the bottom of the vengeanve trilogy, but that does not mean this is worth checking out. i like the deliberately slow pace to the film, but is is not so slow you get bored with is and want to fast forward. It is definatly worth checking out for fans of asain movies. Chan-wook is a director to be watched as he makes his way to the top
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