Chinjeolhan geumjassi
English Title: Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
One word review: Revenge-alicious.
Multi-word review:
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is the final story in director Chan-wook Park's "Revenge Trilogy" Boksuneun naui geot (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance). I have seen all three movies and I think Lady Vengeance is the best, although opinions vary greatly.
Lady Vengeance tells the story of a woman imprisoned for the murder of a young boy. Given the theme of this movie, it quickly becomes clear that she was falsely imprisoned. She has an elaborate plan to take revenge on the person who forced her to confess to the crime. The movie shows that plan in action. I don't want to give away too much about the plot. If you are familiar with Oldboy, you probably have a good idea what to expect.
I felt that Lady Vengeance was a less explicit than Oldboy. There was less on screen gore. As well, the story was far more believable. Where Oldboy went way over the top, Lady Vengeance stays somewhat more believable. Of course there is vengeance exacted on a deserving individual, and the revenge is extreme, but it mostly happens off screen. In this way, I felt that Lady Vengeance was a little more subtle than Oldboy.
In addition, Lady Vengeance has a very different style. Much of the back story is told in flash backs and these flash backs are treated almost like fairy tales. There is almost a light humour to those scenes. This might be off putting to someone expecting a much more aggressive movie, like Oldboy. Lady Vengeance also lacks the action scenes of Oldboy. The action sequences are one of the best parts of Oldboy, and as much as I wanted similar scenes going into Lady Vengeance, in the end I did not miss them.
I definitely suggest going to see Lady Vengeance. Don't worry about seeing Oldboy first, the stories are unrelated.