Completion of the "revenge trilogy" of Chan-wook Park, beginning with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and passing through Oldboy. In the final installment, independent of the others, the abstract credits sequence of creeping vine, blossoming blood, and coursing teardrop is a true grabber, and the opening scene doesn't let go: a wraithlike ex-con greeted upon her release from prison by a female chorus in Santa suits and a male choirmaster bearing the gift of a brick of tofu. (The national press, we are told, has noticed a physical resemblance between the infamous criminal and Olivia Hussey -- Zeffirelli's Juliet -- and we can but laughingly agree.) The unwieldy flashback structure -- stop, back up, proceed; stop, back up, proceed; stop, back up, proceed -- and the full two-hour running time afford ample opportunity for the grip to slacken. The director, over that stretch, shows off all of his virtuosic gifts, but he also shows off his mere gimmicks, his gags, his whimsies, his frivolities, his lapses of taste. More simply, he's an inveterate showoff. Yeong-ae Lee, Min-sik Choi. (2005) — Duncan Shepherd
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