DVD Review: Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy - Page 3

All three films in the Vengeance Trilogy are presented on DVD in their original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The films claim to have been enhanced for anamorphic playback, which is true for Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy, but Lady Vengeance's aspect ratio is a little messed up. The picture is letterboxed and squished to a point, so viewers will have to adjust with their TV's settings in order to get it to the proper ratio. Beyond that snafu the quality here is very good on all fronts. Each film in the trilogy features sharp resolution with crisp details, vibrant colors, and few flaws. The occasional hint of noise and compression can be spotted from time to time, but those moments are fleeting at best.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is presented with Korean Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. Oldboy comes with Korean and English languages with Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS-ES 6.1, and Dolby 2.0 stereo. Lady Vengeance is presented in Korean Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. All three films come with English and Spanish subtitles. As far as the quality is concerned the trilogy nails the soundstage with some fantastic audio. Dialogue, sound effects, and music all ring through loud and clear with an appropriate LFE and use of all channels. There's a great sense of immersion at times, with the highlight being the hallway fight in Oldboy.

The set is also packed to the gills with bonus features. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance comes with an audio commentary featuring Director Park Chan-wook and actor/filmmaker Ryoo Seong-wan. The second disc includes "The Process of Mr. Vengeance", "My Boksu Story", "Crew Interviews", "Jonathan Ross on Park Chan-wook", "Soundtrack & Photos", "Storyboards", an original behind the scenes featurette, and some trailers. The best of these features is easily the behind the scenes offering, with "Process" coming in a close second. The rest are rather lightweight in terms of content.

Oldboy comes with three discs that include three audio commentaries, all of which include Park Chan-wook with two featuring other folks involved on the film from the cast to crew. The second disc packs in cast and crew interviews, a selection of deleted scenes (with optional commentary), a featurette entitled "Le Grand Priz at Cannes" and five behind the scenes documentaries: Making the Film, Production Design, The Music Score, CGI Documentary, and Flashback. These are worth checking out, but none of them hold a candle to the massive three-hour video diary on the third disc entitled "The Autobiography of Old Boy."

Article Author: Todd Douglass

Todd has been reviewing DVDs, anime, and games for the better part of a decade. In his time he has racked up roughly 900 DVD/anime reviews and over 500 game reviews published on the web. He currently writes for a professional website in his spare time and does what he can on his blog.
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