Image provided by Fantasia Festival
Revenge thrillers are great. Korean revenge thrillers are often sublime. No Mercy however, is just as inspired as its run of the mill title. This film follows a woman who will show… no mercy, as she seeks revenge against those that have harmed her sister. From first time director Im Kyung Taek, you would hope for a film that has something new or important to say. Instead, we are left with a film that is more focused on the violence and action. Although this can often be exhilarating, many other films also tackle social issues and the emotional and physical toll of revenge. No Mercy thinks it is doing that, but ends up as more of an exploitation film.
The first sign that the film lacks confidence is we open with a scene that makes no sense, but leaves us on a cliffhanger. It’s one of those flash-forward scenes that may as well be considered an opening trailer just to reassure the audience what is coming. A taster to quench our thirst while we sit through the “slow” buildup. In Ae (Lee Si Young) is released from prison, the screenplay keeps the reason why she was locked up a secret for a good while so I won’t announce it here. She meets with her younger sister Eun Hye (Park Se Wan), who is a high school student who is being bullied.
Eun Hye is coerced by a group of schoolgirl bullies into attending a karaoke room where they smoke and drink. These girls soon introduce Eun Hye to a group of teenage thugs, who use Eun Hye to lure in businessmen with the promise of sex with a minor. Once in a hotel room, Eun Hye tells the gang the room number and they bust in and extort money from the mark. After one particular extortion involving a gangster, Eun Hye doesn’t return home. From here In Ae sets out on a journey to find her sister, starting with the girls who bullied her. Each beating she dishes out takes her to the next lead, and the next. And this is how the film continues until it reaches points of absurdity. Although tackling sexual abuse, the film is pretty clueless at points on how to convincingly and sympathetically handle the material.
In one sequence In Ae calls the police to report her sister missing, when told she needs to go to a police station to file a report she quickly gives up on this line of inquiry. Another scene see’s a man admitting to raping Eun Hye, completely out of the blue. He isn’t questioned or threatened, there’s no evidence against him, he just does so. It may go some way to express how careless these men are, but it’s also jarring. The tale becomes more and more repetitive as we are drawn into a world that links with In Ae’s past. Other films from South Korea have dramatically captured the act of rape and sexual abuse, while intelligently examining the patriarchal society that blames victims. Both Han Gong Ju and Poetry do this masterfully. And if it’s a ferocious revenge drama you want, No Mercy is also topped by the likes of Sympathy for Lady Vengeance or Bedevilled.
Despite an execution that includes awkward split-screens, jerky slow motion, and sequences where the digital shooting choice is very obvious, Lee Si Young is able to hold the film together along with some excellent fight sequences. These aren’t overblown, and have a rough sense of realism to them – if you ignore the fact she’s wearing heels. Lee Si Young commands the screen with her physicality, especially when taking on multiple assailants. No Mercy has ideas above its station, coming up short when compared to similar genre pieces. There’s certainly talent here, but it isn’t honed. In an overcrowded marketplace, genre films need to bring something different, whereas No Mercy just sticks with the comfortably familiar.
No Mercy was reviewed at Fantasia Festival 2019.
