Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

NO SPOILERS: My suggestion is to go into this movie as blind as possible. Don't read the synopsis. Don't read the product desription, or any reviews that reveal too much of the plot. Don't even read the back of the box. Knock 1 Star off my review if you already did. The reason I say this is, the movies pacing slowly reveals it's plot, and if you know too much of it already it's going to drag like a zombie transvestite. There's very little dialogue; which is good 'cause i can't speak a syllable of Korean (and would rather watch the movie instead of reading it); and its bad 'cause it adds to the already slow pace. It's a revenge story, yes, but not an action movie. It's not as visceral as you would think going in, It's more human, but it does have its small pay-offs. Ultimately it asks "How far are you willing to go for the ones you love?" and, "If you seek revenge are you willing to drown in it?" The main protagonist/antagonist is deaf & mute. (Don't worry that has nothing to do with the story),as a result any time someone communicates via sign-language, the screen goes black and displays what that person just mimed. (A nifty tool, reminiscent of the old silent films.)(Just figured I'd add that) At its best this movie shows us the tumbling snowball that is vengeance. There is no definitive villian here. Everyone has been wronged, and seeks revenge, but its a vicious cycle, and everyone has someone who loves them and will carry it out on their behalf. At its worst, it's a slow movie that takes way too long to get where its going, and when it finally does, you feel cheated. Don't go into it expecting alot of blood, and violence,(I unfortunately did),there's some but its so spread out it's ineffective & unfulfilling. The acting is probably the best I've seen in an asian flick so far. But then again if there's too much dialogue in one, I seldom see the actors perform. It's a heck of a great story, but it's not a wild ride. If you know nothing of the plot it will blow you away, but if you do, well, you ruined it for yourself.MORAL OF THE STORY: Vengeance is a dish best served for two.

Revenge is always circular and never ending and ends up with total strangers (the terrorists) killing strangers for the 'idea' of revenge. Think of the Serbs and the Croatians, think of the Hatfields and the McCoys, the Jews and the Palestinions, etc. It is the fallacy of 'an eye for an eye'. It is the same kind of circular never ending back and forth as S/M interactions. The only way out is to have some sense that people can agree on some rules to live by and some agreed upon mechanism for settling disputes and agreed upon responses to an agreed upon 'wrong' action. The civilized world has Courts and Law and Diplomacy.This story starts out with love and very sad limits and pain in both Ryu and his sister. It is his girlfriend who (in my opinion) is the psychotic one with crazy meaningless slogans who has absolutely no human emotion, only gratifies her animal desires, who befuddles and misleads Ryu to kidnap. It is this terrorist act which starts the circle going. Even when tortured, she cannot show honest remorse. She confuses and manipulates to the end. The sister is the opposite. She sacrifices herself to try to save the little girl. But because of Ryu's disabilities and inabllity to have full awareness of what is going on around him, her sacrifice is lost. Ryu's grief, disability and detachment lead to the accidental death of the little girl. Then with the father the revenge continues and it is only in us, the audience, that there is sympathy for anyone. We feel their losses and that's why (in my opinion) the one review writes of the 'sadness' of this film.... They are all caught up in Not accepting their limits and their grief by trying to wrest what they don't have or have lost, from others. Making THEM feel the pain or loss instead of themselves. The scene of the father trying to make Ryu feel what it was like for his daughter to drown by cutting the tendons in Ryus' ankles was one of the most horrible things I have ever seen. It did absolutely nothing for his daughter or for his grief.I see this film as a wonderful but horrible moral lesson on the futility of vengence AND THE WAY IT LEADS ALWAYS IN THE END TO BLIND ACTS OF TERRORISM PERPETRATED ON INNOCENT PEOPLE. It is probably worthy of 5 stars but the brutallity of the lesson is so horrible I just couldn't give it more than 3. One of the faults that I see in it has to do with the 'lack of the escape route to the circularity' in the film. If one does not know and already see the way out before one sees the film, THE FILM BY ITSELF , lacks the path to the next stage of moral development........ and the film leaves one in the endless horror of the circularity of vengence followed by vengence followed by vengence........... to mindless terrorism of one living creature upon another without a shred of emotion (as we all saw in the last 4 terrorists)................

The Koreans are producing some first rate movies with excellent story lines and this is one of them. This is not a martial arts action movie. There is however killing in the movie. A man kidnaps a rich man’s daughter to get money for his sister’s kidney transplant. The daughter accidentally died and every goes downhill after that. A great story. You should like this one.

Korean directors managed to create their own original style of movie drama. Their movies often have interesting and unexpected twists in the plot.

Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance. Cert 18, Tartan Cinema 2003. 5037899022979 South Korean thriller drama from the maker of Old boy. Bonus: behind the scenes, commentary and trailer. I'm selling this along with other listed items on this page. Stars Kang-Ho Song, Shin H, Bae D, Han B, Kim S, Lim J, Lee D. First in the vengeance trilogy. The film opens with a letter being readout in a radio studio. The protagonist is a deaf mute man. Explaining that his sister went into full time work to put him through art college. She later became I'll and is in need of a kidney transplant. The guy must raise enough cash for the operation. He'll do what ever it takes. Some actors have been other films within the trilogy. Seeing a scene on the factory floor. I'm unsure of what they're making. The other two films were fantastic. The neighbours in the room above are having sex. The sister is in agony and four lads are having a group wank. It's all a bit weird. This film looks at the black market where organs are sold. So he is told that, for ten million won. He has to give up a kidney and they'll find one for his sister. They're a blood type B. He has a girlfriend that he sees now and then. They hatch a plan to kidnap a millionaire's daughter and use the ransom money to pay for the operation. Some humour along the way. A good cast of actors. An interesting story. I shall see the directors' other work. Sign language is used. Subtitles translate what our guy says. The actors get into the slapping and kicking. There is a kidnapping in all three films. A good kidnapping and a bad kidnapping. An engineer named Peng went to drastic measures. There are the reviews and discussions to see. Worth a shot.

When our office filter machine broke we needed a quick replacement. After a bit of research we chose the Senseo because of the Douwe & Egberts coffee. The machine has numerous advantages over a conventional filter machine and beats a kettle hands down on taste. The senseo is easy to operate, simple to clean & it isn't a chore for someone to make coffee for a couple of colleagues, whereas a filter machine takes time & then you're left with couple of mugs stewing on the hotplate which tastes foul in 15mins or so. From a cold start it takes a 90 secs for the machine to produce coffee. The second cup is quicker ~30secs. We're not coffee experts and guess that there are better machines around but these seem to cost £100's. The senseo produces to coffee shop standards at a fraction of the cost. We were so pleased that we bought one for home as well.

The above comment and five star rating are for all three of the beautifully made 'Vengeance' films, i.e. this one, 'Old Boy' and 'Lady Vengeance'. On a negative note: other popular Korean films I've seen since watching the 'Vengeance' films have paled in comparison, perhaps because my expectations had been raised way to high.

Great movie

This film was a very good watch. It draws you in and then keeps you completely hooked. What I found so brilliant about the film was that at first I was not sure what to expect and I suspected that it was going to be a lot more light hearted than it turned out to be. It could have been depressing but the skilled way in which the subject matter is dealt with is absolutely fantastic and means that far from being depressing the film is hynotic and thought provoking.<br /><br />The film raises a question, amongst many, of 'when, if ever, is seeking vengence justified'.<br /><br />I loved this film.