Park Chan-Wook and revenge flicks are like a knife and fork, a bat and ball, peanut butter and jelly. It just fits. Chan-Wook has perfected the formula, mastered the art, finessed the recipe that incorporates the finest ingredients to create a mouthwatering revenge film, proving that revenge really is a dish best served cold. Oldboy might just be his masterpiece, and if you loved that, then Lady Vengeance and Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (which make up the revenge trilogy) are essential, all being movies created under Park Chan-Wook’s directorship, and unsurprisingly all center on revenge.
South Korean cinema has gone from strength-to-strength, with Korean filmmakers widely considered as true pioneers of film, highlighted by Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite Oscar haul. The likes of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino have talked of their admiration for Korean cinema, specifically Joon-Ho. Chan-Wook’s Oldboy is largely accepted as one of the best thrillers ever made, but seems so particular in its style. However, other films akin to it do exist, so here are some movies you should watch if you loved Oldboy.
6 Promising Young Woman
Promising Young Woman claimed Best Original Screenplay at last year's Academy Awards. It tells the tale of Cassie (Carey Mulligan), a coffee shop worker in Ohio who, having dropped out of medical school, seeks revenge on a former classmate who raped her best friend and caused her suicide. Carey Mulligan is exceptional as Cassie, playing her as sharp-witted, intuitive, and fiercely loyal with great comedic timing. She captures the exact essence of what it means to be a woman in this day-and-age, and her performance is delivered with an incredible degree of poignancy. In an era where female independence and equality has never been more celebrated, sexism and misogyny still remain key issues within society's underbelly, as highlighted by the #MeToo movement that inspired this film's creation. Promising Young Woman extends beyond the realms of simply just being entertainment, but serves as a lesson in compassion, vulnerability, and a voice for change.
5 Marlina The Murderer in Four Acts
Mouly Surya’s Indonesian epic Marlina The Murderer in Four Acts made history by becoming the fourth Indonesian film ever to appear at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Marlina, a widowed farm owner, is raped and her cattle stolen by a group of seven men. Surya’s screenplay details Marlina’s revenge, as well as the process of reclaiming her sexuality and eventual empowerment following the horrific ordeal. Godfrey Cheshire of Roger Ebert's website describes it as “One of those features from a distant part of the globe that seems like it may have been created primarily for Western art houses and festivals, where its exemplary direction and feminist theme are indeed likely to win Surya new fans.”.
4 Django Unchained
Simply put, Django Unchained is an explosion of every Tarantino-esque trait one can fathom. It’s Quentin Tarantino on steroids. The film proved to be divisive amongst critics, yet what the film may lack in critical acclaim, it makes up for in magisterial entertainment. Jamie Foxx stars as the enslaved Django. Freed by German bounty-hunter, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) the pair embark on a trip through the treacherous South, rounding-up bounties on their way. It is agreed between them that Dr. Schultz will assist Django in locating the whereabouts and secure Broomhilda’s (Django’s wife) freedom (Kerry Washington). While some critics took issue with Tarantino’s seemingly jovial view of slavery (a deep, dark and sensitive topic that has left a permanent stain on humankind), it’s left to the viewer's discretion to acknowledge the film's shortfall, and take the movie at face value to enjoy it for what it is. An action-packed, raucous rendition of a deep-south revenge flick, that takes the viewer via horseback through the dusty, unforgiving and at times, lawless terrain of pre-civil war America.
3 Once Upon A Time in the West
Sergio Leone: the Founding-father of the Spaghetti Western, the true sharpshooting Sheriff of the wild frontier, and the master-creator behind the lens of the likes of classic revenge films like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars. When the Italian would shoot he’d seldom miss. 54-years since its release, and Once Upon A Time in the West remains one of the greatest cinematic creations ever, documenting the story of the nameless, harmonica-playing gunslinger, played by Charles Bronson, out to take his revenge against a cold-blooded murderer. Running concurrently with Once Upon A Time in the West's (not particularly ostensible) theme of vengeance, is the bitter territorial dispute over a water source and railroad between different antagonists. The film was highly-regarded for both its on-screen brilliance, but also the juxtaposing camerawork by Leone and his cinematographer(s), remembered specifically for the extreme close-ups of the character's eyes.
2 I Saw The Devil
Kim Jee-Woon’s I Saw The Devil integrates all of a revenge thriller’s typical characteristics, but fine-tunes and intensifies them to the absolute nth degree, generating this forensic, and often mesmeric effect. In turn, it initiates a truly brutal, beautiful, and deeply disturbing South Korean masterpiece. Special agent Kim Soo Hyeon (Lee Byung Hun) is in unrelenting pursuit of psychopathic-killer Kyung-Chul (Choi Mink Sik), who barbarically murdered Soo-Hyeon’s pregnant girlfriend. Soo-Hyeon stops at nothing to exact his revenge, while the savage, detestable, and unscrupulous Kyung-Chul remains on the warpath. Choi Min Sik is cast faultlessly as the serial-killing rapist, and embodies every hateful trait associated with a killer of his caliber, placing the audience in a position of utter detestation. I Saw The Devil sets up a fascinating game of Cat and Mouse, and has one on the edge of their seat, with their jaw ajar throughout.
1 Unforgiven
Clint Eastwood directed and starred in his four-time Academy Award-winning film, Unforgiven. The icon won Best Director and Best Picture for this tale of Will (Eastwood), a widower and former outlaw who is recruited by a self-proclaimed bounty-hunter named Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett). Along with Will’s friend and old accomplice, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), the trio commences a mission of revenge for the crimes committed against a group of prostitutes. Like many Clint Eastwood movies (which are becoming relics of another time, even as he continues to direct), Unforgiven champions nostalgia, masculinity, violence, and self-transformation. The Guardian’s Phillip French wrote in 1992 that, “Unforgiven is a masterpiece, dedicated to Eastwood's mentors and friends, Sergio Leone and Don Siegel and certain to take its place among the great Westerns.”. He was right.