Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Greetings, today’s blog update is a review of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, a South Korean film and the first installation in the Vengeance trilogy. Last month I had reviewed Old Boy which is the second movie in the series but is unrelated in terms of plot and doesn’t share characters across the two works. It was released one year earlier than Old Boy in 2002 and was directed by Park Chan-wook. It stars Song Kang-ho and Shin Ha-Kyun as the two opposing protagonists and Bae Doona as a central character to the plot. Unlike other traditional storylines or films as there doesn’t appear to be a clear heroic figure. Both the leading characters are motivated by vengeance and both could be described sympathetic villains or anti-heroes due to their morality and aggressive actions.
The plot begins with Ryu, a deaf-mute manual labourer who works at factory to financially support his ill sister called Im Ji-eun. His sister urgently requires a kidney but Ryu doesn’t have the money to afford the operation. His situation is made worse when he was laid off by his employers and so he reaches out to black market organ donors. He offers them his own kidney and money in exchange for one that will suit his sister’s needs. The operation goes ahead but Ryu is left, abandoned by the thieves and when he wakes up he realizes he didn’t receive his end of the deal. In need of money Ryu’s girlfriend, an anarchist by the name of Cha Yeong-mi, comes up with a plan. She suggests a radical scheme to kidnap the daughter of Park Don-Jin for ransom and when the money has been paid it can put towards the operation. Don-Jin is an executive at the plant and friend of Ryu’s ex-boss. He was chosen as their victim as to not raise suspicion but also to as he could afford the hostage takers demands.
The two succeed in taking the child known as Yu-sun, much to the desperation and grief of Park. Things take a turn for the worse when Ryu’s sister finds out about the plan and kills herself when she realizes that it was done in her name. After learning about her death, a distraught Ryu takes her to be buried near a river where they used to play alongside when they were children. The hostage is also taken along as well to the site and Yu-sun manages to drown while the deaf protagonist is burying his deceased sister. When Yi-Sun’s body is found, her father seeks revenge and begins to track down the murderer with the intention of killing him as well as those involved in the plot. On the other side of the story Ryu and his girlfriend Cha attempt to track the organ donor criminals that conned him near the beginning of the film. They have the same sinister intent and ambitions as Park has for them.
I enjoyed the movie even though it has some particularly disturbing scenes in it that are off putting for some individuals. Despite the entertainment it provided I felt that Old Boy was an improvement on it as well as a being better film in general. Sympathy for Mr Vengeance isn’t going to be a movie for everyone to appreciate due to its ultra-violence or torture scenes and I’m not sure that all members of this blogging community would enjoy it either. As I have already seen the first two in the trilogy I would like to finish it off with by watching the third instalment and am eager to see if it holds up to the standard of the previous works. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to see and review Sympathy for Lady Vengeance at some stage in the near future.
Plot=8/10
Characters=7/10
Special Effect=8/10
Overall=8/10
Quote of the Day
As you know, I have made a vow never to give you information that could potentially alter your destiny. Your path is yours to walk, and yours alone. That being said, Khan Noonien Singh is the most dangerous adversary the Enterprise ever faced. He is brilliant, ruthless, and he will not hesitate to kill every single one of you.
Spock
Star Trek: Into Darkness
Sam and Max: Hit the Road
Greetings, Sam and Max: Hit the Road is a point and click adventure game from 1993. It is the first Sam and Max game to be have been made and remained the only one until the franchise was updated by the Telltale series that lasted from 2006 to 2010. The planned 3D sequel named Sam and Max: Freelance Police was announced in 2002 and cancelled a few years later in 2004. Hit and Run was developed by LucasArts and as such it does not have an episodic approach to storytelling like the sequels do. There are still a few similarities between the two versions such as the whimsical style of humour, musical scenes and unusual puzzles. Hit and Run felt a little strange to play as the characters that I was used to interacting with were created or developed by Telltale and their absence was noticeable. Despite this, some of them were briefly mentioned in passing but never seen such as Bosco or their crime fighting neighbour, Flint Paper. Instead Hit and Run introduced new characters that weren’t included in the later series.
The plot, in usual Sam and Max style, is an unusual and light hearted. Sam and Max receive a call from the commissioner, who is never seen, to head down to the Kushman Brother’s Carnival. Once there Sam and Max are told by the Brothers, who are conjoined twins, that one of their star attractions is missing. The attraction is Bruno, a frozen Sasquatch or Bigfoot, that managed to escape. The Bigfoot isn’t the only one that went missing. A woman named Trixie with an elongated neck that resembles a giraffe’s had also disappeared at the same time that Bruno vanished. Armed with little information or clues, it is up to the freelance police to track the down the two missing individuals.
They explore various locations and tourist sites such as the world’s largest ball of twine or the vegetable resembling celebrities museum. It isn’t long before the duo discovers that a Liverpudlian country singer named Conroy Bumbus and his henchman, Lee Harvey, are also on the lookout for Bruno. They intend to use the Bigfoot for performance purposes, forcing Bruno to aid in his singing career. Sam also uses clues to deduce that Trixie was the one behind Bruno’s escape by unfreezing him from his block of ice. Therefore, the freelance police have to find Bruno and Trixie before Conroy does. There is a wider story beyond finding the two escapees but I won’t delve an deeper into the plot than I already have.
I had a few issues with the game. At times it was difficult to tell what objects were interact able as some items appeared to be in the background and the clues weren’t particularly helpful either. As such it had lead to a lot of confusion because the puzzles aren’t grounded in reality or logic based solutions. One noticeable aspect is that a lot of the characters were one dimensional and served only to further the plot, especially in comparison to the creations from Telltale Games. There were also a few mini-games included in the story such as Whack-A-Mole to break up the plotline. Overall, I found it to be an enjoyable experience but I don’t quite get why it is regarded as a cult classic or one of LucasArt’s finest games.
Plot=6/10
Characters=7/10
Graphics=6/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the Day
As you know, our student records are held on a Microsoft Paint file, which I was assured was future-proof...
Dean Pelton
Community
Old Boy
Greetings, Old Boy is a South Korean film from 2003 and was directed by Par Chan-wook. It is based on a manga of the same title and is the second part in the Vengeance trilogy. Old Boy is placed in between Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance but I do not believe that these films are connected in terms of an overarching plot. There was also an American version of the movie that was released in 2013, ten years after the original film had come out to audiences. This remake is set in the United States but it received mixed reviews and was criticized for not adding anything new to the 2003 film or not being as entertaining in comparison to it.
The plot is set in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and begins in the year 1988. It follows the protagonist named Oh Dae-Su, a drunken business man, who is abducted on the streets during his daughters 4th birthday. The film then reveals that Dae-Su is incarcerated in an apartment complex, isolated from any human contact, and is denied any explanation for his imprisonment. He is occasionally gassed with a drug that causes him to pass out and when he wakes up his hair has been cut by his jailors. One day Oh Dae-Su finds out through a television broadcast that his wife had been murdered and the news bulletin pinned him as the prime suspect. With nothing else he can do the protagonist learns to shadowbox, hardening his fists by hitting the wall and attempting to build an escape route out of the apartment. Throughout the years he tries to identify who did this to him and what possessed them to do it.
15 years after his capture, Oh Dae-Su finds himself in trapped in a box after being drugged by the gas again. He manages to break free and realizes that he is on top of a roof top and dressed in a fashionable suit. Dae-Su receives a call from a mobile phone that had been given to him before he had woken up. The person on the other side of the phone taunts him about his imprisonment and the mystery behind it. The caller is revealed to be the villain who had him locked away for more than a decade but when Dae-Su begins to question the antagonist he receives no answers. Later on Oh Dae-Su goes to a sushi restaurant where he falls unconscious and wakes up in a different apartment. A young female chef, named Mi-Do, took him into her home after he had collapsed in front of her at the restaurant. The two begin to fall for each other as they try to unravel the mystery behind who framed Oh Dae-Su for his wife’s murder, who imprisoned him and why.
Overall, I found the film to be very entertaining with a memorable soundtrack composed by Jo Yeong-wook. The music complements the film very well as it enhances the atmosphere in certain scenes and gives personality to the characters, especially the villain’s theme which gives him a sophisticated demeanour. It certainly had a good balance between humorous scenes, violent fights and outright disturbing moments towards the end of the movie. I generally didn’t know where the film was going to go but I was entertained the whole way through. It was a surprising shock when the plot unravelled and once the plot twist was revealed. I really enjoyed this film and would encourage you to watch it if you haven’t already done so.
Plot=10/10
Characters=10/10
Special Effects=10/10
Overall=10/10
Quote of the Day
Patience isn't my strongest suit.
Logan/ Wolverine
X-Men: Days of Future Past
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Greetings, for the first blog update of 2015 I have chosen to write about the last Hobbit movie. For me, the previous entries in the Hobbit series have not lived up to the same quality of LOTR and the Battle of the Five Armies is no exception. Throughout the entire trilogy I have found it difficult to make distinctions between the dwarves as they don’t seem to have any unique personalities or original characteristics besides Thorin Oakenshield. As such it made it difficult to care or sympathize with the character’s motives or their ultimate fate and therefore impacted on the experience of the movie. This film in particular included many unnecessary scenes that seemed to function only as fan service rather than adding anything to the plot. The fight between Gandalf and his allies against the Nazgul is a prominent example of this as it didn’t enhance the story.
There is little to the plot and is the film is essentially an extended fight scene. It starts with Smaug destroying Laketown until he is killed Bard in the first fifteen minutes of the story. With Laketown reduced to debris by Smaug’s smouldering fire, Bard plans to lead his people to the ruins of Dale in the hopes of seeking shelter. In his search for the Arkenstone the leader of the Dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield, has succumbed to Dragon sickness. In his madness he orders the Lonely Mountains to be shut down until the stone is found in the complex as he is unaware that Bilbo is keeping it from him. Bilbo is concerned that Thorin would suffer insane if he were to have the Arkenstone that he desired. The Elves Legolas and Taureil, watch the march of Bolg’s army of Orcs to Erebore. Bolg is an ally of the primary Orc villain named Azog and has appeared in all three films but was played by different actors each time. It should be noted that the original character of Taureil is involved in a love triangle between Legolas and Kili the Dwarf, an aspect that was not in the original books.
Gandalf is freed from his imprisonment in Dol Guldur at the hands of Sauron by Galadriel, Elrond and Saruman. Sauron makes a brief cameo appearance and the scene suggests the establishment of Saruman and Sauron’s alliance. Outside the Dwarves’ fortress, the Elf king Thranduil, played by Lee Pace, brings his army to the Lonely Mountain with the intention of reclaiming some of the treasure. He forms an alliance with Bard and they attempt to seek a peaceful arrangement to settle the dispute. Throin, in his sickness, does not let them in to Erebore and sparks off the conflict. It is revealed that Oakenshield has called on his cousin named Dain, portrayed by Billy Connelly, to send military aid. Bolg’s army also arrive to the battle and provide a common enemy for the Dwarves, Elves and humans to fight against.
Overall, the film is by no means a classic movie. The music, unlike the LOTR OST, was forgettable bar Billy Boyd’s performance in the credits. Jackson’s use of CGI seemed excessive in comparison to what he had achieved in the LOTR trilogy .The entire trilogy seems to be an unnecessary addition to the previous films and is too drawn out in my opinion. I believe that the story could have been improved by being contained within one film instead of three. The future of the series is uncertain as I am not sure if Peter Jackson has any plans for adapting any of the other novels.
Plot=6/10
Characters=7/10
Special Effects=7/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the Day
Not if we hold true to each other. We will not abandon Merry and Pippin to torment and death. Not while we have strength left. Leave all that can be spared behind. We travel light. Let's hunt some Orc!
Aragorn
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Happy New Year, 2014 Review
Greetings, today’s blog update is the last one from 2014 and it sums up my favourite entertainment that the year has provided. Like last year’s review the categories consist of games, books, television shows and films that I have experienced in 2014 and not necessarily media that has been produced during the year. The next blog update will occur sometime next year and I will be reviewing ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’. I hope that 2014 was a good year for you and wish that 2015 proves to be an even better year.
Television show of the year: Fargo
I haven’t seen that many TV series this year but Fargo was certainly an entertaining show to watch. Prominent celebrities include Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton and Allison Tolman who were cast as the main characters. The show does have links to the 1996 film but it is set in 2006 and revolves around new characters that are unrelated to the original Fargo. Billy Bob Thornton as Lorne Malvo, a sadistic contract killer, is one of the shows highlights and is a memorable character that keeps the story interesting. Even though season two of Fargo will focus on different individuals I am still looking forward to what will bring and if it is connected to the Coen brother’s previous works.
Game of the year: The Walking Dead
The game of the year goes to Telltales’ take on ‘The Walking Dead’. The story is episodic in format and is set during a zombie apocalypse, following survivors named Lee Everett and Clementine. It introduces a wide range of colourful characters that often come into conflict with one another and forces the player into difficult decisions. The choices are difficult to make with the player being pressured due to a short time limit in order to reach a decision that often pits morality and rational reasoning at odds. I have yet to play the DLC or the second season but I intend to play them soon and am expecting it to keep up to the same high standard as the original.
Book of the year: A Clash of Kings
‘A Game of Thrones’ was crowned the book of the year for 2013 and ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ manages to win the title again in 2014. George R.R. Martin is a talented writer who has created some intriguing stories and characters, most notably the clever and sly dwarf known as Tyrion Lannister. This novel introduces some new characters, such as Melisandre, that will become more important as the series advances and it has expanded on others that were only mentioned in passing previously. Martin is setting up a complex world with an extensive lore and various opposing factions that the reader has only just begun to explore. I have plenty more novels to read before the series is finished and I am eager to see what plot twist lie ahead or who will be the ultimate victor in the conquest for the Iron Throne.
Film of the year: Guardians of the Galaxy
This year’s competition for movie of the year was a tough one as ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ were contenders. It was a close call between the three notable films but the latter wins the title and is easily the best work that the Marvel Universe has produced so far. It stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and Dave Bautista as the main cast. The film has many positive aspects including a good sense of humour, memorable characters as well as a noteworthy soundtrack. I look forward to what the Marvel Universe has in store, especially the sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy.
Quote of the Day
What should we do next? Something good, or something bad, or a bit of both?
Peter Quill/ Star Lord
Guardians of the Galaxy
Merry Christmas 2014!
Greetings, today’s blog update is a short message wishing you a merry Christmas. To celebrate the occasion I have written an entry called ‘The Death and Life of Ellen Smith’ despite the fact that there are no more Write Wise Christmas Challenges. Last year’s story was ‘Frontier Planet: Winter Tales’. I hope you enjoy this new entry. The story itself is intended to be a standalone plot which is unusual as Cogworld and William Litt: Corruption are the only other works that I have created that don’t have a sequel or prequel. My next update will be celebrating the end of 2014 with a quick review of this year’s entertainment. I hope you have a good Christmas.
Quote of the Day
Oh, Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg. The Batmobile lost its wheel, the Joker got awa--hey!!!
Bart
The Simpsons
