The Best Form of Revenge
Park Chan-wook is one of the most popular and acclaimed filmmakers in his native county, South Korea. He is most known for his films; Joint Security Area, Thirst and what has become affectionately known and in turn marketed as -
THE VENGEANCE TRILOGY
His themes are often controversial, his subject matter brutal, yet his films are noted for their immaculate framing and beautifully told tragic stories.
Perhaps this intricately woven way of story telling stems from his philosophy studies at Sogang University, Seoul. It certainly feels as though many of his movies rape your mind, assaulting your senses and turning many pre-formed ideals on their heads. In his private life Chan-wook became a loving and loyal husband and father, but his film career didn't find success with such ease.
He was inspired to become a filmmaker after seeing Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. His debut feature film was 'The Moon is... The Sun's Dream' in 1992, followed five years later by his second film 'Trio'. Both movies flopped and whilst I went through the magical transformation of angsty teen to independent woman, Park Chan-wook pursued a career as a film critic to earn a living.
In 2000 Park directed 'Joint Security Area', which became an enormous success, so much so that he was given the green light to make practically whatever film he wanted in Korea. So he went on the hunt for another vengeance-minded script. And from this creative freedom his magical trilogy was born. However, it was not originally intended to be a trilogy. These films are 'spiritual successors' of each other. Not directly built upon the previous works, but featuring many of the same elements and styles as its source material.
Park Chan-wook decided to make three consecutive films with the central themes all being revenge. His intention was to explore the utter futility of vengeance and how it effects everyone involved.
The first instalment.
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, is a bleak yet violent tale of revenge gone wrong. A complicated weave of truths and deaths told in a raw and emotive way that evokes great feelings of empathy and compassion. It failed to reach expectations both commercially and critically, receiving mere 'reasonable' reviews. That is of course until it became known as a third of 'The Vengeance Trilogy'.
CLICK HERE
To read the film review for Sympathy for Mr Vengeance
CLICK HERE
To read the film review for Old Boy.
The second.
Old Boy, is my favourite movie of all time (although I have to admit it is very closely followed by The Goonies!!) Its deep and dark telling of a man cruelly confined, then released fifteen years later with no explanation quickly became a huge success. The story of a man given just five days to discover his captors identity and reason, gained a mass cult following and is considered by many, a modern classic.
CLICK HERE
To read the film review for Lady Vengeance.
The third and final film.
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, later shortened to 'Lady Vengeance', gives us a feminine take on revenge as we follow a young woman wrongly imprisoned for many years who seeks revenge upon her release. This instalment is the most well known of the three and completes Park Chan-wook's vengeance trilogy.
The spinal theme of violent revenge and directional formats are not the only reasons that people connected these three films. Park often casts the same actors in his films.
Song Kang-ho and Shin Ha-kyun, both male leads in Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, play smaller roles as assassins in the final part of the trilogy. Yoo Ji-tae plays a key character in the second film and makes a small appearance in Lady Vengeance. Even my main man (love him!) Choi Min-sik, who had the starring role in Old Boy, also played a main part in Lady Vengeance. (And in my opinion, if he had featured in the first film it too would have been a success in its own right, because he is just great.!) Several other actors and actresses pop up throughout the trilogy, though often only as cameos. Only one actor appeared in all three films, Oh Kwang-rok.
Many of Parks movies also share actors with those used by his close director friend, Kim Ji-woon.
This guy seems to like his relationships tied up tight and close to home. And with such great faith and esteem in his cast members one can only admire these methods.
The trilogy has won many awards from both audiences and jury's in several countries, including four for Best Director and five various Best Film awards. Box Office revenue for the trilogy reached £25,268,986, over &40,000,000 and although released separately they are often screened together in independent theatres across the globe.
In the U.S, Vivendi Entertainment released a six disc box set on DVD. In the UK Tartan Films released the same thing, but with a special colour desaturation version of Lady Vengeance, which is wrongly titled on the packaging as 'Fade to White' instead of black and white. With or without printing errors The Vengeance Trilogy is a must have addition to any world cinema collectors hoard.
Park has since gone on to direct, write and produce further films, including, 'I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK' and the critically acclaimed 'Thirst'. He also publicly turned down an offer to remake The Evil Dead. Filming for his first English language film 'Stoker' is scheduled to begin in late 2011...
This article title is based on a well known saying;
"Success is the best form of revenge",
Park Chan-wook took that saying and gave it a purpose greater than its original author could have ever intended.
- Miss Twisted is off to replace The Vengeance Trilogy box set that some weasel borrowed and never returned! -
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