Daniel Windsor

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

There's no subtitles on at least 2 of the notes on the UK edition.

I guess (especially with the last note) the notes' content is supposed to be obvious.

2 great films that I highly recommend.

Phyre

How's the transfer on that UK version of Sympathy?

Daniel Windsor

Very good

DVD Smurf

Where can I buy Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance R2? Help would be deeply appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Cheers

DVD Smurf

flashburn

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...286835-2773440

DVD Smurf

Ordered...thanks flashburn...now I am looking forward to feel emotional drained and cold...see current Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance thread

ehonauer

My Oldboy DVD had a postcard enclosed - looks like you send it in and they keep you notified of when the LE comes out? Maybe? Can anybody translate it?

beefjerky

It's says something about a "DVD Buying Event." Send in the postcard and you'll be entered into a drawing to win prizes. 20 people will win a Oh Daesu figure, 30 people will win some sort of computer game, and 50 people will win the Chicago OST.

So no news about the LE release. I hope the LE release has the deleted scenes that were in the Music Channel.

I was thinking about Yu Ji Tae's other films today (Natural City, Ditto, Attack the Gas Station), and I was really impressed with how far his acting has come. He was excellent in Oldboy. Easily one of my favorite movie villains.

ehonauer

Thanks, beefjerky. Hmm, wonder if my postcard will get to Seoul if I drop it in the US mail. Probably not. I assume the LE will have the deleted scenes, since it's going to be an extended director's cut.

On a different topic, I noticed that Oldboy has been called Tarantino-esque in some reviews. It is and it isn't. I definitely see stylistic traces of Tarantino, but also of David Lynch, the Cohen Bros, Tim Burton, Takashi Miike, et al (almost every fan boy director of the past 20 years!). Stylized, violent, quirky, cinematic, blackhearted, tender, sometimes all in the same scene. I like the way the KoreanFilm.org reviewer put it - "almost arrogantly artistic."

What's interesting about Oldboy is that it doesn't seem like a retread of any one of these directors' work. It avoids being derivative by bringing its own energy and ideas to the table. I guess you could say that about a lot of Korean films.

Personally, I think Park Chan-Wook has yet to make a "great" film, but he's off to a fantastic start. Hopefully the Grand Prix won't go to his head. With Oldboy he's really thrown the gauntlet down for other Korean filmmakers. If others try to top him, we're going to see a lot of interesting films come down the pike.

Does anybody think it will be distributed in the US with an R rating? I can't see why not, but then again I didn't think Audition should've been unrated so I might not be the best judge of these things. Thewould probably be the dealbreaker.

fnordboy

That scene pained me so much. It was horrible to watch

RichC2

Just saw this flick and agree with ehonauer, there's a good deal of "other" directors style, but it doesn't feel like a rethread of any single style. Though it reminded me more of Fincher than anyone else.

This is a cool flick, can see a lot of critics hating it and it doesn't quite hold water all the way through, but it's thoroughly gripping and satisfyingly disgusting at the same time. Plus you actually had to pay attention, which seems to be becoming more and more rare.

It's easily the most "entrancing" movie I've seen this year, and would easily recommend it to just about anyone looking for something that differs a good deal from the norm.

Oh and the only "ouch" scene for me was

harosa

DEFINITE SPOILERS----------------------------




You were warned, dont bitch.






I dont know, I found the whole, he slept with his daughter thing more disturbing than the teeth torture and tongue cutting.

RichC2

Spoiler tags work well too :P


and yea, I think anyone would agree... and that's the part that lingers on in my mind as utterly disturbing.

movieking

Just saw the movie and really liked it. I was afraid that we would not get an explanation for what happened to him, but not only did we get the reason, we also got to see the aftermath of what happened when he found. Most movies now would probably just end with him finding out the story...

bobstevens

I also just saw it and liked it a lot. The camerawork was a little nicer in the first half of Sympathy, but this movie was more intense and overall better than Sympathy. My favorite scene had to be the fight in the middle. Choosing Vivaldi's music to back that up seemed like a nod to A Clockwork Orange, but I thought it was a spectacular scene.

Heliosphann

Wow...

****ing another amazing piece of cinema from Park Chan-Wook (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, JSA). Very Shakespearian in a stylized Tarantino kinda way. Also seemed to have some hints of Kubrick, although that could be attributed to some of the musical selections in the film. Park Chan-Wook is certainly proving to be one of the ELITE directors working in film today...

See this ASAP, you won't be disappointed.

I can't wait until Hollywood remakes it, because it'll be so dreadfully awful... Pretty much everything good about this film Hollywood will toss out and replace with something more tame."

smokedragon

Many thanks to you all for the recommendation of both Sympathy For Mr Vengeance , and, Oldboy .

I watched them both and was mesmerized. Absolutely brilliant.

This is why I always check out International DVD Talk, because know I will be able to find good stuff to watch.

Thanks again. looking forward to Chan-Wook Park's next movie.

Daniel Windsor

Glad everyone's enjoying Chan-Wook Park!

Take a look at Joint Security Area too.

Super cheap from www.dddhouse.com (Region 0 Honk Kong DTS) or the anamorphic Korean Region 3 release.

That HK release comes in slipcase with a keepcase (like MGM do).

ehonauer

Do you know how do the transfers compare? Some HK transfers (Failan, Friend) are on par with the Korean, while some (Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Happy End) are not.

Josh Z

The Hong Kong release of JSA is non-anamorphic, while the Korean is anamorphic.

Daniel Windsor

The transfer of the HK disc is very good, but non-anamorphic. Some people might ask how it can be so good if it's not anamorphic, well it just is.

The Korean disc is excellent and of course anamorphic. I provided links for further comment.

So, if you don't mind non-anamorphic go for the cheaper HK disc. It has the advantage of having hardly any subtitles in the widescreen image area (ie they're in the black area).

If I were buying all 3 discs for the first time I'd go for the all-Korean releases as it's easier from one supplier.

tbickle

I imagine this has already been discussed countless times but can anyone recommend the best place to get this film? Koreandvds.com was the obvious choice but I wondered if the film would be censored there. It might be the only choice but I thought someone might know of somewhere else. Thanks for any suggestions.

drjay

Yesasia for $20.99 is where I got it. There is a $5 off $35 coupon, and free shipping on orders over $39, so if you had a 2nd item you want, that might be best.

EDIT: I might suggest Twilight Samurai which you can get there, just based on the DVDTalk review. I haven't watched my copy yet but I assume it is quite good.

marty888

Also got mine from YesAsia - seems to be just about the best price out there on this.

Trigger

I liked Twilight Samurai, but wouldn't call it essential purchase material. It's certainly good and worth purchasing though.

yesasia is where I got my old boy from.