Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance and Thirst-they have all got one thing in common. All of them run amok in blood and guts, pure stylish resonating murders. Characters in the first three movies turn into predators of revenge from friendly neighbours that they were hitherto. In the last movie (Thirst) though, director Chan Wook Park seems to have braced himself with finding renewed stylish ways of spilling blood and yet he wished his viewers would sympathise with characters. The answer was vampires.
While Mr. Vengeance is all about the deaf and dumb brother with a sister in an urgent need of kidney transplant, it was believable that such a man would turn into a monster under the circumstances. He lets himself tricked for an exchange of kidney (his blood type and that of his sister’s are different) in the black market. The rowdies of course leave him penniless, we are shown the view from the roof of a cellar floor of a multi-storied apartment under construction-protagonist is writhing in pain with the loss of a kidney, he is naked and his life long earnings are gone.
Director Chan Wook Park has a style of making movies. Most of the haunting scenes are presented to us from an innocuous distance; care is taken to obfuscate for instance the point of mad battering of villain’s head with a baseball bat repeatedly over a serene background score. Much of his treatment of murders and murderous intentions are allegorical. There is calmness- his movies stylish as they may be; picturesque locations and pure cinematic excellence is presented from rarely acquainted corners. There is brilliance of a director who is toying with his viewers’ addiction to plot with seductive camera work.
Stately, a man walks upstairs in Mr. Vengeance; we are shown the view from one of the floors. From inside the dark room, we can only see the stairs and the men who are walking upstairs. Next shot, we are drawn a further back and the view of stair case itself narrows down until all the three men have walked upstairs. Following shot, we are drawn backwards still and so on until the room envelops us with its disturbing darkness. In yet another scene, camera is lying on the floor while a murderer is interrogating his client, a beautiful young girl with two electrodes (crocodile pins) on her ear lobes. The entire scene is shot brilliantly, where the viewers sympathise with both the victim and the man who electrocutes her. It was only possible because the directo cautiously, yet stylishly, situates the camera at a safe distance. For a moment, we are only shown a pair of legs and the girl screaming from behind the point of view of the camera. Then we are shown the man draping her with a blanket before electrocuting her.
Most of the scenes are allegorical. In the penultimate scene, where the deaf and dumb protagonist awaits his victim to step out of his condo, we are shown at the end of it all, two bottles of urine by the car’s door, meaning that he is so burning with the flames of disgust and revenge, vengeance overpowering him to the point where he refuses to step out the vehicle for as long as it takes.
But when it comes to the gunpoint/knifepoint/baseball point, we are shown purity. What strikes you is the director’s choice of no background score. And what leaves you believe in the characters is director’s charming accuracy of timing., he waits until the viewers are acquainted with the characters before the dramatic events unfold.
There are periods of stasis (only brief shots of buildings, striking works of camera) and non stasis (shots of characters involved in tempestuous dialogues). But between them, lies the director, behind them sits the director. He refuses to budge; he sits with you, viewers, right form the opening to the closing credits. You will always feel the director’s special touch in every scene.
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