Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Contemporary Cinema
•
1h 56m
Directed by Park Chan Wook | 116 mins | 2002
Fired from his factory job, the deaf, gentle Ryu finds work in the underworld—and begins on a path that will end in an explosion of visceral violence. A brutal, claustrophobic film of escalating desperation, illustrating with grim logic how an ordinary man can be pushed into acts of extraordinary retaliation.
Selected by Molly Young.
Up Next in Contemporary Cinema
-
The Arbor
Directed by Clio Barnard | 91 mins | 2010
Andrea Dunbar’s first play, "The Arbor"—a grimly autofictional work about a Yorkshire schoolgirl who falls pregnant, named for the council estate where she lived—premiered in London’s West End when she was just 18. By her untimely death at age 29, she’d p... -
Transit
Directed by Christian Petzold | 101 mins | 2018
The first fraught and steamy pairing of Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski by acclaimed writer-director Christian Petzold—followed by 2020’s "Undine"—proved one of the best films of 2018, and a breakthrough for the beguiling Rogowski. Building on themes ...
