‘The Sympathizer’ HBO Series Review - Murder, Mayhem, and Jilted Lovers

As I sit in my chair thinking about some Park Chan-wook movies, I realize they are memorable to me primarily due to their endings. I must have forgotten some scenes from his 2003 action-thriller Oldboy, but I clearly remember its shocking climax. I also remember how shaken I was for hours after that unsettling revelation. Let's move on to The Handmaiden, which had me in its grasp from the beginning to the end, though once again, the final revelations, along with that final lovemaking shot, are burned in my brain. Then there is Decision to Leave, a film with a swift pace and a seductive air that left me speechless with its final tragic moments.

If Oldboy and The Handmaiden grabbed me with their shocks and twists, Decision to Leave absorbed me with its smooth, elegant filmmaking. One could sense Chan-wook feeling relaxed with his 2022 neo-noir mystery romance. The same Chan-wook reappears in The Sympathizer, albeit with a cheery demeanor. The 60-year-old filmmaker seems to have become more calm, more funny, and more mellow with age. He doesn't stage a bloody fight with a hammer. He lets a character shoot a bullet through an empty Coca-Cola can. The images no longer hit you with a heavy force to bruise your senses. Rather, they surround you with their sensuous softness. This doesn't mean they are any less effective or downright flat. If there is one compliment you can give to a Park Chan-wook production, it's that it is difficult to forget about them.

In The Sympathizer, Chan-wook has fun with his images. For instance, the wheels of a car "transform" into the windows of an airplane, through which we see the passengers' faces. At one point, a character's face is turned into an egg. Humor is woven into the fabric of this adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel of the same name. "This is not a Burger King," we hear during an announcement. When the Captain (Hoa Xuande) ignores a soldier's empty threat, the soldier steals what looks like candies from the Captain's office by putting them into his hat. To escape from the people's wrath, the Captain and the General (Toan Le) hide inside a toilet. If Oldboy has an octopus scene, The Sympathizer has a squid scene. There are plenty of jokes in this series, which prevents it from being melodramatic. This unsentimental gaze is very pleasing.

Chan-wook, along with Fernando Meirelles and Marc Munden, has fun with this material. Look how they play with the tone here. There is comedy in pain, and there is comedy in romance. By working in the black comedy genre, the directors take the freedom to sometimes infuse a scene with different moods at the same moment (there is a marvelous shootout scene set amidst firecrackers). These moods do not jell. As a result, you remain on the edge. The viewer becomes as alert as the spy at the center. We don't just see the scenes; we swallow them. We respond so much to the series that we slowly start becoming tired. After a point, even the humor loses its charm, and the process of watching The Sympathizer begins to feel tedious. Even Chan-wook and his team cannot stop The Sympathizer from inducing fatigue within the audience - a feeling that sets in when you binge-watch a series for seven or eight hours. The alternative is to watch it with breaks, and HBO will release one episode per week till the end of May. However, it will further undermine the viewing experience because The Sympathizer works best when you watch it continuously from beginning to end despite all the weariness. Not every show can be like Shogun (it's structured in such a way that it actually sustains your interest with a weekly release model).

Now that I am looking back at the episodes, I find them resembling a vapor puff, ready to disperse from my memory at any moment. There are a few things that will surely remain in my head. One of them is the way the camera moves throughout the show. It has a spring in its step. It dances and observes the events with enjoyment. Hoa Xuande effectively presents himself as a ghost stuck between the two worlds. He can be extremely vulnerable, thus tinging his actions with desperation. Sandra Oh is sweet, sexy, and mature. There are times when it seems as if she is seeing through the Captain's facade. Oh's eyes are as delicate as ever. Vy Le, as Lana, shows off her sexuality like a superpower. She consciously reveals her legs in front of the Captain for seduction.

The elephant in the room is Robert Downey Jr. He plays multiple characters, none of which are memorable. His performance is too showy - the actor craves your attention. He doesn't want you to look at anyone else when he is present. This acting mode differs from the work of other actors who don't fuss and simply exist in the frame. There is a reason behind the existence of so many Downey Jr. characters, but the revelation is just meh. Another thing that's uninspiring is the climax. The torture scenes are torture to watch because it seems as if the disturbing images are meant to hammer the series down your brain. You feel as if The Sympathizer is trying to do the Chan-wook Climax Magic again, but this time it reeks of desperation.

If Downey Jr. is the weakest link in terms of performance, an episode that revolves around a film shooting is the weakest among the bunch. It touches on method actors, male saviors, and eccentric directors. It all amounts to empty noises (you can, however, pleasure yourself by drawing parallels between the film's shooting and the Captain's confession. The movie director wants to provide his audience with an authentic experience, but his filmmaking process informs us that he will only present a lie to them. The Captain promises to be truthful in his confession, but there are times when there is a disconnect between his words and the event. He, too, lies to his audience). Since the story is narrated by the Captain, the storytelling elements easily fall into their places. We get an unreliable narrator. We notice censorship when a page is torn to pieces because someone objects to their depiction. One character talks about creative choices, while another mentions endings are tough to crack. At one point, a man wonders about bad reviews. All this "self-reflection" turns you off. You expect such things from a mediocre director or a hack who hides his incompetence by being "self-aware." Perhaps Chan-wook has broken his streak of making memorable productions.

Final Score- [6/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Note: All seven episodes are screened for this review.
Premiere Date: April 14, 2024 on HBO, new episodes every Sunday