No Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
by Marc Patterson
First off, I have to say one thing. I’m rather conflicted on how I want to start this post. This morning I woke up to news that Warner Bros. had secured the rights to Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Not long ago (mid-November) waves of excitement overtook the internet at the news that the Spielberg helmed Oldboy remake was dead in the water. Disputes over rights, which are likely to never be settled, gave the popular Chan-wook film a stay of execution at the remake table. But now Warner Bros. enters the arena and picks up Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. And they aren’t sitting around holding the rights to a project that will only be shelved. They’ve already enlisted the talents of Brian Tucker (Broken City) to pen the script. No director has yet been named. (Theories anyone?)
What I find interesting about this whole phenomenon was that Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance never stuck me as a film anyone would WANT to remake. An Oldboy remake made sense. Oldboy has a fairly strong cult following and I know many folks who have watched (and loved) Oldboy, but have never taken the time to check out either of Chan-wook’s other Vengeance flicks, (The third film being Sympathy For Mrs. Vengeance, which I considered to be pure poetry). It’s safe to say the other two films in Chan-wook’s “Vengeance Trilogy” are lesser known, and even more extreme examples of complex art-house styled filmmaking. They represent a style of story-telling that doesn’t resonate with most mainstream audiences. If remade correctly Mr. Vengeance will see a limited release at best. Having just said that though I’d ask that you take that comment with a grain of salt. After all, currently Let Me In is getting the best remake treatment possible and at this point will likely see a fairly decent wide release.
But why would no one want to remake Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance? For starters it isn’t an easily accessible film, but yet I find it to be the most superbly crafted revenge film made. And I don’t say that lightly. Mr. Vengeance is poetic, tragic, and a beautifully constructed film showing the devastating effects of revenge and ultimately why forgiveness and letting go is a better path. It’s going to be a real challenge for the new filmmakers to take and craft this story into an emotionally compelling tale that will come close to mirroring the effect of Chan-wook’s masterpiece.
For those who have missed it, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is the story of Ryu, a deaf/mute who works in a factory. His sister has fallen ill and requires a kidney transplant in order to live. Ryu manages to raise the money, but is swindled out of it, and when he becomes laid off from his factory job he hatches a devious plan with his girlfriend to kidnap the daughter to Ryu’s old boss. However, feeling this a rather obvious move, they decide to kidnap the daughter of the competitive companies boss and hold that girl ransom. From here things get really messy as a circle of violence and revenge expands into uncontrollable chaos and tragedy.
You can be assured we’ll be following the developments of this project closely and bringing you updates as appropriate.
