Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance: Prime Park

Let's face it. Park Chan-wook rocks. I just saw Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the first part of his visually lush vengeance trilogy, and that man has such a gorgeously deranged understanding of human psychology. He's definitely got a thing for the anti-hero that leaves you wondering who to root for. The deaf-dumb child-killer who's just trying to get a kidney for his dying sister? or the cold-hearted businessman who finds his world turned upside down by a kidnapping? The narrative tying these two guys together is outlandish even as it slips inside reality. It's just this side of the possible. There could be a world where people got gypped doing black market organ donations; where grief-stricken artists buried their siblings under a pile of thoughtfully arranged river stones; where a makeshift band of terrorists exacted revenge on behalf of their ludicrous pamphleteer. What I love about Chan-wook's films is how these narrative twists are surprising and inevitable. Life can be like that, the slippery slope. You look up, everything is rushing by in a flash of bruised beauty. The world is a mercilessly violent place.