Park Chan-wook
Mr. Vendetta

The first chapter of the so-called "Vengeance Trilogy," Mr. Vengeance by Park Chan-Wook is the rawest and most violent of the three. The destructive fury of the characters breaks out about a third of the way into the film, which initially presents itself as a normal drama, where Ryu, a deaf-mute boy, tries to find a way to help his sister, who needs an organ transplant. Since the hospital takes too long to find one, he decides to turn to organ traffickers, who ask him for 10 million won (the same amount requested by the hospital) and one of his kidneys. Ryu agrees, falling into the criminals' trap, who disappear after getting what they wanted. So, Ryu, who in the meantime has been laid off from the factory where he worked, and his girlfriend decide to kidnap Yu-Sun, the daughter of Park, Ryu's now ex-boss, to demand a ransom so that they can pay the hospital, which has managed to find a donor. Due to an accident, however, the girl dies, unleashing the vengeful fury of her father, who begins to hunt down Ryu, while the latter wants to exact revenge on the organ traffickers.

From this moment on, the plot is stained with blood repeatedly, hitting the viewer with scenes of violence that have a dual effect on the viewer (or, at least, on me), who wants to see more but, at the same time, wants it to end because of the strong visual impact. Praiseworthy are the mastery and elegance with which Park Chan-Wook, with his cinematographer Kim Byeong-il, through a skillful use of lenses and color saturation, deliver formidable (in the sense of its Latin etymology as well) images of rare beauty: personally, I find the scene near the finale, where Park finds himself in the waters of a river, with splashes of blood on his face, movingly beautiful, and consider it one of the most beautiful shots of 2000s cinema.

Unlike the next two chapters of the trilogy (Oldboy, 2003; Lady Vengeance, 2005), where the protagonists think for years about their revenge, harboring resentment for a long time before being able to see their thirst for blood satisfied, in Mr. Vengeance, Ryu and Park act immediately, generating a whirlwind of spontaneous and fierce violence: and I believe that precisely for this reason, this first chapter of the trilogy is the most violent and bloodthirsty. The protagonists' actions are subject to pure instinct, dictated by the moment, while the revenges of Oh Dae-Su (Oldboy) and Lee Geum-ja (Lady Vengeance) are more considered, thus the result of planning that limits, at least in part, the brutality of the situations they become involved in.

In this film, we are shown two types of vengeance: the purely personal one (Park hunting down Ryu) and one that also affects society (Ryu wanting to eliminate the organ traffickers, thus freeing the city of a dangerous scourge). Throughout the film, I perceived a very important topic as the protagonist of the plot: which of the two types is the most "legitimate"? WARNING! TO ANALYZE THIS ASPECT, I WILL HAVE TO MAKE SPOILERS: IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE FILM, DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS PARAGRAPH. The two characters move in a reality portrayed as the cradle of every evil, where everything is corrupt and decadent: the society Park Chan-Wook presents to us lives in the blackest possible nihilism. Good and evil lose all meaning, becoming no longer two sides of the same coin but a reflected image in the mirror: there is no longer any difference between them. Consequently, vengeance that would lead to a benefit for the community (Ryu's) succumbs under the attacks of Park's selfish vengeance, who kills the deaf-mute boy: "I know you're a good guy, but I have to kill you, do you understand?" With these words, Park completes his revenge. And in the final scene, he will be killed by Ryu's girlfriend's friends, who were warned him that if he harmed her, the terrorist cell she belonged to would eliminate him. A final revenge crowning a vicious cycle of blood and pain and nihilism, where, as water goes to water, violence only leads to more violence. Park Chan-Wook's pessimism terrifies, makes one lose hope in humanity: in a world where evil reigns, there is no longer room for good.