Review of Lady Vengeance (2005) by Christopher B — 17 Sep 2013

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

After her release from prison for the kidnapping and murder of a young boy, Lee Geum-ja begins to orchestrate her plan for revenge against the real culprit -- while reuniting with her estranged daughter.

Just to let you know, this review will contain a spoiler for the climax.

I'll probably get some flak for this, but I think this is easily the weakest of the Vengeance Trilogy.

For one thing, while "Sympathy for Mr Vengeance" and "Oldboy" were presented relatively straightforward, I feel as if this one is trying way too hard to be artsy, with its nonlinear narrative structure and philosophical moments.

I *really* didn't like how the daughter subplot was handled. There was great potential for the mother and daughter to develop their relationship despite the language barrier, but that's barely touched on. As a result, the daughter seems completely secondary to the revenge plot (even, dare I say, expendable), so I just didn't care how their relationship worked out. I think they needed to either devote more screen time to that, or just cut that subplot from the film altogether.

The highlight, however, was the final scene, where the families of all the killer's victims take turns exacting their revenge. That's brutal! :).

In conclusion, while I don't dislike this movie, I certainly think it's a big step below the other two. It might grow on me more with repeat viewings, but for now at least, I think it's just okay.

My rating: 60%.