This is awesome: the Northwest Film Center is showing South Korean director Chan-Wook Park's groundbreaking Vengeance Trilogy starting tonight, with two chances to see each film. The very strong could even opt to spend all of Saturday in an ultraviolence marathon; this would earn you major toughness points, as these movies, though glorious, are not so easy to watch. Park specializes in a sophisticated brand of excruciating, hall-of-mirrors tragedy that makes Shakespeare kinda seem like Jane Austen. The atrocities pile up, delivering unbelievable yet somehow inevitable punishment to pretty much everyone. Moments of startling violence follow scenes of terrible calm, with bits of humor and tenderness laced throughout. Every single death is sad, even, for example, the well-deserved killing of an organ-stealing rapist. The films are shockingly gory, even to those of us who think we're pretty cool about that kinda stuff, but it is in no way meaningless violence. Park's control of tone and his feeling for every character no matter how flawed make it impossible for the audience to revel in the bloodshed; we're too busy having our hearts broken by the awful sadness of it all.
Granted, six uninterrupted hours of this may not be everyone's idea of a dreamy Saturday afternoon. But if it sounds good to you, don't miss it, because the other thing about Park's films is that they are beautiful to look at, and it's well worth seeing them in a theater. (It's also not necessary to watch them in order or all at once; each film stands on its own, but if you're gonna go, you might as well go all the way.)
SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (2002) showing Thursday, Jun 24, at 7pm and Sat, Jun 26, at 2pm.
OLDBOY (2003), Park's masterpiece so far, and easily one of the best films of the past decade, shows Friday, Jun 25, at 6:30pm and Sat, Jun 26, at 4:30pm.
LADY VENGEANCE (2005) shows Fri, Jun 25, at 8:45pm and Sat, Jun 26, at 7pm.