Boksuneun naui geot 2002

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's all a little ultra-cool for me. Shakespeare was right. Revenge is a dish best served ice-cold, not cool. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Promises to be a stylish, resonant plunge into the dark waters of despair and revenge but ends up amusing itself with ostentatious shocks. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: So bloody, scatologically violent and consistently shocking, it seems to have no larger purpose than itself -- which is pretty grim. Read more

AV Club: Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Park prizes craftsmanship over bargain-bin schlock. It's an odd testament to his spiritedness that, despite the coldblooded killing and trail of the dead, Mr. Vengeance feels warmly suffused with life. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is a stylish bloodbath relieved by shafts of dark humor. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is so badly told that it ends up dissecting a corruption that exudes from nowhere but itself. Read more

Brendan Bernhard, L.A. Weekly: Slowly degenerates into a gory revenge thriller that is never thrilling, but is often boring and frequently repulsive. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Somehow you'd be more won over by his anti-revenge case if he didn't seem to be having such a good time making it. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: You can't look away, not only because the carnage is so masterfully photographed, but because the director sucks you into his bleak, poetic, even sensible vision of cosmic brutality. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: There is so much talent on display in Park Chanwook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, it is a drag that the film never rises to the level of its director's obvious ability. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It is a worthy start to a trilogy and to a director who is fast establishing himself as a new light in Asian cinema. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: Read more

James Crawford, Village Voice: Park Chanwook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance accomplishes a miraculous feat by being harrowing and humane in equal measure. Read more