A well-paced, brutal mincing of black-market organ donation, disability, kidnapping, and revenge.

Matt on 23.12.2011

An ailing sister leads deaf factory worker Ryu to raise funds for a kidney transplant. His anarchist girlfriend suggests kidnapping the boss' daughter and holding her for ransom. What could possibly go wrong? What follows is a Coen Brothers-esque spiral of revenge, electrocution, hard-boiled detective work, group masturbation, unsanitary medical procedures and a sign-language assisted sex scene. Director Park Chan-wook adheres to East Asian cinema's penchant for vague exposition, forcing the viewer to fill in a lot of the gaps in the narrative along the way. By the end it all makes sense, provided you don't pop out to the fridge half way through. The pace is slower than you might expect, but the frequent bursts of 'Holy crap, what the hell was that?' moments are sure to keep the little ones amused. Poetic though the title may be, the multiple, intersecting storylines leave the viewer questioning who the titular 'Mr Vengeance' actually is. A more appropriate title would have been a c