01.31.06
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance - “Kind-hearted Geum Jah” = WATCH IT.
If you know who Park Chan Wook is (no not baseball you philistines!), then you know what Korean cinema can be…melodrama + absurdist awesome-itis= winner. Ok so his “Anarchists” wasnt the greatest… i watched it at some berkeley blackflag meeting (LOL). It was like watchin a low budget “The ROCK” with “anarchy” scribbled in the premise- still very edgy for its time and audience. “JSA” was poignant and superbly cast- if it wasnt for yong-ae’s insistence on using engrish it wouldve been an amazing film… The next two films are 2 of my all time favorites- “Sympathy for mr vengeance” and “Oldboy.” Twisted and incredibly tragic for sure but. my god. not only does he speak to and about contemporary korean society- he delivers the whole spectrum of human emotion- in a revenge flick nonetheless!. impressive. His short in “3 extremes” was interesting and by far the cleverest… but nothing to write home about… But then he rolls it on thick in his last volume of vengeance- “Sympathy for lady vengeance”. Yong ae completely redeems herself as the tragically warm hearted yet calculating “heroine” of the film- the women kick ass in this movie. “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” certainly ends what he called the “trilogy of revenge” with a bigmofo bang. Put it up there with female revenge classics such as Shurayukihime and Kill bill cuz yeah. its that good. And Yes his movies require alot of cultural backdrop as well as iron stomachs, but if the harsh reality of life in the urban jungles of seoul dont faze you… go out and watch it!
OH and theres rumors that Justin Lin’s possibly directing a remake of Oldboy… I personally think hes an awesome guy (better luck tommorow was awesome plus he chatted it up with us for awhile…)- and its truely a shame that annapolis didnt turn out to be quite the winner. but i still have faith in the guy.
well onto the TRAILER!
