Sympathy For Mr Vengeance Kicked Off The Oldboy Trilogy

Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance Kicked Off The Oldboy Trilogy

Sympathy For Mr. Vengenance is a dark Korean revenge tale from director Park Chan-wook that led to a trilogy, which includes Oldboy.

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Sympathy For Mr Vengeance Kicked Off The Oldboy Trilogy

Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance would kick off the “Vengeance” trilogy, which includes the classic Oldboy. While there had been plenty of films that centered on revenge prior to Death Wish, the surprise success of this 1974 thriller proved there was a huge audience for the subgenre. Vigilante tales like Taxi Driver and The Exterminator followed, alongside a slew of Death Wish sequels and other Bronson movies like 10 To Midnight that saw the veteran star take justice into his own hands.

Death Wish would also prove an influence on the creation of The Punisher. Modern-day examples include the Taken trilogy and the fittingly titled Revenge. The topic is often custom made for action films or thrillers, but certain movies like Munich, Unforgiven and James Wan’s underrated Death Sentence – which was based on the original sequel novel to Death Wish – portray the horrible murkiness involved with “righteous” bloodshed.

One of the best series of films to explore this is South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s (The Handmaiden) Vengeance Trilogy, a thematic series revolving around revenge. This started with 2002’s bleak Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, where a deaf-mute man kidnaps the young daughter of a businessman so he can afford to pay for his sister’s kidney transplant. There’s a layer of dread hanging over this first entry and once things start to spiral out of control, events get very bloody and morally grey. The film also gives viewers no clear cut heroes or villains, with both the kidnapper and the girl’s father being sympathetic to an extent – which doesn’t stop them from committing horrible deeds.

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While Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance wasn’t a success and received generally mixed reviews, Park Chan-wook quickly followed with another revenge tale with Oldboy. This 2003 thriller is based on a Manga series and finds a man (Choi Min-sik) being kidnapped and held in a cell for fifteen years by unknown captors until he’s suddenly freed and given a strict deadline to find out why he was taken. Oldboy was acclaimed on release and its reputation has only grown over time, from its shocking story and twist ending to its one-shot corridor fight. It’s a stylish and emotionally devastating tale, which was toothlessly remade by Spike Lee for 2013’s Oldboy starring Josh Brolin.

The Vengeance Trilogy came to an end with 2005’s Lady Vengeance, with the title being an explicit tie to Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance. This sees a woman seeking revenge after serving years in prison for a killing she didn’t commit while reconnecting with her daughter. The morality is a little more straight-forward this time since the actual killer is genuinely vile, but this final chapter still explores the messy implications of revenge. The film was a great, stylish and blackly comic finale to the series. While there was talk of an English language remake of Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance in 2010 it has yet to happen, with studios likely turned off by the reception to Spike Lee’s Oldboy reimagining.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/sympathy-mr-vengeance-movie-oldboy-trilogy-prelude

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