Things that are absolutely horrific are a matter of opinion. As humans with individual thought, the idea of a horrifying element can vary from person to person. We open the news papers and one man’s terror was another man’s treasure. It is due to this blatant truth that the horror element in our society has such a strong foundation and following. As we enter the world of Asian horror a bit further, the idea of revenge comes to mind instantly. I would have to say that our friends from the East have taken this part of the human mindset and done with it more than any area of film ever has. What does this have to do with horror, you ask? Simple. Because one man’s idea of revenge is another man’s nightmare.
As mentioned in my first article, “The Vengeance Trilogy” directed by Park Chan-Wook is one of the most important film trilogies to be admired in the genre. It consists of the three films “Old Boy”, “Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance” and “Lady Vengeance” which deal with the human psyche when a man or woman is pushed up against a corner and now seeks only the blood from the people who caused their life such… horror. It is a crude awakening into the real world, in this case set in 
Starting with “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance”, which was the first installment of the series having premiered in 2002, it follows two separate individuals who carry two separate vows of revenge which eventually cause one another to cross paths. Ryu, the def mute, is desperate to save his sister whom is in need of a kidney transplant and due to lack of funds and resources is opened up into the deep dark worlds of the black market. After having been ripped off, stolen from and now out of the job, his anarchist girlfriend concocts the master plan of holding a dear child for ransom. On the other side of the tracks, Dong-Jin, the father of anarchist girlfriend’s “master plan” seeks out only to torture and kill the very men and women who “accidentally” killed his precious daughter.It is in this film we see the world of human revenge at the very meat and bone of its existence. The film, good and bloody as it should be with talk of conspiracy and human turmoil as a good horror film should project, takes us down to our primal nature. We will do anything for the ones we love. Anything. That idea alone can only lead one into realizing maybe we should be frightened of even ourselves.
“Old Boy” came along next in this series in 2003. This story was from the perception of a man who had been wrongly imprisoned in a hotel room for 15 years with not so much as a hint as to why he had been incarcerated. He was now under the pressures of less than a week to find out who his captors were and why his love had been brutally murdered.This film, unlike the first installment, traveled from film festival to film festival and had gained a wide spread following all over the world. This was more of a film which portrayed a deeper insanity which follows confusion, violence and terror which can come from the caged and crossed human mind. Unfortunately, like many of the other great Asian horror films of our time, an American version is in the works but as we all had seen from “The Grudge” (
“Lady Vengeance”, or “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance”, was the last in this trilogy to be released in 2005 and I must say it is my personal favorite. In this story, a young woman is falsely accused of killing a young child while the real killer remains at large. Once released, the woman seeks her long lost daughter out and revenge against the man who truly brought such an untimely end to the young child. I must say, what makes this film the greatest of all three would have to be a scene which takes place later on in the film. You see a dirty old man who takes joy in tormenting and then killing young children. Driven for revenge on not only her time wrongly served but for the missing children of South Korea, our heroine gathers the parents of several missing children together, provides rather unquestionable evidence against the man who took their children and allows them the choice of his punishment.
No judge. No jury. It is brilliant.
I suppose one could say this is a vigilante sort of justice much like we see in action movies here in America
It is funny to think how people continue on day to day wondering how Sally down the street could have killed her own husband for beating her kids or Adam from church could really run over the man who kidnapped his daughter. The real question is not “How could they do it?” but “How would you do it?”
After all, we are only human. Right?
