These are hardly new films, but I’d like to recommend two Korean exports that I enjoyed watching recently. Both by director Chan-wook Park, and both exceptionally violent, I recommend them for reasons other than their overt viciousness.
Oldboy is the story of a businessman, imprisoned for 15 years in an unofficial prison. Unexpectedly released, he strives to discover who imprisoned him, and why. This film’s got twists and turns like nothing else I’ve seen recently. Although sometimes the scenes take on a Matrixesque quality, these are not simply ‘advanced CG shots’ - instead, you are so with the emotional state of the character that you personally want t fight your way down that hallway through those 25 goons, with just a hammer. That said, violence is not the marque of this film. The character motivation and the wry observations somehow manage to wash over that.
If you don’t have an objection to choosing between subtitles and less-than-perfect dubbing, Oldboy comes strongly recommended.
The second film, by the same director, is Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. With similar graphic violence, and similar twists and depth, we go on a different journey. Throughout this film, where a deaf-mute man aids his dying sister by kidnapping a child to raise the money needed, there is a revenge-spiral of the type that prompted Ghandi to pronounce “an eye for an eye will have the whole world blind!” This film’s got more curves than Jennifer Tilly. Towards the end, you squirm for discomfort as you try to weigh who you’re supposed to have sympathy with. Everyone deserves it, yet, for their violence, none get it.
To quote Mr. Park directly; “I don’t feel enjoyment watching films that evoke passivity. If you need that kind of comfort, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t go to a spa.” These films took hold of something deep inside me, and they demanded something of me as a viewer.
I’ve discovered there’s a third film in this informal ‘Vengeance Trilogy’ - Lady Vengeance has been added to my netflix queue.