Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy: “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” (2002)/”Oldboy” (2003)/”Sympathy for Lady Vengeance”
Without a doubt, 2003’s “Oldboy” is the poster boy and central showcase of Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy. An international hit that catapulted the director onto a worldwide stage after winning that year’s Grand Prix at Cannes, the film also joined Bong Joon-ho’s “The Host” and Kim Ki-duk’s “3-Iron” as signaling the Korean New Wave’s entry into the mainstream. Park’s second entry into the trilogy has since been sullied by Spike Lee’s remake last year, but on either side of that film exist two films—“Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” and “Lady Vengeance”—that complement it with unique riffs on revenge and its futility, a thematic notion that now seems to show up in every other gritty thriller.
The trilogy’s first film, ‘Sympathy’ follows a young man, Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun), whose kidney and money is stolen after undergoing a black-market operation to save his dying sister (Bae Doo-na). As a desperate remedy, he kidnaps the daughter of a worker at the factory from which he was recently fired. More so than in the other two films, which are morally foggy but mostly stay trained on one character, ‘Sympathy’ gains just that for both Ryu and the man trying to get his daughter back—an approach that makes its gruesome climax all the more harrowing. On the other end of the trilogy, ‘Lady Vengeance’ charts a wrongfully accused woman’s attempts to clear her name. The most darkly humorous of the three entries, the film tosses in Australian foster parents, female prison life, and some outstanding action sequences into a worthy thematic end to Park’s trilogy, also with a great performance by Lee Young-ae.
Lars von Trier’s Depression Trilogy: “Antichrist” (2009)/”Melancholia” (2011)/”Nymphomaniac” (2014)
Ambition is simply a natural resource for Lars von Trier, as he remains a filmmaker unfazed by the idea of trilogies—in fact, it seems as though he can only envision his work in the context of a grand thematic declaration. Director of the Europa, Golden Heart, and the as-yet-uncompleted Land of Opportunities Trilogies, his latest to wrap up is what’s termed The Depression Trilogy: “Antichrist,” “Melancholia,” and “Nymphomaniac.” Finished just last month, the three films concern female protagonists on a downward spiral, their conditions linked simultaneously to a larger cosmic or supernatural force at play.
This aspect is most explicitly drawn in “Melancholia,” which features Kirsten Dunst as a bride-to-be who flees the altar and instead finds solace in the literal end of the world. In the others, the narrative is more focused; it is only the world’s end for Justine in “Nymphomaniac” or She in “Antichrist,” both played by Charlotte Gainsbourg. But all three films are strangely optimistic, in only the way that von Trier can be. Beaten down mentally and physically by circumstances of their own doing, the female protagonists shirk off any idea of martyrdom and fight for their own wellbeing, regardless of whatever unconventional form that may take. Of course, von Trier prefers to take a pair of rusty scissors, a collision of planets accompanied by Wagner, or sex and Fibonacci numbers to explore that journey, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Honorable Mentions
Many acclaimed filmmakers came close to inclusion with their completed thematic trilogies, including Baz Luhrmann, who devised the Red Curtain Trilogy (“Strictly Ballroom”/“Romeo + Juliet”/“Moulin Rouge”) around motifs of individuality and “reel” time and of course Satyajit Ray‘s Apu Trilogy (and his “Calcutta” trilogy for that matter) is a major one we’ll tackle in another edition eventually. A clutch of excellent directors from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Japan have also made their mark in this format: check out Edward Yang’s Urban Trilogy (“That Day on the Beach”/“Taipei Story”/“The Terrorizers”), Hou Hsiao Hsien’s Taiwanese History Trilogy (“City of Sadness”/“Puppet Master”/“Good Men, Good Women”), Jia Zhangke’s Hometown Trilogy (“Xiao Wu”/ “Platform”/”Unknown Pleasures”), Ang Lee’s Father Knows Best Trilogy (“Pushing Hands”/”The Wedding Banquet”/”Eat Drink Man Woman”), or “The Human Condition” from Masaki Kobayashi.
Out of Europe there’s La Trilogie Marseillaise (“Marius”/”Fanny”/”Cesar”) from playwright and screenwriter Marcel Pagnol; Pier Pasolini’s Trilogy of Life (“The Decameron”/“The Canterbury Tales”/“Arabian Nights”), Antonioni’s famed Alienation trilogy (“L’Avventura”/”La Notte”/“L’Eclisse”) which we wrote about here; the Trilogy of Spectacle by Jean Renoir (“The Golden Coach”/”French Cancan”/“Elena and Her Men”); the Glaciation Trilogy by Michael Haneke (“The Seventh Continent”/ “Benny’s Video”/”71 Fragments of the Chronology of Chance”; Jean Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy (“Blood of a Poet”/”Orphee”/”Testament of Orpheus”); Roberto Rossellini‘s War Trilogy (“Rome Open City”/ “Paisan”/“Germany Year Zero”); Aki Kaurismaki’s Proletariat Trilogy (“Shadows in Paradise”/“Ariel”/“The Match Factory Girl”), and the Fontainhas Trilogy by Pedro Costa (“Ossos”/“In Vanda’s Room”/“Colossal Youth”)
Finally, from the Americas, the Death Trilogy (“Amores Perros”/“21 Grams”/“Babel”) from Alejandro González Iñárritu merits a mention, as does Gus Van Sant’s own Trilogy on the same subject (“Gerry”/”Elephant”/”Last Days”). Whit Stillman created the Yuppie Trilogy with “Metropolitan,” “Barcelona,” and “Last Days of Disco,” while Sofia Coppola can lay claim to a Teenage Female Alienation Trilogy (“The Virgin Suicides”/“Lost in Translation”/”Marie Antoinette”).
What thematic trilogies do you count among your favorites, and which ones did we miss? Let us know in the comments below. —with Rodrigo Perez
