Recensioni de* critic*

Don’t expect laughs. But do expect myriad scenes of torture and death, visual and aural invention, some narrative confusion and implausibility, political overtones, and an overwhelming cruelty as psychological as it is physical.

In Park's frame, it is only the director who comes out on top, and there is nothing in his crowing triumph that we can take for ourselves beyond a crumb of second-hand smugness. This recourse to cheap tricks characterises Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance far more than its poker-faced brooding on issues of justice and forgiveness.

[Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance] offers the same dramatic visual style and cruel plot twists [of Oldboy], but the mechanical retribution is even more boring.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is fun, up to a point, but once it crosses its own internal Rubicon it becomes downright horrific, with blood and torture and the vertiginous sense of being unable to wake from a particularly arresting nightmare.

[Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance] is so bloody, scatologically violent and consistently shocking, it seems to have no larger purpose than itself -- which is pretty grim.

“Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” is a stylish bloodbath relieved by shafts of dark humor... When it comes to serving up diabolical horror with bold, sophisticated glee, Park... is right up there with Dario Argento, Guillermo del Toro and Takashi Miike.

There is so much talent on display in Park Chanwook's "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," it is a drag that the film never rises to the level of its director's obvious ability... The problem [in Sympathy] is that the violence carries no meaning beyond the creator's ego.

It's a difficult balancing act, but Park crafts his layers carefully and masterfully.

“Mr. Vengeance” surpasses “Oldboy” by putting [Park's] specifically cinematic touches to work in the service of a far richer commitment to character development and thematic complexity.

[A] combustible tale of exploitation, despair and revenge... Some may bridle at the violence... but Park's control over his bleak vision is undeniably impressive.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance accomplishes a miraculous feat by being harrowing and humane in equal measure... What elevates [it] above mere sensationalism—and the misanthropic meting out of punishment in its successor Oldboy—is an acute social conscience. No director diagnoses the dolorous underbelly of contemporary Korea as perceptively as Park.

A daisy wheel of revenge-fueled gore speciously intercut with delusions of social commentary: It’s like watching a relative carve a Thanksgiving turkey while intermittingly screaming out words like “communism” and “new liberalism.”