Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

A recently laid off factory worker kidnaps his former boss' friend's daughter, hoping to use the ransom money to pay for his sister's kidney transplant.

Director:

Chan-wook Park

Writers:

Park Myeong-Chan (comic), Mu-yeong Lee (screenplay)

Stars:

Kang-ho Song, Ha-kyun Shin, Doona Bae

7 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Kang-ho Song	...	Dong-jin Park
Ha-kyun Shin	...	Ryu
Doona Bae	...	Yeong-mi Cha
Ji-Eun Lim	...	Ryu's Sister
Bo-bae Han	...	Yu-sun
Se-dong Kim	...	Chief of Staff
Dae-yeon Lee	...	Choe
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Masashi Fujimoto	...	Peng
Ju-bong Gi
Gyu-su Jeong
Jae-yeong Jeong	...	Husband of Dong-jin's ex-wife's
Kan-hie Lee	...	Dong-jin Park's ex-wife
Kwang-rok Oh	...	Anarchist
Jae-woong Park
Seung-bum Ryoo	...	Retarded Boy at River (as Seung-beom Ryu)

Storyline

In Seoul, Ryu, a deaf worker has a sister who needs a kidney transplant. He tries to donate his own kidney to his sister, but his blood type is not compatible with hers. When Ryu is fired from Ilshin Electronics, he meets illegal dealers of organs, and the criminals propose that he give them his kidney plus ten millions Won to obtain a kidney suitable for his sister. Ryu accepts the trade, but he does not have money to pay for the surgery. His anarchist revolutionary girlfriend Cha Young-mi convinces him to kidnap Yossun, the daughter of his former employer Park, who owns Ilshin Electronics. However, a tragedy happens, generating revenge and a series of acts of violence.

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Plot Keywords:

sign language | three act structure | dead woman in a bathtub | four word title | make love | 

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Taglines:

Revenge Was Never This Sweet

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong gruesome violence, strong sexuality, language and drug use

Details

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean Korean Sign Language

Release Date:

29 March 2002 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Box Office

Budget:

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,827, 21 August 2005

Gross USA:

$45,289

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,046,061

Company Credits

Production Co:

CJ Entertainment, Discovery Venture Capital, KTB Network

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Seung-beom Ryu (Disabled man at river) Spent time with individuals who have cerebral palsy to study their movement.

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Goofs

In the ransom photo of Yoosun, she is wearing the necklace Ryu made. However, he hadn't given her the necklace when he took the photo, it was later, when he traded the necklace for her doll.

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Quotes

Park Dong-jin: I know you're a good guy... but you know why I have to kill you...

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Crazy Credits

The title card of the film is shown in both Korean and English.

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Connections

Remade as Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

User Reviews

Grips you like a vice. Hits you like a ton of bricks.

Before you watch this film, just be aware that you're not going to walk away from it with a big smile on your face. More like you'll want to slit your wrists. To say that Mr. Vengeance is a powerful, gut-wrenching nightmare is like saying that DaVinci merely dabbled in art.

The plot is so simple yet so complex. The direction is so elegant yet so hard-hitting. The simplistic nature of the story makes the descent into hell so shocking and captivating. You don't realize there is no going back until it's far, FAR too late.

Ryu is a deaf/mute who works in the loudest factory in the world, doing a really depressing job. His sister needs a kidney transplant, but they don't have the money to pay for it. He cannot give her one of his own because their blood types do not match. Ryu decides to go to black market organ traders to trade one of his own for one that matches his sister. Waking up naked and kidney-less in an abandoned building he now needs to raise money for his own kidney.

Ryu is now fired from his job by President Park, who is downsizing the company. His anarchist girlfriend Yeong-mi convinces him to kidnap Park's daughter and hold her to ransom. From then on, things get very, very, VERY heavy and the idea of who exactly Mr. Vengeance is is blurred and sympathy is felt for almost everyone. Revenge comes at a high price and seemingly never ends. Not that I am saying forgiving and forgetting is the way. But this movie will make you think twice about getting your own back.

The violence is spontaneous and extremely graphic without ever feeling exploitational. Sometimes it has a darkly comic feel to it, the rest of the time it's goddamn hardcore. You'll wince a great deal during this movie, that's for damn sure.

Park Chan-wook directs with such beautifully composed images that are far from the the garish MTV-style action/thriller movies produced in Hollywood these days. I don't want to sound like some sort of snob who proclaims all foreign films to be great and all Hollywood to be crap but it's not very often that Hollywood makes a film like this unless it's a remake. Written in a mere 20 hours in a single massive, creative outburst, this movie seems to have genius laced through every minute of it's running time.

Not a date movie, not a whogivesadamn pig-out movie. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is a film you will be sucked right into and you'll be far from happy when you emerge at the end. But what a horrific ride!