Sympathy For Mr Vengeance (2002) 8/10

Starring : Kang-ho Song, Ha-kyun Shin, Doona Bae, Ji-Eun Lim
Director : Chan-wook Park
Running Time : 121 mins

In the first of Chan-wook Park’s Vengeance Trilogy, a deaf mute named Ryu (Shin) is desperate to get his sister (Lim) a kidney transplant, but can’t afford it, so his girlfriend Yeong-mi (Bae) suggests they kidnap the daughter of Ryu’s old boss (Song) and hold her for ransom. Unfortunately things go from bad to worse, and revenge is soon on everyone’s mind.

In spite of being quite a tough subject to tackle Chan-wook Park manages to make some of the movie quite light and funny, with some nice visual gags as well as some well thought out set pieces. This sin’t really suitable for anyone with a weak stomach, although some of the death scenes did make me chuckle, but those who can cope will find this engrossing and very entertaining.

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