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KOREAN | 121 MINUTES | BRATTLE: OCTOBER 28-30 Cinephiles will tell you that South Korea stands at the forefront of world cinema. This is a good weekend to listen. Park Chan-wook, one of that country’s emerging talents, directed both the mid-section of Three . . . Extremes (opening at the Kendall Square this Friday) and the pair of films that’re playing at the Brattle Theatre: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the first of his " vengeance " trilogy, screens alongside part two, 2003’s Oldboy. The finale, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, will arrive this winter.) Nothing goes according to plan for deaf and dumb Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun), his anarchist girlfriend (Bae Du-na), or his former boss (Song Kang-ho) in this bloody, urine-soaked tragedy of cosmic comeuppance. With gritty realism in place of Oldboy’s showy operatic excess, it packs a nihilistic wallop in its uncompromising depictions of organ trafficking, greed, kidnapping, and fate.
BY BRETT MICHEL
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