★★★ (out of 5 stars) This extremely twisted and eerie Korean film is close to the spirit of James I-style revenge tragedy, full of excessive violence, sentimental sibling relationships, worrying dissatisfaction, and creepy horror image. Whether it is persuasive on a narrative or human level is debatable. Sometimes the plot is obscure, to say the least. And any kind of "sympathy" for the various Avengers in the movie is out of the question: what's on screen feels a little bit alienated or alienated. But director Park Chan-wook pulls it all together with an unmistakable visual style, and the film will linger long after it's over: the story of humanity's descent into the depths of hell. Young handicapped, Ryu (Shin Ha Kyun), unable to hear or speak, was fired from the factory because he needed time to care for his sister, who needed a new kidney. In desperate need of cash for a transplant, he kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, played by Song Kang-ho, who also appeared in the South Korean thriller "Life and Death." But things got to the point where both the industrialist and Yoo thought they were avengers capable of any kind of absurd violence. The film's central tragedy and gruesome ending takes place near a remote and beautiful lake, where Yoo's happiest childhood memories are, and it's here that Park Chan-wook's film is most persuasive. Elsewhere, in this bustling city of violence and crime, plots of kidnapping and revenge continue, often without telling audiences exactly what happened and why—and subtitled only in spoken dialogue and Liu's sign language, It didn't help the letters: including a crucial handwritten note from Ryu's sister, was not translated, and the audience had to struggle to keep up with the plot. The first time I saw it was at the Berlin Film Festival, when many viewers were confused and disgusted by this extreme film. But it has a strange, nightmarishly firm view.
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