Boksuneun naui geot (2002)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Chan-wook Park

Writers:

Jae-sun Lee (writer)
Mu-yeong Lee (writer)

Release Date:

29 March 2002 (South Korea)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Revenge Was Never This Sweet

Plot:

In Seoul, the deaf and dumb worker Ryu is very attached to his sister, who needs a transplantation of kidney...

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Violence | Blood | Kidney Transplant | Child Drowning

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Kang-ho Song	...	Park Dong-jin
Ha-kyun Shin	...	Ryu
Du-na Bae	...	Cha Yeong-mi
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:
Ju-bong Gi
Gyu-su Jeong
Jae-yeong Jeong	...	Husband of Dong-jin's ex-wife's
Kan-hie Lee	...	Park Dong-jin's ex-wife
Kwang-rok Oh	...	Anarchist
Seung-wan Ryoo	...	Delivery Boy
Seung-beom Ryu	...	Retarded Boy at River

Also Known As:

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
El nombre de la venganza (Argentina) (DVD title) [es]
Fukushû suru wa ware ni ari (Japan) [ja]
Fukushû wa wa ga mono (Japan) [ja]
Fukushûsha ni awaremi wo (Japan) [ja]
Hämnarens resa (Sweden) [sv]
I teleftaia ekdikisi (Greece) [el]
Mr. Vendetta (Italy) (DVD title) [it]
Mr. Vingança (Brazil) [pt]
Pan zemsta (Poland) [pl]
Sympatheia gia ton kyrio Ekdikisi (Greece) (festival title) [el]
Sympatiaa herra kostajalle (Finland) (TV title) [fi]

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

129 min | Japan:117 min | UK:121 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean | Korean Sign Language

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:R21 | Finland:K-18 | New Zealand:R18 | France:-16 | Iceland:16 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:18 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:18 (canton of Basel-Stadt) | Italy:T | Argentina:16 | Argentina:18 (DVD rating) | Brazil:14 | Australia:R | Hong Kong:III | Ireland:18 | Japan:R-18 | Norway:15 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | Germany:16

Company:

CJ Entertainment

Trivia:

After the enormous success of 'Joint Security Area', Park Chan Wook was given "carte blanche" to make whatever film he wanted in Korea. After searching for another "vengence-minded" script with no success, he finished the script he was working on before making 'Joint Security Area'.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Ryu rides the elevator with the police with Cha Yeong-mi's dead body, the sheet used to cover the body gets "pulled" down instead of coming down on it's own.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Featured in Widaehan yusan (2003)

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!