Mini Review
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) - IMDb)
Another Korean flick, another masterpiece. Granted, it's one that seems to be divisive, but immediately I'm in love. Up until this point, I'd only seen Chan-wook Park's Oldboy, which lead me to expect something entirely different from what I got. I was anticipating a raw, violent, tense revenge thriller, but instead I got this sad, surreal, but still very violent revenge drama. There were legitimately a few moments that I started choking up.
See, the film sets off as a brilliant surrealist tragedy, and remains a tragedy until about two thirds in, when, after about an hour and a quarter of melancholic tension building, it explodes into a shower of gore. But this isn't the irreverent yet no holds barred violence of something like I Saw the Devil. No! However shocking, however brutal, it's almost poetic.
Perhaps the film is at times alienating. The first part seems poised to bore some who'd be attracted by the second part. The second part might scare away those attracted by the first. The way the film plays freely with narrative and style might be too much for typically mainstream audiences to stomach. However, when you put all of these elements together you get something nearing perfection: you get Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance.
It might be worthy of a ten, I'll get back to you on that.