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Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance AKA Boksuneun Naui Geot
R1 - America - Tartan Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (22nd March 2006). |
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The Film
 The Korean film has grown in recent times as not only one of the biggest but also the best in the industry. I now have a section of Korean DVDs in my collection that is growing larger everyday. Seven years ago when I started buying DVDs you would not have seen a single Korean film in my collection, sad huh? It’s largely thanks to Chan-wook Park that I started to discover films from this part of the world. Having recently reviewed Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) I was more than anxious to check out Chan-wook Park‘s previous effort Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. The first in the so-called Revenge Trilogy which, also includes the amazing Oldboy (2003). After the success of Joint Security Area (2000) Park was given ‘carte blanch’ to make whatever he so desired. This film was the result. I had not previously seen this film, but judging by my reaction to his previous works I wasn’t at all hesitant in jumping into this one. I was happier than a pig in s**t popping this shiny disc into my player. But I wasn’t exactly the same coming out from the other end, I found the film the weakest of the three Revenge films, I found this film more methodical in it’s pacing which gave way for a much slower film experience than I was expecting. I also found that keeping track with the story was a little harder than expected. However, it was a whole lot better than most films I’d seen in the last few years. Now let’s take a look at Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and why it’s not the best of the bunch. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is a simple story told in a rather complex manner. It’s essentially about Ryu (Ha-Kyun Shin), a deaf man who lives with his ill sister (Ji-Eun Lim), she desperately requires a kidney transplant but neither she nor her brother can afford it. Having been laid off from his job at a steel works, Ryu comes up with a plan along with his girlfriend (Bo-Bae Han) to kidnap his ex-boss’ daughter and hold her for ransom. This will help pay for the transplant, however nothing goes according to plan and Ryu is faced with a sister whose committed suicide and a dead kidnap victim. Her father, Park Dong-jin (Kang-ho Song) must find the kidnappers to exact his revenge. But even that is not as clear-cut as it seems. I say this film is complex in the sense that we really don’t know who Mr. Vengeance is? In a way both Ryu and Park are that figure. Ryu finding the people who took his kidney and left him naked in a parking building, and Park for finding Ryu and his girlfriend for kidnapping his daughter. The story waves through these character’s journeys, but at one point stops being Ryu’s story and follows Park, it’s a narrative fracture right down the middle goes in two different directions and eventually meets up at the end. This makes the film a little hard to follow sometimes; in fact I confused Ryu’s girlfriend and sister at one point. It goes to show that you just got to pay closer attention to films or things will pass you by. Which leads me to my other point about the film’s pace. It crawls a snails pace at times making this a harder film to watch than Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, scenes tend to overstay their welcome and some scenes exists for reasons that don’t really move the story along (one such example are the tenants that live directly besides Ryu and his sister, there is a scene where the three of them are masturbating to his sister’s moans of pain mistaken for them having sex. What is this supposed to be about?). This will pose a challenge to many viewers who would likely give up on the film, which is a shame because these films should be made more available to a wider audience. Once you’re overt the pace, this film can be quite brutal at times, the violence is raw and improvised. What I mean by that is aside from the concept of ‘revenge’ the means in, which it is exercised, does not seem pre-planned in any way. This gives the appearance of a more natural flow for the characters to hot certain points in the film’s narrative once the ball starts rolling it’s very hard to stop it. Park sends a very deep message with these films, 'When is such violence justified?' he explores this in great length with Mr. Vengeance, and the progression to answer such a question leads to a bitter ending with a little twist of irony. Much like the other two films in this trilogy, the performances are nothing short of brilliant, the cinematography beautifully captures the violence in an almost poetic classic manner with precise and graceful camera moves. Music is also a key factor in Park’s films, the score highlights the emotion onscreen and never takes on a forced position. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance may not be the fast paced revenge thriller that I was expecting but instead I got a slower more meaningful film experience. Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance may be better films overall but this one doesn’t play by any set rules and finds a voice of its own and that’s worth a viewing alone.
Video
The package states this film is presented at 2.35:1, but at closer measurement is really 2.27:1, this widescreen anamorphic transfer is simply beautiful. The image is sharp and detailed, there is limited film grain evident, colors are brash and bold and I could not find any evidence of color bleeding. I could not detect any major flaws within this transfer, and black levels are consistent and shadow detail is fine. Tartan Video has done this film a credit by including a spotless transfer.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included on this release all of which are in Korean, the first is a DTS 5.1 surround track, we also have a Dolby Digital 5.1 and also a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS soundtrack. The dialogue is clear and no problems are heard here, directional surrounds are subtle yet make excellent use of the sound space. Music is rendered well and is never overbearing. I’d say that this is a fairly balanced track that sounds natural and nothing appears out of place. It’s a solid effort that compliments the visuals perfectly. Optional subtitles are included in both English and Spanish. The English subtitles are easy to read and I could not spot any spelling or grammatical errors.
Extras
First up we have the feature-length audio commentary by director Chan-wook Park and Seung-wan Ryoo, a fellow director who appears in a cameo role in this film. This track is in Korean with English subtitles included. I found this track to be largely technically orientate, he spends some time discussing the look, art direction, shot selection as well as the various locations used around Korea for this film. The occasionally comments on the music and editing and also provides some information on the production process and working with the actors. However those elements of this track are rather brief and he’s back talking about some technical aspect. This is an interesting track if you have any interest in these things. Following that is a First Look at Lady Vengeance preview this is essentially a trailer with portions of the film cut together and runs for 2 minutes 32 seconds. A photo gallery includes 25 images taken during the production of the film and presented in a slideshow that you can shuffle through with your remote. The film’s original theatrical trailer follows that and runs for 1 minute 26 seconds, and rounding out the extras are three bonus trailers for other Tartan Asia Extreme titles: "Oldboy", "H" and "Spider Forest" Although the case clearly states the inclusion of a documentary, no such extra exists on the disc, which is a shame considering it was included on the UK release. The commentary was really the only standout extra on this set and even that won’t appeal to everyone, I would have like to see some more video extras.
Packaging
This disc is packaged in an amaray case housed in a cardboard slipcase.
Overall
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