Kelly WandSympathy For Mr Vengeance
September 19th 2006 00:55
And now here comes the difficult part. I have to tell you why should see it. And you should. It is, without doubt, one of the best films I have ever seen. It just isn’t very nice. Contrary to everything I have told you, it is also full of extraordinary touching moments. Despite the violence and horror, this is a very human movie.
The plot runs briefly like this; a brother wants to give his sick sister one of his kidneys. His blood type is, however, wrong. He is sacked from work and receives a redundancy payment. He goes to a gang of organ traders who promise to provide his sister with a suitable organ if he gives them the payment and his kidney. They rip him off for everything, leaving him naked on the floor.
News reaches him that the hospital have found a suitable transplant for his sister. It would have cost him the redundancy money to fund the operation but that is gone. With his anarchist girlfriend, he kidnaps the daughter of his ex-boss. His sister commits suicide, telling him to just return the girl. Too late, the girl accidentally drowns.
It is a film that bears little regard for commercial considerations but it is a film that respects its audience. There is some initial confusion as one of the main protagonists is deaf and mute but, once you settle into the style of the film, it is entirely comprehensible. Importantly, this is a film of protagonists rather than good guys and bad. Everyone (except perhaps the gang of human organ traders) has reasons for their actions that are identifiable to the viewer. We sympathise with these characters as they are driven to their deeds by their need for vengeance. We know everything they do is going to end badly.
We watch the sorrow in their eyes. They know there is no happiness or satisfaction to be had from their revenge. They only know the beast must be fed but the pain is too great; the thirst too much. And then there is guilt. Even in the execution, there is no relief or pleasure. In one particularly gruelling torture scene, a man finds he must cover his victim with a blanket before he electrocutes her.
When I describe the film, you cannot fail to see how horrible the events portrayed are. In modern cinema, vengeance equates to catharsis. We are invited to cheer on the vigilante and take pleasure from his or her fascistic need to impose order. This is not the case here. This film asks you to feel something else entirely.
This is one of the amazing things about the work of Park Chan-Wook. He is one of the best directors working anywhere today but I think it is fair to say that South Korean cinema is only just beginning to get a toe-hold on the international stage. No doubt, Hollywood is already knocking on his door to make offers he can’t refuse. However, I couldn’t imagine those corporate bean counters being able to grasp the core of his work. They would feel morally obliged to draft in a board of script supervisors and dumbing down experts.
If Hollywood made a remake of “Sympathy”, they would probably dig up Charlie Bronson, get Speilberg to insert all new animatronic internal parts and rename the project “Death Wish 37”. Chuck would kill and kill again without emotion and no-one would be able to tell the difference between live Charlie and dead Charlie. Instead of the roar of the crowd, the cinema’s would merely echo to the sounds of crickets chirping.
Chan-Wook’s “JSA: Joint Security Area” should be compulsory viewing for anyone who claims to like movies. It is a film about the similarities between soldiers of opposing sides and the arrangements they make between each other when removed from the ideologies of their superiors. It, too, shows an amazing love of humanity in difficult circumstance. It is something that many film-makers have lost in their eternal quest for spectacle.
“Oldboy” is an equally amazing film but, like “Sympathy For Mr Vengeance”, is a pretty hard film to watch in terms of brutality. Not that I want to put you off. These two films form the first two instalments of the so-called “Vengeance Trilogy”, the third part of which is still to hit Australian screens. I, for one, wait with equal parts anticipation and trepidation.
| 86 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Ferocious thrillers that aexamine the nature of violence and it repocussions. Psycologically rich and complex these 3 films rank as some of teh best in recent years.
Comment by johndoemedia@aapt.net.au