Sympathy for Mr. Park

August is turning out to be a golden month for much-buzzed South Korean filmmaker Park Chanwook, with Oldboy (2003) -- potentially a top-ten fave of the year for this cinephiliac -- arriving on DVD next week, and the recent exciting news that Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) has made the blood-stained cut at the upcoming 43rd New York Film Festival. That only leaves one film in Park's revenge trilogy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), which finally pommels its way into a limited theatrical release today, yet has already had its ass throughly beaten (an unfair assault on a good film whose distribution is heretofore guaranteed to be mismanaged in the blundering hands of Tartan):

"Shrugged off by more than a few U.S. critics as sloppy in its scornful political critique, lacking in context to justify its brutality, and unobjectively labelled a film only a fanboy could love, this misunderstood thriller is hardly as one-dimensionally wanton as those snubs would have it..." (Read my full review at Premiere.com)

As you'll hopefully read, I think Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is far from perfect and definitely not suitable for those who can't stomach an old-fashioned tendon slashing. Whether its moral and sensory examination works is a professional debate of opinion, but to cheaply bury the film as meaningless exploitation is an unacceptably surface-deep reading from a crew who should know the difference between Park and less humanist pop-stylists like Takashi "I just made three more films while you read this" Miike and Quentin "You can thank me for hearing The 5.6.7.8's every other commercial break" Tarantino.

UNRELATED WEEKEND NEWS: Literally! One of Jean-Luc Godard's all-time greatest, Weekend (1968), sneaks out onto DVD next Tuesday. Be sure to check the "Editor's Picks" above for a free MP3 homage from Berlin's electro-poppy fun time, Stereo Total.