It's a bit surprising for me that not only the same filmmaker behind the intense and impactive thriller Oldboy made Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (claimed to be the first in the director's loose vengeance trilogy, with 'Lady Vengeance' ending it), but that this was the film made right before it. What a leap from one film to another like this! In a way I'm reminded of something Tarantino once said in an interview, talking about how a member of an audience for the most part while watching a film has a kind of umbilical chord to what's going on with the story and the characters. And for myself, when I'm watching a film, this is usually the case, and it's usually not too much of a problem. But even in a film like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeage, where director Chan-Wook Park has a cinematographer like Byeong-il Kim making such amazing images, if the story and characters disconnect at some point, it becomes a bore. Which is a shame considering its not like this throughout the whole film; the first half hour had a set-up that wasn't too confusing, with an entertaining bit or two, but...then there's a point where the main story takes its turn, and it never recovers. Even at the end, where the heap-load of exposition is laid out, its a bit too late, at least for me.
Ha Kyun-Shin, in a good enough turn, stars in a role without a line of dialog (though one moment he does utter some sort of vocal response), as a deaf/dumb guy who gets fired, along with his sister, from their job(s). There's a kidney transplant needed, there's a kidnapping of a boss's young daughter, and then there is a plot turn- a tragic one- that sets off a new set of events. This new set of events is where this disconnect happened for me. It's not just an issue of exposition, which was a part of my discomfort with the film. It's also that considering the subject matter- organ transplants, kidnapping, brutal slayings, revolution and vengeance shouldn't be this, well dull, and random. I don't mind a film that uses a keen, deliberate pacing (which for some may translate to slow which isn't far from the truth), or uses its photography to bring a viewer into how 'deep' it is.
But it reminds me too of the lesser films of Godard- you can see what the filmmaker is trying to do with the subject matter, and their cinematic eye is not very off. Yet the pretentiousness for me outweighs any worth in the style, and almost compounds what substance there is. In 'Sympathy' there are a few good scenes with Ryu and his kidnapped kid, and this whole sequence is of interest. But what's to make of the other "plot" that emerges involving the father of the girl, or is it an inspector, or the brother/sister who are also revolutionaries, etc? I wouldn't generalize something like 'a lot of South Korean dramas are as muddled and disconnected as this', as I've seen others from the country (aside from Oldboy, also Spring Summer Autumn Winter and Spring comes to mind) that aren't this way. I could tell there was talent here, but without any direction as a storyteller it's moot. Others may like it- and apparently it has its own solid cult following as Park's other films have- however it was just an experience leaving a bad taste in my cinematic mind.
Ha Kyun-Shin, in a good enough turn, stars in a role without a line of dialog (though one moment he does utter some sort of vocal response), as a deaf/dumb guy who gets fired, along with his sister, from their job(s). There's a kidney transplant needed, there's a kidnapping of a boss's young daughter, and then there is a plot turn- a tragic one- that sets off a new set of events. This new set of events is where this disconnect happened for me. It's not just an issue of exposition, which was a part of my discomfort with the film. It's also that considering the subject matter- organ transplants, kidnapping, brutal slayings, revolution and vengeance shouldn't be this, well dull, and random. I don't mind a film that uses a keen, deliberate pacing (which for some may translate to slow which isn't far from the truth), or uses its photography to bring a viewer into how 'deep' it is.
But it reminds me too of the lesser films of Godard- you can see what the filmmaker is trying to do with the subject matter, and their cinematic eye is not very off. Yet the pretentiousness for me outweighs any worth in the style, and almost compounds what substance there is. In 'Sympathy' there are a few good scenes with Ryu and his kidnapped kid, and this whole sequence is of interest. But what's to make of the other "plot" that emerges involving the father of the girl, or is it an inspector, or the brother/sister who are also revolutionaries, etc? I wouldn't generalize something like 'a lot of South Korean dramas are as muddled and disconnected as this', as I've seen others from the country (aside from Oldboy, also Spring Summer Autumn Winter and Spring comes to mind) that aren't this way. I could tell there was talent here, but without any direction as a storyteller it's moot. Others may like it- and apparently it has its own solid cult following as Park's other films have- however it was just an experience leaving a bad taste in my cinematic mind.