Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

“I am a good person” says Ryu, a deaf mute, in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Nonetheless, in the course of the film, he kidnaps a child. He does so in order to save his sister’s life, an undertaking which costs money that he just doesn’t have. But Ryu’s kidnapping scheme gets out of hand, and soon someone is coming after him.

In this first part of what was to become Park Chan-wook’s vengeance trilogy, he attempts to discuss difficult and fundamental questions, such as: What distinguishes good deeds from evil ones? What if a person tries to do good, but causes an evil outcome? And what can make people abandon their own moral principles? This might sound a tad dry and academic, but what makes Park such a fascinating director is his ability to craft highly suspenseful and surprising films from an existential and philosophical starting point. This thriller is a case in point. It does contain some very violent and unsettling scenes, but they are part of a context which makes them feel anything but forced and speculative. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is a must-see, and one that you will not easily forget.

Park Chan-wook (b. 1963) from South Korea is one of the world's foremost contemporary filmmakers. He has directed a number of visually spectacular and immersive films and got his international breakthrough with JSA: Joint Security Area (2000) and Oldboy (for which he won the Grand Prix in Cannes in 2003). Thematically, many of his characters are motivated by revenge.