Review of Lady Vengeance (2005) by Mike F — 20 Feb 2009

Korean auteur Chanwook Park's "Vengeance Trilogy" is not a conventional trilogy, meaning that it is not comprised of three related storylines, but rather it is three films that begin in the same place and move outward from that common point in distinctly different directions. That point is nothing more specific than a theme - vengeance - and the paths these three films forge are into nothing short of elusive, uncomfortable truths about human nature. The places they end up are vastly different, and together they comprise what I consider to be one of the most significant achievements in modern cinema.

"Sympathy for Mr Vengeance" is about the poetry of vengeance. "Oldboy" is about its brutality. And the final installment, "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance", is about its sadness. But the third installment introduces a concept in its final moments that hasn't appeared in the previous films ... redemption.

We meet our heroine, Geum-ja, just as she's released from a 13 year prison term for the kidnapping and murder of a child. She freely confessed to the crime, and is oddly regarded by the inmates both as "the witch" and "the angel". We know that everything is not what it seems, and she immediately begins to set in motion a plan of revenge against a local school teacher (Min-sik Choi, the hero of "Oldboy"). Her motives for vengeance remain her own for a time, and like the other two films, we begin from this familiar place and move forward into the unknown, allowing the story to unfold gradually into its true nature.

This film is somewhat softer than the other two, perhaps because of the distinctly feminine perspective to revenge that the story must take on. There is still graphic violence, but this time it almost entirely happens off screen, and where "Oldboy" sped unflinchingly into depravity, this story unfolds into a much more relatable, sad kind of fable. The film's heart begins to be revealed in the final half hour, when we see and understand the palpable grief and sadness that can lead reasonable, good people down a path of vengeance that seems, on the surface, to be entirely justified. The act itself, when played out (and by who, one of the film's many surprises) is quiet and almost dreamlike.

This film has more in common with films like "In the Bedroom" than it seems to with its predecessor, and touches on themes everyone has thought about at one time or another, moral and ethical puzzles that you can turn rhetorically over and over in your head until, heaven forbid, you're ever actually in a position where they might matter. What the people in this film decide to do, how they decide to do it, and why, beg some of the most ethically challenging questions you're likely to see in any form of storytelling.

As a conclusion to this "trilogy", this film is the perfect swan song. Shot beautifully with rich, vibrant colors and set to a gorgeous score, the film's aesthetics confirm Park as a master of the visual medium. This story seems set in a constant state of cold, as snow falls softly into the frames of even the most intensely violent moments. The snow settles thick over the look of the film, and by the end, that blanket of white has taken on a symbolic meaning that is only hammered home in the breathtaking last scene, in which a woman who has gone to the deepest, darkest corners of herself reveals to us what a powerful hunger for purity she has developed on the journey.

This is a film about parents and children, the love that exists there. The sins the parents are willing to commit for the sake of the children's purity, and the cost of robbing a child of that white light. It's about how parents will commit horendous acts in the hopes that their children never will have to, and how children can try to give their parents just a taste of that purity once they think they've lost it forever. It's deeply sad, deeply true.

All hands are on deck for this finale, as we see the lead actors from "Mr. Vengeance" and "Oldboy" peppered throughout the film's too-short running time. Their presence helps tie all of these films together, and as the time ticks by and the final scenes begin to play out, you can almost feel the gear switch. Short of a title card reading "Epilogue", I don't know what else would signify that we're coming to the end of a helluva journey.

If all of the film's start from the same point and journey into the darkness from there, this is the only film to come out of the woods on the other side and see the sun again. Standing alone, this is a remarkably well done and beautiful film by a emerging visionary.

Taken together, this trilogy is one of the most groundbreaking, brilliant, and thoroughly satisfying series of films I've ever seen.

Grade: A+.