Mubi Monday: Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (2002)

Despite this not being his first film, and despite Joint Security Area getting a fair amount of appreciation when it was released, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is essentially where it all began for Park Chan-wook. Or rather, to be fair, this film helped to establish his reputation, and it was then one that a lot of people revisited after being stunned by the brilliance of Oldboy.

The first part of his Vengeance Trilogy (this, Oldboy, and Lady Vengeance), Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is the least bombastic of the three films, a quiet start to what would become an essential touchstone for fans of South Korean cinema.

Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun) is the main character, a deaf-mute factory worker trying to make enough money to pay for a kidney transplant that his sister desperately needs. Ryu ends up convinced by his anarchist girlfriend, Cha Yeong-mi (Bae Doona), that their problems can be solved by a kidnapping. Unlike other kidnappers, they will look after the child and hand her back, unharmed and happy, once they have received their money. There's already a child picked, young Yu-sun (Im Ji-eun), the daughter of Park Dong-jin (Song Kang-ho), a man who is connected to the employers who so recently laid off Ryu. Things inevitably don't go to plan.

It's probably the cool thing nowadays to cite this as your favourite of the Vengeance Trilogy, to claim it's the best one before Chan-wook got distracted by cinematic tricks and stylistic flourishes. It certainly remains an impressively unique and small-scale crime drama, showing someone engaged in a crime who isn't really a bad person. Not really. In a sequence of events you could easily describe as neo-noirish, Ryu is led into this plan by a "femme fatale", finds himself quickly out of his depth, and has no one he can turn to as he tries to tidy things up, leading to a third act full of danger and death.

Chan-wook knows the genre elements well enough, and allows them to feel fresh thanks to the central characters. Ryu is the sort of selfless and caring figure that will actually give up one of his own organs to help a loved one, except his blood type doesn't match, so it's quite heartbreaking to see things unravel in a way that we know is unlikely to end well for anyone involved.

Ha-kyun is great in the lead role, authentic and sweet without overplaying anything. Doona works well alongside him. They're mismatched, but also believable. Youn Ji-eun is very sweet as the girl who ends up kidnapped, and Kang-ho is a strong and menacing presence once he starts making moves to find the kidnappers in the second half of the film.

Although I still think that the next two movies supercede this one, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is a cracking film that deserves your time. It's different from so many others you will see in this genre, and the ending lands some powerful blows, all effectively painful because of the connection you get with the main characters.

8/10

Get this while you can.

Shudder Saturday: The Host (2006)

The Host is a monster movie, first and foremost, but it's also yet another film from Bong Joon-ho (who co-wrote the film with Baek Chul-hyun) that allows the director to comment on a number of different societal issues.

Things start with a couple of American military people dumping chemical that will pollute the Han River. This leads to a change in that environment, as the fish die off and something else starts growing and living there. Some years later, that creature comes out of the water, attacking a crowd of people before heading off again with a couple of captured "snacks", one of them being young Hyun-seo (played by Go Ah-sung). She is the daughter of Park Gang-du, who sets out to rescue her, with help from his sister, his brother, and his own father. But that rescue plan is hampered by the fact that many people are being quarantined by the military, due to the fact that the creature is also the host of a deadly virus.

On the one hand, and in glorious fashion, The Host delivers the monster movie goods that you want to see. It isn't constant, with the set-pieces wisely spaced out throughout the 2-hour runtime, but you get enough to keep you entertained if you're just wanting to see a giant, dangerous, creature cause some mayhem. On the other hand. The Host delivers an interesting, and arguably scarier, look at how vulnerable people can be when society gets to any point that leads to military intervention. The finale not only delivers what is expected from this type of thing, it also shows the start of what could easily be described as a revolution.

Kang-ho is absolutely superb in the lead role, moving from pathetic and unmotivated sleepyhead to strong and determined fighter, but this is a film with no weak link in the chain. Ah-sung is also excellent as the brave young girl, Bae Doona and Park Hae-il are both good as Kang-ho's siblings, and Byun Hee-bong is the patriarch of the family unit. Lee Dong-ho also does well, playing a homeless boy who ends up caught in the lair of the creature alongside Ah-sung.

Although the performances help a lot, this is a film you will either love or hate thanks to the script and direction. The tonal changes may jar initially, especially in a scene that shows people seemingly desperate to display their grief more "impressively" than others alongside them, but it soon settles down, with many sequences mixing things up in a much smoother way. You get the thrills, the moments of emotion, and a lot of black comedy throughout.

This isn't a film to offer to anyone who is wanting to dip their toes into creature feature waters. If they want to dive into the whole sub-genre then it is probably worth starting back in the 1950s and working forward from there. If they want to have some kaiju fun then there are so many others to choose from. But when they have enjoyed a number of more typical entries, that is when you can drop this one on them. They may not fall in love with it initially but give it time, this is a film that has become a firm favourite for a lot of people who love creature features.

9/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.