Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
bender
Thanks for the reco. So I watched this the same way I watched Oldboy, Thai dub with no subs. I got the same payoff. Visually gritty, with a story told well through visual. A deaf young man has to take care of his (older?) sister, who has a kidney disease. He's working multiple shifts at the factory to raise money for her to get a transplant, when he ends up getting fired. This forces him to pursue desperate and eventually criminal alternatives to getting the money, and things eventually spiral out of control. Much like Oldboy, this is a complex story, or at least a small but complex cast of characters. Unlike Oldboy, who setup a cartoonish Bond-style villain, whose motives are only revealed to be much more complex as the story progresses, this one has no clear antagonist and protagonist. I mean, you can say there's a clear antagonist from a morality perspective, but then we're given so much time with pro and ant, that I found myself with jumbled emotions at the end of the film, as it's just a general tragedy.
I really like the way this director shoots his films. Lots of static shots, of characters walking through a scene. It gives the film an added sense of realism, as well as tension, as you're feeling some of the passage of time between events. Like the Gore Verbinski film I'll mention next, there's a lot of clever indirect camera shots, where characters are off-screen, and move into the frame, or using mirrors to show the characters interacting. Once again, this director shows instead of telling, although I did need my gf to explain one thing about the kidney issue to me, though it wasn't central to the plot. Just another masterful job by Park Chan-wook, and a solid effort from the cast. Chan-wook knows how to get strong performances from his cast, as the emotional scenes felt so authentic. Whereas Oldboy gave the fights moments to breath, in this film, he gives the emotional scenes moments to breath. Characters pause to contemplate their actions and emotions, adding real authenticity, while giving the viewer equal time to contemplate what is happening.
The movie moves at a steady and very deliberate pace. Whereas Oldboy was a slow burn that picked up to a bit of a trot by the end, this one has action throughout, but isn't what you'd call a fast-paced movie, or even an action flick for that matter. It just keeps at this steady waltz from start to finish, and it's good, because you're following 2 main characters. There's a bit of a handoff between them, so the transition is made without any lulls. Things don't build to a crescendo, like in Oldboy, but the story continues at its pace right through the final moments. I think it's the better for it as well, as this isn't a climax kind of story.
I really enjoyed this film. I'm definitely going to watch Sympathy for Lady Vengeance this weekend, if not tonight. I'll be combing through the rest of Park Chan-wook's film catalog over the coming months. This man gets it.
A Cure for Wellness
I can't remember how many times I've seen this movie popup in the preview guide, or somewhere else, and I've thought to myself, "That's an interesting title. I should give it a watch." But I never did. Not until last night. WTF took me so long? I didn't know this was done by Gore Verbinski. If I did, I would've definitely watched it sooner. A businessman goes to a spa in the Alps to retrieve his company's CEO, and ends up uncovering some of the dark secrets of the people who run the facility. It's an interesting story, but what I enjoyed the most was the way that it was all shot. Gore goes crazy with the indirect shots. Lots of use of mirror/reflection shots, almost right from the start. Lots of off-centered framing juxtaposed with symmetrical shots. I'm not a camera geek, so I might be using the wrong terms here. I think you'll get what I'm talking about, once you see the film. The plot feels very Shutter Island or Eliza Graves-esque, for much of the runtime, before doing its own thing in the third act. It's not a film that actually attempts to mislead you, like the other 2 though. Gore heavily implies the true nature of things by positioning important elements prominently in the frame. Instead, he tries to deploy misdirection through character dialogue, which I actually enjoyed. There was a point mid-movie where I started to second-guess my conclusions, but we don't spend enough time being fed a specific lead, before moving on to another plot-point. I don't know if that's a fault or not, as the runtime of the film is already close to 2.5 hours. Dane DeHaan does a great job, as he pretty much carries the film. Mia Goth was adequately creepy, and Jason Isaacs does an expected solid job. I watched this before Vengeance, and was astonished by how much both directors used indirect shots, and how visually compelling that is in a film. I'd recommend this film, so long as you aren't a DeHaan hater. Like Jesse Eisenberg, some people can't stand his voice and mannerisms, so just know that we see the entire film from his perspective, so he's in over 90% of the scenes.