It had been a good long while since I saw this film. I remembered the broad strokes & the fact that everybody dies before the movie ends. Watching it again & it's just one gut punch after another. It's so dark it's actually comical at some points such as after they find the boy who survived his father's poisoning his family. They rush him off to the hospital & when Park asks the doctor about the boy's chances the doctor replies in the most flat & un-emotional way: "If I were a very optimistic doctor I'd tell you there was hope".
I'm curious about what happened to the cinematographer Kim Byung-il. He only did two other films after this hasn't done a feature film in almost 20 years. It's too bad because I really enjoyed his work here.
The only part I found to be too much is when Park is witnessing his daughter's autopsy. I can't see any logical reason for that to have happened other than to callback to it when he yawns his way through the second one he's present for. A few other people took issue with the convenience in the plot when Park just happens to hear the radio broadcast about Ryu but that didn't bother me.
I'm planning on watching Old Boy next & as dark as that movie is it's a movie that I've watched more times than this film. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance isn't as dire to me as films like Leaving Las Vegas or Requiem for a Dream. Those are films I'll probably never watch again. I'd say every 15 years or so is good enough for this one though just based on scene after scene of misery & heartbreak.
[link] [comments]
source https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/sgkx5w/sympathy_for_mr_vengeance_is_even_more_depressing/
Comments
Post a Comment