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Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)
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Directed : Park Chan Wook
Written by : Park Chan-wook and
Jeong Seo-Gyeong
Cast : Lee Young-Ae, Choi Min Mik
Synopsis :
"A high school student (Lee) goes to jail in order to save the
teacher (Choi) she loves. When she leaves prison 13 years later, she
finds she has been betrayed and prepares to take her revenge."
Release Date : 29 July 2005 |
Reviews
by Edward Tang
Ah, from the moment you view the opening stylized credits you know
that you'll be in for a damn good ride brought to you by Mr. Park
Chan-wook. Returning for the final time to his vengeance-themed
flicks, you can bet your ass that he delivers the goods again. From
the beginning to end, you are treated with a visual display that
most directors couldn't even handle if they tried. Everything in
this film is up to par, whether it be the performances (I don't
think you'll find a film that this man has directed where the actors
weren't pure goodness throughout), the plot, the awesome musical
score, direction or anything in between. Perhaps the only thing
people would bitch about would be the lack of "action" in between
scenes like the infamous hallway fight in Oldboy or when that
Green-haired douche in Mr. Vengeance smacks down the kidney-thieves.
What we have here is a gift, the perfect conclusion to the GREATEST
trilogy of films I've ever seen. Take the gift, unwrap it and enjoy.
Lee Geum-ja (Lee Young-Ae) seems like the perfect lady: she's
beautiful, kind and everyone loves her. Well, she is perfect aside
from the small detail that she kidnapped and murdered a five year
old boy. Even though she's perceived as a murderer in society,
everyone seems to love her and that polka-dot dress she's seen in
becomes the fashion statement of the moment. Hell, even in prison
everyone loves her because she cares about everyone and helps them
in different ways. (See a big fat lesbian who forces chubby women to
perform oral sex on her who gets punished with a "clean stomach.")
When she is released from captivity, she's a different person
entirely and only looks at one option: to find Mr. Baek (Choi Min-sik)
and kill him for putting her in prison for nine years.
There's a whole lot more to the story, but you'll have to watch to
find out bastards! Anyways, the story moves perfectly, giving more
details and showing more of Geum-ja's actions before the ACTUAL
vengeance-fueled finale. The plot in the film seems more down to
Earth than say Oldboy that doesn't include locking a man away in
some room, drugging him and then erasing the new knowledge he found
out with hypnosis. It also strides far away from the deep dark
depressing mode that Oldboy/Mr. Vengeance strode into with and comes
back with more of a tough drama and partially a comedy flick. Yeah,
there's a bunch of stuff that had me laughing in this flick that
ranged from a strange dream that Geum-ja has, from a Priest sporting
the worst haircut I've ever seen on someone, to a scene where
Geum-ja is whacked out on some PCP and she's hammin' it up with some
Australians(CRIKEY!). Mr. Baek even gets on in the action when he
out of the blue bends his wife over a table and just proceeds to
rape the shit out of her while she regularly continues her meal and
chats with him about shopping with her friends. But let's put it
this way, even though the film has it's humorous moments, get ready
for some dark moments that include a video camera that follows us to
our blood-soaked finale which literally punches you in the chest.
Park Chan-wook isn't without his goodness about, his direction
shines in every moment. He rarely misses a spot in this film,
perhaps my favorite shot belongs to a scene in which a group of
people (I won't spoil it) dress in plastic wrap and sit in a line
awaiting to throw out some violence. Now, it had the idea that these
people were awaiting their turn to unleash their hate and anger but
it also was humorous to me because it looked like they were waiting
in line for a ride at a water park and didn't want to get their
clothes wet so they put on some plastic to make sure. His direction
is a character of the film, from the different things he focuses on,
Geum-ja's eye shadow or a huge ass bullet wound in the back of
someones skull, it's all good. This is accompanied by a great
musical score that goes with every scene it shows up in. I don't
know, sometimes music is plain bullshit in movies but it adds to the
strength of the scenes that would otherwise seem a bit dull.
The acting in Lady Vengeance is greatness, plain and simple.
Although most of the characters in the film do a good job, it's
really Lee Young-Ae's show. She is a presence on the screen and hits
it well out of the ballpark. Her character goes through a
transformation and blames it on Mr. Baek (who is more or less
responsible) and in turn thinks that ridding the world of him with
complete her quest for redemption. Every scene you can relate with
her story, you can get into what she's offering at the plate. Her
performance in believable if anything and is the bright shining spot
on the film. Choi Min-sik is awesome, enough said. There's even some
worth while cameos in the film, ranging from Yu Ji-tae (Oh Dae-su's
captor in Oldboy) and Song Kang-ho (JSA, Sympathy for Mr.
Vengeance). Hell even the Australians didn't bring back bad memories
of those white bastards in JSA.
Although it's not perfect, Lady Vengeance is a hell of a film that
Park Chan-wook goes all out on and delivers the goods. I'd still
have to say that Oldboy is my favorite out of the three but this one
comes close. I would usually end with saying what you would like or
wouldn't like depending on who you are but I'd really have to kick
you in the nuts if you didn't want to sit through this one. No
explosions here but who f*cking cares? There's more than enough to
please my mind for time limit and I suspect you'll love the movie
too (Just don't expect an Oldboy type twist finale, but not to worry
the ending here is just as powerful). What's next from the great
director? I hear something about mental hospitals and
vampires....bring it on.
Stills
(click on thumbnails for actual size)
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| Notable Scenes : |
- The
reveal of Mr. Baek's crimes
- Lee Geum-ja's solution to her quest for vengeance. |
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