SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE: REVIEW

Well, not my review, but Derek Elley's from Variety. It's one of the first Western industry reviews of SYMPATHY and it pretty much echoes what we've all been hearing: it's more like SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE than OLDBOY, and it's somewhat more restrained in its violence. Elley does add that Lee Yeong-Ae (the female lead in JSA) doesn't have the gravitas necessary to make her central role all that it could be, which is something I wondered about from the time it was announced that she was starring in this one.

So Park Chan-Wook's Vengeance Trilogy is finished. For all its ups and downs, I have to agree with Elley that this is one of the most original film trilogies to come out in a long time, and when the whole world is wrapped up in eye-for-and-eye politics it couldn't hit at a better time. Your mileage may vary.