The Movie
Park Chan-wook has has been one of South Korea's most acclaimed filmmakers for several years now, but is perhaps best-known for his notorious Vengeance Trilogy. They are three standalone movies with no recurring characters, rather a unified theme and creative approach, much like Sergio Leone's Man with No Name Trilogy. Released between 2002 and 2005, the films are, in order, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Old Boy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (a.k.a. simply Lady Vengeance, a loose translation at best).
2003's Old Boy is the most famous, a mystery explored with a singular style, the audience never knowing if we're going to be shocked or made to laugh at the invariably dark humor. A seemingly ordinary citizen is plucked off the street, finding himself held captive in a strange hotel room for fifteen long years. He emerges a very different character, and we eventually find out what the heck has been going on, in one of the greatest surprise endings of the new millennium. The movie also contains one of the most underappreciated action sequences of all time, an almost-three-minute uninterrupted shot wherein our main character (we can't really call him a "hero") fights maybe 20 guys, first with a hammer then with his bare fists, him with a knife sticking out of his back all the while. Simply breathtaking.
Mr. Vengeance is no slouch either, the story of a naïve deaf mute who sells his own kidney on the black market in order to procure one for his beloved, ailing sister, but his plan backfires and in desperate need of money, he turns to kidnapping. This simple but despicable plan also goes awry, unleashing a brutal series of events that forever change the lives of all involved.
And Lady Vengeance, like so many of the characters here, is not necessarily the villainess she appears to be. Released from prison for her crimes of kidnapping and murder, she walks and talks like a woman reformed, but is harboring an enormous secret about the events preceding her incarceration, along with an elaborate plan. While perhaps a tad heavy-handed, the use of the word "sympathy" in these titles is apt, as we fortunate viewers are led into strange dramatic territory, where lines between good and evil are blurred in new ways, and we're left not knowing exactly how to feel. Particularly in this summer of cookie-cutter dreck, Chan-wook's originality hits like... well, a hammer to the forehead.
The Picture
The Trilogy is presented in the director's preferred widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Mr. Vengeance flaunts strong colors and a generally excellent master with extremely fine textures revealed, although some geometric patterns can be twitchy. An unusual chemical process was applied and distinctive lighting used for Old Boy, giving it an even more unsettling feel. It is presented in a relatively high bitrate AVC format, which yields a crisp image but definitely not always a "gorgeous" one, and not exempt from noise.
We're given a real treat for Lady Vengeance, as the movie was released in two different versions--standard and "Fade to White" -- both included. In the latter, the picture gradually loses its color as the story plays out, until by the end it is in black-and-white. (The brief introduction, thankfully, is a genuine explanation). It's the most visually stylized of the three, not only in its bold color choices but in the cinematic techniques, the use of special effects, etc. Of course, two versions of the movie on one disc necessitates a lower bitrate, fine but not optimal, and the compression takes its toll on the subtler points, such as the noise level, ringing, and the quality of the blacks.
The Sound
The Extras
All of the video bonus features are presented here in standard definition, and because of limited space on the Lady Vengeance Blu-ray, the bulk of its features are on a second disc, a DVD.
Old Boy packs three commentaries. The first is by director Park Chan-wook alone, another wherein he is joined by cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon, and a third with Chan-wook and cast members Gang Ye-jung, Yu Ji-tae and Choi Min-sik. Also here are deleted/alternate/extended scenes with optional commentary (24-and-a-half minutes), five behind-the-scenes documentaries totaling over an hour, 50 minutes of a live cast and crew Q&A, and a featurette about the high honors received at Cannes. Rounding out this disc is the three-and-a-half-hour video diary, "The Autobiography of Old Boy."
"The Process of Mr. Vengeance (Making of)" (32 minutes) kicks off a variety of interesting video segments, sharing different aspects of the moviemaking experience, including glimpses of the surprisingly lighthearted set despite the incredible effort by the actors. "My Boksu Story" (17 minutes) highlights the thespians looking back on the movie, in addition to 40 minutes of crew interviews, ten minutes of storyboards played over the corresponding final sound effects, a quick listen of the music, and a profile of the director by British TV host Jonathon Ross. The commentary is by Chan-wook joined by fellow director Ryu Seung-wan.
An English language commentary is provided for Lady Vengeance by Richard Penna, a program director for The Film Society of Lincoln Center. This is in addition to one by the director again in his native Korean, this time with actress Yeong-Ae Lee, and another by the generous helmer teamed with director of photography Jonghoon Chung and art director Hwasung Cho.
On its Disc Two, "Making of Lady Vengeance" is a dedicated featurette (about 11 minutes), and the original electronic press kit ("EPK") is also proffered, with different content (28 minutes). The five-part "Style of Lady Vengeance" covers all aspects of design, and the bluntly titled "Park Chan-wook" includes discussion, photographs, and introductions to "The Freaking Family," a short film recommended by the director, but oddly not the film itself.
"Character Interviews" collects actors and other chatting about the different roles, 26 minutes total. "Lady Vengeance in Venice" (about 8 minutes) showcases the Venice Film Festival, where the movie took two awards. The deleted scenes run 14 minutes, with mandatory commentary, and "Get Together" (nine-and-a-half minutes) reveals the cameos in this last movie in the trilogy, which featured actors from the previous two films.
Final Thoughts
Those technical quality shortcomings aside, this Vengeance Trilogy Blu-ray box is an amazing piece of work, both in the films themselves and in the extras, which, although repurposed from DVD, provide boundlessly fascinating insight into the creative process. Highly recommended.
Product Details
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