10 Great Films With Soul-Destroying Endings
9. Sympathy For Mr Vengeance
This 2002 South Korean thriller follows a factory worker, Ryu, in his attempts to facilitate a kidney transplant for his critically ill sister.
After losing his job, all his money and his kidney, Ryu sets on a mission to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy company president to hold for ransom, all on the recommendation of his girlfriend.
After finding that Ryu has kidnapped a young girl, his sister commits suicide and, as if that wasn’t bad enough, as Ryu buries his sister by a river they loved as children, the kidnapped girl slips into the water and drowns.
Later as the corpse of the young girl is found, her father (the company president) sends investigators to find what happened. In the meantime, Ryu murders the gang who robbed him of his money and kidney, and the company president tortures Ryu’s girlfriend to death and then snatches Ryu himself.
The film ends as the president dismembers Ryu’s body and is then killed by terrorist associates of Ryu’s late girlfriend.
It is the epitome of a hopeless tale as no one gets out alive and no one achieves anything along the way, it’s just one sad and futile death after another.