Lady Vengeance

by Erik McClanahan

“There are good kidnappings and there are bad kidnappings. A good kidnapping is when you take a kid, but return him safely to his parents when everything is over.”

This fantastic and foreshadowing bit of dialogue is uttered by Geum-ja Lee (Yeong-ae Lee) in Lady Vengeance, also known as Sympathy for Lady Vengeance — immensely talented South Korean writer/director Chan-wook Park’s third, and final, installment in his ‘revenge trilogy’ that began with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and his masterpiece Oldboy (winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2004).

That line was also uttered in the first of the trilogy, Mr. Vengeance, bringing the triptych of violence and retribution-themed films full circle. Park’s use of the justified revenge motif in all three films creates unison between them, but Lady Vengeance has many differences from the others.

Park states on the film’s web site: “Like all filmmakers around the world, for me, the main factor in deciding my next project is how it is related to my previous work. How that movie is connected with my previous work and how it is different (or disconnected)".

Lady Vengeance is the first Park film with a female protagonist. Geum-ja Lee is both yin and yang as a character, containing both angelic and devilish traits that are fused together into a fascinating performance by Yeong-ae Lee. Lee looks harmless but manages to pull some intense emotions out for many of her scenes.

Park: “As I looked back, from my debut in film, I always had a two men-one woman structure. I must admit, between the conflict of two men, a female character’s internal depth has been overshadowed. In Oldboy, the female lead was the only character that had to exit the film not knowing the truth. I didn’t like this so I tried to fix the script but it was pointless. I sensed my limitation. I put down the pen and told myself that in my next film, a lone woman will be the lead. Hence Lady Vengeance was born.”

The violence is still graphic in Lady, but it is toned down compared to Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy. The violence and revenge takes on a cathartic, almost spiritual existence in the film to serve the theme of redemption for Lee’s character. While all three films do give the audience sympathy for the revenge-seekers by justifying the cause of their actions through extraordinary circumstances, Lady actually wants to give the protagonist a sort of re-awaking through her revenge. Park achieves this with remarkable skill.

Park: “after making two revenge movies one after another, I discovered my own inner self. And when I examined it, I realized that the overload of rage, hatred, and violence had become poison and my soul into a barren land. I’d like to say that I’ve discarded rage, hatred, and violence, wouldn’t that be nice? Instead I came to the conclusion that I need to adopt more graceful rage, classy hatred and delicate violence. In the end I wanted revenge to be an act of redemption, a vengeance carried out by a person who seeks to save her soul. And that’s how Lady Vengeance was born.”

Chan-wook Park is one of the best filmmakers working today. His films are operatic, challenging, violent, laced with dark humor, beautifully written and conceived with astonishing visuals. He has a style all his own—a hybrid of eastern philosophy mixed with the filmmaking of Tarantino, Hitchcock, and the abstract visual and narrative genius of Akira Kurosawa. For anyone who hasn’t seen the ‘revenge trilogy,’ which Park has said owes its conception to Korean journalists due to a public statement he made during an interview, check out all three. They all stick in your mind long after the credits have rolled. Especially Oldboy, one of the best films of the last decade.

Lady Vengeance begins with Lee being released from a 13 year stint in prison. The story moves back and forth between her prison time and her release. We learn that Lee was involved in a kidnapping with a sinister man named Mr. Baek (played with grotesque charisma and a dark sense of humor by Oldboy’s Min-sik Choi), and even took the blame for the murder of a boy that Baek killed. Park never belittles his audience—Lee is guilty of kidnapping the boy with Baek—but we do feel sympathetic to her cause because the situation was out of her control. Lee has a daughter that Baek uses as leverage for her admittance of the murder, and thus Lee’s murderous, vengeful plan is set in motion. Lee befriends all of her inmates through good deeds to gain their sympathy for her plight. She calls on nearly all of them throughout the film to aid in her quest of killing Mr. Baek and getting her daughter back.

Park’s elegant use of narration by Lee’s daughter gives the film a sense of hope (especially in the film’s final moments) and brings the redemption theme full circle. Take this line near the end of the film that sums up Lady perfectly: “Everyone makes mistakes. But if you sin, you have to make atonement for it. Big atonement for big sins… Small atonement for small sins.”

Chan-wook Park’s films reward on multiple viewings, something that I believe makes a great film. He also challenges the viewers to make tough decisions. Can you side with these characters and believe that they are justified in what they do? Whether you do or don’t isn’t what makes the films likeable or good. The fact that Park conjures up these thoughts in the viewers’ minds is what makes him such a formidable and powerful director.

Park: "Basically, I'm throwing out the question 'When is such violence justified?' To get that question to touch the audience physically and directly - that's what my goal is. In the experience of watching my film, I don't want the viewer to stop at the mental or the intellectual. I want them to feel my work physically. And because that is one of my goals, the title 'exploitative' will probably follow me around for a while."

People who find Lady Vengeance, Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance exploitative are missing the point. So go on, seek out all three of these fantastic films, and be prepared to have your senses and preconceptions about revenge films blown away.

The DVD was released in the U.S. September 26. It is a fantastic transfer, with the typical wonderful picture and sound quality we usually expect from the DVD format. Special features are mildly pleasurable with a nice interview with Chan-wook Park about the film, a by-the-numbers making-of featurette, two trailers, and three separate commentaries featuring Park and other crew members of the film.

Park manages to make beauty out of ugliness in Lady Vengeance. While not my personal favorite of the trilogy (that would be Oldboy), it still remains a fantastic film experience of the highest level. It is intelligent without making the audience feel dumb, artful without being pretentious. I can’t wait to see what Park does next.