Frankly, I think you should all pay to see this masterful film but the good folks behind the New York Asian Film Festival and The Korean Cultural Service are screening Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance for free on March 23rd at the Tribeca Cinemas. Seats are available on a first come basis and doors open at 6:30pm. I hand the floor over to them to sell you on the rest...
SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (2002) is slated for a Hollywood remake by the folks who produced GI JOE and TRANSFORMERS 2: RISE OF THE FALLEN, and that's too bad, because this film is one of the great masterpieces of world cinema, directed by Park Chan-Wook (OLDBOY, THIRST) and starring three of Korea's greatest actors (Song Kang-Ho, Shin Ha-Kyun, Bae Doo-Na).
Deaf-mute factory worker, Ryu, is hunting for a donor kidney for his sister. But when the organ slated for her turns out to be the wrong blood type he begins a long walk down a dark tunnel and the light at the end is an
oncoming train.
Director Park has hung the world up by its heels and let all the forgiveness run out through a slit in its neck. What happens when there's no more sorry? When there's no more starting over? What happens when there's only killing, and revenge and blood paying back blood? A nearly-silent, almost unbearable dissection of what we can do to each other for love, by the time you stumble out of the theater, every frame will be seared into your brain.