Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy Gets Box Set
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Director Park Chan-wook's vengeance trilogy -- "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance", "Oldboy" and "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" -- is about to be released this month in a special DVD box set. Each movie has already been released individually on DVD.
In an interview included with the DVD of "Lady Vengeance", Park said, "I never originally intended to make a vengeance series, or rather I tried to avoid making another film classified as a revenge story.
"But my wife said, 'Why not? It doesn't matter if the story is interesting'. So I reversed my decision about making a vengeance series. I began to think that not making a film by reason of the fact that it's about vengeance is not right.
"At the Cannes Film Festival, I happened to tell Korean reporters that I would make a vengeance trilogy. Thinking again later, 'Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance' became the motive to make the series. Maybe that film was to imply a message to rescue human beings from oblivion".
"Mr. Vengeance", the first film in the trilogy, was released in 2002. "Oldboy" was released in 2003, and "Lady Vengeance" in 2005.
"I might have had an unconscious idea that if I unveiled the plan for a vengeance trilogy when spirits were still high for 'Oldboy' then people would be more interested in the next film, thinking, 'What will the third film be like?' even though I didn't do that intentionally", he added with a laugh.
Asked why only one film features a heroine, he said, "That's because the film was the last film of the trilogy. I cannot say positively that the messages of atonement and redemption were well described simply because it had a heroine instead of a hero, but I believe there may be some indivisible relation. Beyond the impulses and anger of the previous heroes, the heroine has more elaborate and temperate motives and they make the film more elegant".
"Oldboy" was included on a list of the top 20 best plot twists by U.S. film magazine Premiere together with "Star Wars" and "The Usual Suspects".
In an interview included with the DVD of "Lady Vengeance", Park said, "I never originally intended to make a vengeance series, or rather I tried to avoid making another film classified as a revenge story.
"But my wife said, 'Why not? It doesn't matter if the story is interesting'. So I reversed my decision about making a vengeance series. I began to think that not making a film by reason of the fact that it's about vengeance is not right.
"At the Cannes Film Festival, I happened to tell Korean reporters that I would make a vengeance trilogy. Thinking again later, 'Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance' became the motive to make the series. Maybe that film was to imply a message to rescue human beings from oblivion".
"Mr. Vengeance", the first film in the trilogy, was released in 2002. "Oldboy" was released in 2003, and "Lady Vengeance" in 2005.
"I might have had an unconscious idea that if I unveiled the plan for a vengeance trilogy when spirits were still high for 'Oldboy' then people would be more interested in the next film, thinking, 'What will the third film be like?' even though I didn't do that intentionally", he added with a laugh.
Asked why only one film features a heroine, he said, "That's because the film was the last film of the trilogy. I cannot say positively that the messages of atonement and redemption were well described simply because it had a heroine instead of a hero, but I believe there may be some indivisible relation. Beyond the impulses and anger of the previous heroes, the heroine has more elaborate and temperate motives and they make the film more elegant".
"Oldboy" was included on a list of the top 20 best plot twists by U.S. film magazine Premiere together with "Star Wars" and "The Usual Suspects".
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