Friday, January 22, 2010

SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGENANCE (2002)

Ehh, kinda boring. There's a few exciting moments, but I could easily trim off 20 minutes of filler. So you got this deaf mute dude who has a sick sister. She's on the waiting list for a kidney, but she's sick as fuck, so being a little simple, he goes to an organ dealer. They take his money he's saved up for his sister's surgery, steal his kidney and leave him naked in an abandoned building. That's pretty shitty, but the real bad luck happens next when he gets a frantic message from the hospital saying they have a donor kidney and all they need is the money for the surgery within few days. He flips out and with his Communist girlfriend they kidnap a wealthy dude's daughter. At first, things are going according to plan, but soon everything goes to shit and here's where the vengeance comes in.

Overall it's kinda entertaining, but I felt zero connection to any of the main characters so I really didn't give a f what happened to any of them.  Also why would they even sew him up?  Why not just harvest all of his organs? The most interesting thing for me was the look of the movie. Chan-wook Park is definitely talented and lucky for us he seems to get better with each film he makes.

Not a bad movie by any means. I just think it should have been shorter with better character development. Good performances by everybody. Worth watching once.

Part 2 - Oldboy (2003)
Part 3 - Lady Vengeance (2005)