I'm sure that one day in your life you had one of those days where nothing goes well, even if you try very hard, it just doesn't work and everything you have planned get flushed to the worst. Well, for Ryu, his life is like one of those sad days, I think it probably gives you an idea about how this film is going to be. Sad, dark, cold violent, depressive and fascinating at he same time are the words that come to my mind when I think of it.

During the movie I even had the feeling that I was watching a high quality CatIII Hong Kong movie, because the general story is a bit similar. In the sense of how the story evolves, it's not for the good of the characters, trust me. The story is very well structured but sometime you have the feeling that you are not sure about understanding what is really going on, but don't worry everything will come clear sooner or later. There is also a lot of surprises; I mean bad surprises during the movie. A lot of things that you never expect to happen will occur and even if you saw them coming, it always happens in the worst way imaginable.

One of the things that makes this movie really work with your feelings is because the characters are impressively natural and believable. Not necessarily attaching because sometime you are really questioning the actions of the characters but you cant just not sympathize with them, because at heart you know that they just trying the best they can do but it just doesn't work for them. All this really makes it hard on the viewer because there's no evil side in the movie but two characters that have their own very good reason to commit the terrible acts they do.

Kang-ho Song (JSA, Foul King), who has become a very popular actor in South Korea right now; portrays the role of Dong-Jin the business man. His acting level is as good as the usual and the character really suited him very well. But the real shine of all the actors was Ha-kyun Shin (JSA, Guns & Talks) characterizing Ryu. The fact that this character can't speak was probably a big challenge for him but he did an excellent job at it and you end up really wishing the best for that character. The two other main characters are Ryu's girl friend, an activist with a plan for every situation and Ryu's sister. Both were also very good in their respective role, enough to sympathize with them when they struggle to get out of their unavoidable situations.

The pace of the movie is slow and follows more the path of a drama than any other genre, but because of how the story evolves this movie is not for the sensitive heart. Not only because of the cold violence but because the movie really plays with your feeling. If you feel a bit depressed before watching this movie, I suggest you to skip it or wait for another time because your moral will go out of the window for sure. The movie starts with a very sad mood and it goes worst with the progression of the story until the very end credits. Don't take this as a negative comment but more of a warning, just be ready for it and you might enjoy it very much because it would not be fair to trash the movie for the sadness it will bright in you.

Artistically the movie is very good, my expectations were high on that side. Again Park Chan-Wuk, who also directed JSA, did an incredible job with his directional approach, very natural and ordinary but unique at the same time. The music on the other side was not very well apparent, in fact there's almost no music in the movie. I don't know if it's a really good thing because I always think that music is a very important factor to set the mood or give emotion to the viewer. So I don't know how the director managed to do it but even with no music the major scenes really transpired of emotion that could be felt by the spectator very easily.

Park Chan-Wuk also wrote the script of Mr. Vengeance himself almost 10 years ago, but at that time he was not very well known and no one wanted to produce the movie. But after the big success of JSA he had more freedom over his following work and was finally able to bring his script onto the big screen. But unfortunately for him, his recent movie didn't have the success of JSA and had a very mixed welcome by the Korean public.

It's true that "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" is really not a movie for everyone. The sad tone and cold violence will probably not please everyone and I can understand but on the other side those who will give a chance to it might be very pleased by the result. Just don't expect a JSA 2 because they are two very different movies, even if both movies deal with friendship and love they both take a totally different approach.