echostation
Superhero
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- Apr 29, 2000
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For those who are interested in watching this film, I saw Lady Vengeance earlier... here's just a brief review of what I thought of it
This is an excellent way to end Park's Revenge trilogy. The trilogy so far is very much an incomplete upside down V with Sympathy for Mr Vengeance being the worst of the three, Old boy as the apex/best of them and Lady Vengeance being the second best.
I won't go into too many spoilers or details or anything but if anyone has any questions i'm more than happy to answer them. I'll just do some positive points and negative points:
Negative:
- The film even though at under 2 hours could have used some definite tighter editing, I could think of at least 3 shots where the film could've ended and although I thought the ending was brilliant, poetic and yet somewhat ironically comedic, they could've gotten there sooner but I still think there were some better shots to show for an ending
- This is not necessarily a negative but for those expecting Oldboy style twists, you are going to be seriously disappointed there are some subtle twists here and there but it's much more "conventional" relative to Park's other films
- Some shots felt too self important and kitschy and manipulative which were of no value at all. As in some parts seem like they were just being too overgenerous with how great the crew and cast were in making this film and some of those shots lasted too long and were unecessarily gratuitous. Some of the shots are quite pretentious in this sense and it's almost as if Park's thinking "yes this is how i can confuse my audience with this scene and they'll totally fall for it..." this the same sort of accusation that can be pinned on PTA as a filmmaker.
- The Aussie parents were annoying as hell and contributed nothing to the film. There was nothing to take from them and they added nothing to the story, i wish they wre killed off but they weren't.
- The daughter to some extent was annoying with her english, the still shots of her doing nothing trying to reveal the static relationship between her and her mother didn't work quite a lot and the relationship was quite unbelievable, she just follows this ex-convict everywhere with no explanation... it's rather stupid actually.
Positives:
- Performances all round through were excellent especially the main lead, the daughter, the main villain (who was the main hero in oldboy), and the other parents shown in the film... very very sturdy strong stuff
- The score by far is the best in all three films, just awesome, very memorable thematics, and worked better into the film than Oldboy did and that had a tight as hell soundtrack.
- Someone please give Korean cinematography a massive budget, these guys are ****ing excellent. The photography and lensing in this film is absolutely gorgeous, even the follow on shots in the snow and in the warehouse during the old log cabin type warehouse place, where they follow on through phone lines through various rooms and bring the camera from an exterior environment "through the window" to the interior. The photography was so effective that at times you felt so claustrophobic and yet immeidately following there is a sense of relief, open space to breathe.
- The direction for the most part was really sharp and the content of the film itself I thought was excellent... again this is not really about the story but the voyage for trying to attain atonement for sins... excellent stuff. Two scenes that stood out for me were the shots of the lead lady smiling than having uncertain sadness in her eyes and face then smiling again as people crossed her. And of course, the ending... what a brilliant ending.
- The imagery and symbolism, just Class A stuff. People were dead silent by the end of the film cuz there is so much to digest...
- The scenes of revenge taking were done with an ironic satire... it was shocking to say the least cuz that's how masterfully stuff is played out in this film...
I thought this film was superb overall and kicked some major ass. 8.7/10 for me
This is an excellent way to end Park's Revenge trilogy. The trilogy so far is very much an incomplete upside down V with Sympathy for Mr Vengeance being the worst of the three, Old boy as the apex/best of them and Lady Vengeance being the second best.
I won't go into too many spoilers or details or anything but if anyone has any questions i'm more than happy to answer them. I'll just do some positive points and negative points:
Negative:
- The film even though at under 2 hours could have used some definite tighter editing, I could think of at least 3 shots where the film could've ended and although I thought the ending was brilliant, poetic and yet somewhat ironically comedic, they could've gotten there sooner but I still think there were some better shots to show for an ending
- This is not necessarily a negative but for those expecting Oldboy style twists, you are going to be seriously disappointed there are some subtle twists here and there but it's much more "conventional" relative to Park's other films
- Some shots felt too self important and kitschy and manipulative which were of no value at all. As in some parts seem like they were just being too overgenerous with how great the crew and cast were in making this film and some of those shots lasted too long and were unecessarily gratuitous. Some of the shots are quite pretentious in this sense and it's almost as if Park's thinking "yes this is how i can confuse my audience with this scene and they'll totally fall for it..." this the same sort of accusation that can be pinned on PTA as a filmmaker.
- The Aussie parents were annoying as hell and contributed nothing to the film. There was nothing to take from them and they added nothing to the story, i wish they wre killed off but they weren't.
- The daughter to some extent was annoying with her english, the still shots of her doing nothing trying to reveal the static relationship between her and her mother didn't work quite a lot and the relationship was quite unbelievable, she just follows this ex-convict everywhere with no explanation... it's rather stupid actually.
Positives:
- Performances all round through were excellent especially the main lead, the daughter, the main villain (who was the main hero in oldboy), and the other parents shown in the film... very very sturdy strong stuff
- The score by far is the best in all three films, just awesome, very memorable thematics, and worked better into the film than Oldboy did and that had a tight as hell soundtrack.
- Someone please give Korean cinematography a massive budget, these guys are ****ing excellent. The photography and lensing in this film is absolutely gorgeous, even the follow on shots in the snow and in the warehouse during the old log cabin type warehouse place, where they follow on through phone lines through various rooms and bring the camera from an exterior environment "through the window" to the interior. The photography was so effective that at times you felt so claustrophobic and yet immeidately following there is a sense of relief, open space to breathe.
- The direction for the most part was really sharp and the content of the film itself I thought was excellent... again this is not really about the story but the voyage for trying to attain atonement for sins... excellent stuff. Two scenes that stood out for me were the shots of the lead lady smiling than having uncertain sadness in her eyes and face then smiling again as people crossed her. And of course, the ending... what a brilliant ending.
- The imagery and symbolism, just Class A stuff. People were dead silent by the end of the film cuz there is so much to digest...
- The scenes of revenge taking were done with an ironic satire... it was shocking to say the least cuz that's how masterfully stuff is played out in this film...
I thought this film was superb overall and kicked some major ass. 8.7/10 for me
