The films of Park Chan-wook

In preparation for my new job which begins tomorrow (July 12) I had a few days off and have taken the time to watch a few films.  Most notably I’ve watched three films by Korean director Park Chan-wook.  He’s probably best known for Oldboy (2003) and has most recently released Thirst (2009); the vampire film that is second-only to Let the Right One In (2009) as vampire films go – showing that vampire movies can be for grown ups and not just teenage fangirls and their Mums.

My mini-marathon included began with Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (2002) that I’ve had on DVD for sometime and never got around to watching it.

This was quite an enjoyable film but fell some way short of my expectations, particularly with knowledge of Oldboy and Thirst.  It was beautifully shot and directed but the story didn’t grab me and strangely I felt a little lost at where things were at times.  I think it’s one I shall have to revisit again though.  Having said that you can see the

themes present in this film that run through all of Park’s films, it sets ups an interesting parallel regarding child abduction that you get in Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, yet as events play out leading to the revenge seeking and confrontations between the main characters, in an odd way conspire to be even more tragic.

Apparently there’s going to be a remake which will be interesting to learn more about, particularly as the last I heard the Steven Spielberg and Will Smith remake of Oldboy (minus raw squid and incest) was abandoned, thankfully.

Next up was a film that had intrigued me since I read the opening line of the synopsis on Lovefilm - “Young-goon is admitted to a mental institution. Believing herself a cyborg, she charges herself with a transistor radio.” If that’s enough to get you interested in I’m A Cyborg, But That’s Ok. then I suggest you skip the next paragraph because it might spoil things to learn more about the film.

With the previous films by Park’s of a similar tone and stylye, beautifully shot film with meaningful themes that was slightly twisted and dark, I was expecting something slightly similar.  It did have much of that yet it was a far lighter film, despite being a romantic comedy set in a sanitorium – a romental comedy perhaps.  The closest thing to compare it to would be something like The Science of Sleep in that it had a dreamlike quality with elements of fantasy plucked straight from the characters’ disordered minds.  If it had been made by Michel Gondry or Charlie Kaufmann people would be fawning over it as a surrealist indie treat.  Despite the quality it was one of Park’s least successful films in Korea even though it co-starred Korean pop senation Rain, who has most recently been seen in Ninja Assassin. He is actually pretty good in it as a Thief who keeps stealing stuff from other residents at the place including a ping-pong serve and a yodel.  Lim Su-Jeong is fantastic as Yoong-goon creating a really interesting character that completely you draws the viewer in.  I recommend this one for those who like quirky fair that doesn’t over quirk like something crap like 500 Days of Summer.

The last film of this mini marathon is of course Sympathy for Lady Vengeance I watched it almost a week ago and have since had my brain filled with work stuff at my new job so my memory might be wet.  Another excellent leading lady in Lee Young Ae, as Geum-Ja, drives this film forward into a superb story of revenge and the

morality of acting on this revenge.  It is another lady who has been banged up, this time for a crime she didn’t commit – the murder of a boy – and when she is released she seeks out vengeance, obviously.  The idea of the woman on a revenge mission is similar to Kill Bill but the finished article here is far more graceful, less baggy and ultimately far more intelligent.

There is a great mixing of flashbacks of Geum-Ja’s to her time in prison, making friends – who all aid her in finding the real killer Mr Baek (Choi Min-Sik aka Oh Dae-Su from Oldboy), whether it is making her super-cool gun, or just giving her a place to hide out.  Her long lost daughter who was shipped off to Australia turns up and she’s really quite annoying.  I could really have done this film more justice but seeing as I started writing this post about 10 days ago, and saw the film the same amount of time ago I can’t remember all that much.  All I can really say is if you haven’t seen these three films then check them out, you won’t be let down – and if you haven’t seen Oldboy or Thirst then get them watched.

What an anti-climax to that post.

Anyway here is a trailer to help whet your appetite.