A Quick Tip by Count_Orlok_22

I had no idea what to expect (other than vengeance) from Sympathy for Mr. Vengeace, the first film of Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy. I've liked Park's dark take on the thematic material he works with as best exemplified in the second film of the trilogy Oldboy, but at the same time I wasn't as impressed with his vampire film Thirst. However, being open to new filmmakers and being a lover of foreign cinema, I decided to give this a try and was rather pleasantly surprised.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance in many ways is the best of the three films I've seen by Park Chan-wook, despite an ending that left me a little disappointed.


The film follows Ryu, a young deaf/mute artist who works at a factory to support his sister who is dying of a bad kidney. Ryu attempts to give his kidney to his sister to save her, but as it turns out their blood type isn't a match. To make matters worse Ryu is laid off from his job at the factory, so out of desperation he goes to an organ seller on the black market and gives her his entire life savings and trades his own kidney in order to get one for his sister. But Ryu is deceived and awakes from the operation to find himself naked and alone, his money gone, his kidney stolen, and with no way to save his sister. But then his girlfriend, an anarchist and revolutionary named Yeoung-Mi, comes up with a plan to help Ryu and save his sister. They will kidnap the young daugther of  Ryu's boss and hold her for ransom. But again, things don't go as planned when they realize that Ryu's boss is a selfish man who cares only for his money. With time running out for Ryu's sister, Ryu and Yeoung-Mi decide to kidnap the young daughter of Ryu's boss' best friend, Dong-jin, and ransom her instead. Things seem to work out as Ryu and Yeoung-Mi manage to get the sweet little girl and enjoy her company, meanwhile they also manage to get the money, but then tragedy strikes and Ryu's sister is lost and subsequently so is Dong-jin's dauther. These horrible deaths leave both Ryu and Dong-jin cold and bitter and hungry for revenge. While Ryu tracks down the black market organ sellers with plans to kill them, Dong-jin tracks down Ryu which leads him to Yeoung-Mi, whom he tortures to death but not before Yeoung-Mi swears that her anarchist allies will avenge her. Ryu gets his bloody revenge on the organ sellers who swindled him and cost him everything, but is himself attacked by Dong-jin. Unable to apologize for the death of Dong-jin's daughter and unable to beg for his life, which has become unbearable anyway, Ryu is killed. But Dong-jin's own life becomes forfeit when Yeoung-Mi's anarchist allies show up and keep her promise.


The film is undoubtedly as disturbing and emotionally harrowing as Oldboy and it has a grittier, more realistic nature which I enjoyed, but the ending felt like one act of vengeance too many and it was difficult to watch all of these relatively good people get caught up in a web of intrigue and self-annihilation as they hungrily seek out their retribution. Obviously, the shocking ending and the merciless killing were necessary to get the point across that the cycle of violence and revenge is unending and can only be stopped by forgiveness, but it was still a challenging film to sit through when you see these characters make the same mistakes over and over.