Not even human: empathy and ambiguity in Park Chan-wook’s Judgement and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

This paper examines Park Chan-wook's short film Judgment (1999) alongside his later film Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) to analyse how both works engage with the impossibility of moral judgment. Through close analysis of violence, point of view, and moral ambiguity, I argue the films demonstrate that neither the characters nor the viewers have moral authority to judge others. Neither film offers true restoration or catharsis for its characters, ultimately confirming the brutality of South Korean neoliberal society. The paper draws on film phenomenology and Korean cultural studies to examine how the films use techniques of embodiment and alienation to engage viewers in moral judgment while denying them clear ethical positions.