PA RK CHA N WOOK 박리다매
복수 삼부작 “Park’s best work remains his Vengeance Trilogy ... If you’ve ever wondered where Quentin Tarantino gets his inspiration, Park is on that list.” BETSY SHARKEY, LOS ANGELES TIMES
For the past decade, South Korean shock waver Park Chan-wook has been a poster child for cinema’s so-called “Asian Extreme” movement. He is a director of hyperstylized, hyper-violent films that sit uneasily, at least as far as some uncomfortable critics are concerned, between exploitation movie and high cinematic art. Park’s works are frequently compared to those of fellow traveller Quentin Tarantino, who is an admirer. Park has recently made something of a crossover to Hollywood: Stoker, his first English-language feature, staring Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, and Matthew Goode, was released earlier this year, while Spike Lee’s remake of Park’s 2003 cult hit Oldboy is set for a fall release, with Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Brolin, and Elizabeth Olsen heading the cast. Park’s signature achievement is his Vengeance Trilogy, made up of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), the aforementioned Oldboy, and Lady Vengeance (2005). The films are self-contained and not narratively connected, but have been dubbed a trilogy because of their common thematic concerns (revenge, as one might expect, looms large) and Park’s overarching — and hyper, and hair-raising — aesthetic.
“Park has cited Hitchcock, along with Brian De Palma and David Cronenberg, as a primary inspiration for a boy of work that has established him as South Korea’s most celebrated director.” MIKE HALE, NEW YORK TIMES
복수는 나의 것
SYMPATHY FOR
MR.VENGEANCE (Boksuneun naui geot)
South Korea 2002. Director: Park Chan-wook Cast: Song Kang-ho, Shin Ha-gyun, Bae Du-na, Im Ji-eun, Han Bo-Bae
The frenetic first instalment in Park Chan- FRIDAY, MAY 17 – 6:30 PM wook’s informal “Revenge Trilogy” is “a SATURDAY, MAY 18 – 4:00 PM gripping psychodrama, marbled with blackly SUNDAY, MAY 19 – 8:45 PM ironic humour, that establishes the director WEDNESDAY, MAY 22 – 6:30 PM among the top rank of Asian filmmakers” (Derek Elley, Variety). When green-haired art school dropout and factory worker Ryu, who is deaf and mute, sets out on an ill-advised child kidnapping scheme in order to acquire a kidney for his dying sister, it sets in motion a brutal, bloodsoaked chain of events in which — true to Park form – things go from bad to horrendous to numbingly, unspeakably nihilistic. Park is, arguably, something of a moralist and bleak humorist as well as a hugely talented filmmaker; Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance impresses with its breathtaking widescreen compositions, frenzied action sequences, and foreboding claustrophobic atmosphere. But sensitive viewers must be furiously forewarned: Park’s giddy-grim, frequently cruel gore fests are definitely not everybody’s cup of green tea! “A reminder of the invigorating potential of Cinema with a capital ‘C’ ... Quentin Tarantino doesn’t make enough movies. Thank heavens for Park Chan-wook” (Brad Westcott, indiewire). “A morally probing modern epic that begins with the question of organ trafficking and escalates into a mortal hellfire worthy of Ballard and Kundera” (Michael Atkinson, Village Voice). Colour, 35mm, in Korean with English subtitles. 121 mins.
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