remarkable film

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2007)

Very fine if gruelling speeding bullet of a film that still has time for decent characterisation and thought provoking dialogue. I went to look up my piece on the same director's earlier, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, and see I never wrote it up. Possibly the reason is, as with this one, it is rather difficult after such an onslaught, both with violence and emotion, to gather one's thoughts in a sufficiently clear manner. The film has opened theatrically here to rave reviews, which I do not often find a good omen and several IMDb reviewers find it slow and lacking in violence and gore. Well maybe there is not as much blood as in some but it is far easier to watch an arm issue forth a fountain of blood than to watch just a second of Mr Park's gastronomic or dentistry scenes. Well worth watching though and I feel that after a second viewing when I will not be quite so confused with the 'imprisonment' at the start and a little more able to 'enjoy' the more vigorous sequences, I shall be in position to give a better account of this remarkable film.