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Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

Original title: Boksuneun naui geot
  • 2002
  • R
  • 2h 9m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
78K
YOUR RATING
Song Kang-ho in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
Home Video Trailer from Tartan Films
Play trailer1:25
3 Videos
78 Photos
CrimeDramaThriller

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.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.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
    • Park Chan-wook
  • Writers
    • Jong-yong Lee
    • Jae-sun Lee
    • Mu-yeong Lee
  • Stars
    • Song Kang-ho
    • Shin Ha-kyun
    • Bae Doona
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.5/10
    78K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Park Chan-wook
    • Writers
      • Jong-yong Lee
      • Jae-sun Lee
      • Mu-yeong Lee
    • Stars
      • Song Kang-ho
      • Shin Ha-kyun
      • Bae Doona
    • 174User reviews
    • 134Critic reviews
    • 59Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 7 wins & 7 nominations total

    Videos3

    Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
    Trailer 1:25
    Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
    Main trailer
    Trailer 1:55
    Main trailer
    Main trailer
    Trailer 1:55
    Main trailer
    Director Park Chan-wook on Weaving Violent and Erotic Themes into 'Oldboy'
    Clip 4:33
    Director Park Chan-wook on Weaving Violent and Erotic Themes into 'Oldboy'

    Photos78

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    Top cast38

    Edit
    Song Kang-ho
    Song Kang-ho
    • Dong-jin Park
    Shin Ha-kyun
    Shin Ha-kyun
    • Ryu
    Bae Doona
    Bae Doona
    • Yeong-mi Cha
    Lim Ji-eun
    • Ryu's Sister
    Han Bo-bae
    Han Bo-bae
    • Yoo-sun
    Lee Dae-yeon
    Lee Dae-yeon
    • Choi
    Gi Ju-bong
    Gi Ju-bong
    • Driver Paeng
    Kim Se-dong
    • Chief of Staff
    • (as Se-dong Kim)
    Lee Yoon-mi
    Lee Yoon-mi
    • Boss of Organ Trafficking Ring
    Ryu Seung-beom
    Ryu Seung-beom
    • Retarded Boy at River
    Ji Dae-han
    • Detective Ji
    • (as Dae-han Ji)
    Jong-su Heo
    • Detective Heo
    Byung-Hoon Nam
    • Man 1
    Park Jae-woong
    Park Jae-woong
    • Man 2
    Jeong Gyu-su
    Jeong Gyu-su
    • Doctor 1
    Lee Jeong-wook
    • Doctor 2
    Geum-hee Lee
    • Radio DJ
    Ryoo Seung-wan
    Ryoo Seung-wan
    • Delivery Boy
    • Director
      • Park Chan-wook
    • Writers
      • Jong-yong Lee
      • Jae-sun Lee
      • Mu-yeong Lee
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews174

    7.578.1K
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    Featured reviews

    10seikeden-1

    Modern masterpiece.

    Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is, simply put, the best film I have seen all year.

    Chan-wook Park's mastery of cinematic language is stunning. I Recently saw Oldboy, and was intrigued by the style and freshness of that film. but where Oldboy sometimes degenerates (albeit in a very entertaining fashion) into simple violence and visceral satisfaction, Mr. Vengeance does not.

    Those not accustomed to a slower paced film may say that there is too much postulation and ambiguity in this film, but they would be completely wrong. Never has a film managed to capture my attention so fully as this one. The majority of the time, we are left in quiet reflection of the events hat have taken place. The setting is rich and South Korea is shown in all its glory as a culture emerging from a somewhat torn past.

    Every moment is beautifully framed and executed, and there are multiple ways in which the viewer is drawn into the lives of the characters that exist in this space. Colour is obviously very important to park, as each moment is perfectly balanced and flows from frame to frame in a way that would make most Hollywood directors green with envy.

    The themes of vengeance and tragic fate are intertwined in such a way that almost numbs the senses after a time. Even though there is no "hero" or "villian" in this film, each character shares the spotlight in turn and the motivations for their actions are slowly revealed, justified, and then torn apart as fate intervenes to bring everything to a point of complete helplessness and futility.

    A very powerful, beautiful film.
    8Gigo_Satana

    Revenge is a dish best served by Chan-wook Park

    What an erratic and interesting ride it has been for violence infested movies throughout the long decades of cinematic experiments so far. Whether it was combinations of drama, horror, even comedy or the fusion of all three simultaneously, their results rarely attained much impact aside from delivering pure shock value and strong cult followings. Nevertheless, such unfortunate stereotypes didn't prevent me from seeking out films that most people proclaimed to be "hard to stomach". Better luck next time; Funny Games, Fingered and countless cannibal themed films from Italy, respectively of course.

    I often come upon films that try very hard to make me look away from the screen and try even harder to make me empathize with the characters who are delivering and or receiving the poorly climaxed torment. Such cinematic pretentiousness finds no place in my mind and gets discarded as soon as processed.

    And then came Mr. Vengeance. Possibly to aid the ever growing genre of dramatically pragmatic films, bravely dealing with real life stories in a bold and sometimes unseen fashion.

    What made Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance all that much visceral was the fact that there was no pleasant music to tranquilize the painful story and beautify the scenery, nor was there any stylish before-and-after fight facial expressions and catchy lines to make the whole experience seem out of this world and cool. Not that there is anything wrong with using those elements in film. And it needs to be noted how interesting Kang-ho Song is always to watch, whether he's playing an aspiring wrestler, a small town inspector or a father on an avenging rampage. Credible acting is essential in films that have to deal with heavy biases for being mentally hard to digest and visually difficult to appreciate, gladly SFMV had those holes covered with an ease.

    The entire flow of the story seemed very effortless and drag free. Both the action and reaction of each character seemed to be traveling at such fast speed that rarely gave you time to over-analyze their motives and directions, which ultimately helped the story to signify the depth and restlessness of each person on a mission to get their revenge.

    Audiences are always mercilessly expressing their distraught over revenge flicks for one reason or another, so if you still have any room and temptation left to see a serious and sophisticated side of revenge then I can't recommend a better film, by a better director, to take you on the hybrid journey of pain, retribution and more pain.
    8Xstal

    The Best Laid Plans of Brothers and Fathers...

    For all the right reasons, to help save a sister's life, off to a black market butcher and their double crossing knife. Through more formal operations, a matched kidney then appears, but the price is far too high for accessing the surgeons shears. A small ransom for a child, keep them hostage for a day, until the father drops a case of cash, then takes their kid away. Now the spiral has commenced, events cascade out of control, with the hope that dangled briefly, now scythed clean, no longer whole - and it doesn't make life easier if you're deaf as well as being metaphorically dumb and blind, no matter how desperate you might be.
    9simon_booth

    Well crafted and challenging

    Vengeance is one of humanity's more lamentable instincts, and one we'll have to overcome as a species one day. When one acts out of vengeance one seeks only to hurt, and when people start hurting each other because they're hurt themselves, everybody ends up hurting and nobody really gains anything.

    I think that's the main message Park Chan-Wook wants us to take away from SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, though the movie is complex and oblique and doubtless open to many interpretations. It is a challenging movie in many ways - the story is never spelled out clearly, leaving the viewer to deduce many key events and motivations. Dialogue is sparse, and this is not solely attributable to the fact that the main character is deaf and dumb. The movie also challenges - almost terrorises - with its bleakness and occasional scenes of quite disturbing violence and gore.

    SFMV is an ambitious project, and one that doesn't fit into any established cinematic mould. The story, characters, themes and aesthetics are all very unusual and creative. I can't think of any other film that's quite like it, though at times I likened the experience to that of watching certain Takashi Miike movies. Actually, Kim Ki-Duk's movies are probably the closest point of reference, though Park Chan-Wook's film is smarter.

    SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE is not a movie I'd choose for a movie night with friends, or one that I'd lend or recommend to most of the people I know. Perhaps I'm unfair in my assessment of my friends, but I can't think of many that would enjoy it. Actually I'm surprised that the film is held in such wide regard, as its not a conventional film or an easy film, and is far more art than entertainment. In my experience that narrows a film's audience significantly, but I've yet to hear anybody express a negative reaction to the film. I guess originality and technical virtuosity are still appreciated after all - perhaps more so by those that have gravitated to Korean cinema in recent years than in other groups, since they are most often to be found there.

    With JSA and SFMV, Park Chan-Wook has definitely shown himself to be one of the brightest figures in the new wave of Korean directors. Both are very well crafted in pretty much every respect. The cast of SFMV also deserve commendation for their performances, which are all good. Song Kang-Ho steals the show with a wonderfully understated performance, though.

    Recommended, but make sure you know what you're getting.
    pundit40

    Art House Violence, Korean Style

    The heir apparent to Sam Peckinpah is tucked away far from Hollywood. Chan-wook Park, I'm sure few people know of him outside of Korea but talent like this can not go unoticed for long. I knew nothing of this film or Mr. Park before seeing it at the Seattle International Film Festival. Human (political?) isolation permeates the film, connectiveness to others whether familial or conjugal comes with a steep price to pay. Vengence to reclaim honor is a staple in Asian cinema, Mr. Park's "Revenge" completely sidesteps the tired honor formula making us question what happens when normal folk take revenge into the realm of pyschotic? This is the type of film that you and your friends will passionately discuss over STRONG drinks afterwords, there is no nuetrality in opinions, like Solondz's "Hapiness" you love it or hate it. As the film ended, a packed house gave a tepid applause, not because of a lack of enthusiasm, a collective numbness left a pall over the audience, a raping of all the senses. Like Cronenberg's "Crash" and Tarkovsky's "Stalker", one becomes defeated by a hypnotic sense of forboding, you are forced to endure it, pummeled into submission. The violence is very graphic, but as much as Mr. Park show's, it's what he doesn't show that makes him so talented, the subtle use of sound to advance the film is outright brilliance. Like Takeshi Kitano's early films, the extreme violence is never gratuitous yet the like offbeat humor, very unsettling. "Sympathy For Mr. Vengence" is not 'dark' it is uncompromisingly bleak, ah but bleakness never looked so good!

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    Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      First film in history to have a sex scene with sign language.
    • Goofs
      (at around 33 mins) 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.
    • Quotes

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

    • Crazy credits
      The title card of the film is shown in both Korean and English.
    • Alternate versions
      There are four versions available: 2h 9m(129 min), 1h 57m(117 min) (Japan), 2h 1m(121 min) (United Kingdom), 2h 1m(121 min) (Blu-ray).
    • Connections
      Featured in The Greatest Expectation (2003)

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    FAQ20

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 29, 2002 (South Korea)
    • Country of origin
      • South Korea
    • Languages
      • Korean
      • Korean Sign Language
    • Also known as
      • Boksuneun naui geot
    • Filming locations
      • Seoul, South Korea
    • Production companies
      • CJ Entertainment
      • Discovery Venture Capital
      • KTB Network
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $4,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $45,289
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $9,827
      • Aug 21, 2005
    • Gross worldwide
      • $2,046,923
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 9 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.41 : 1

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