Lady Vengeance

Amazon.com

The third stop in Chan-wook Park's breathless revenge trilogy, Lady Vengeance comes down slightly--just slightly--from the astonishing highs of middle segment Oldboy. Elegant and ultraviolent in equal measures, Lady Vengeance requires rapt attention from the opening moments, as Park unloads his set-up in a jumble of characters and flashbacks. At the center is a doll-faced ex-con named Geum-ja (Yeong-ae Lee), who just spent 13 years in the slammer for killing a little boy. There's much more to her case than the public knows, and Geum-ja has been carefully, quietly preparing for revenge against the man who put her in this situation. We watch those gears turning throughout the movie, but as Lady Vengeance nears its completion it broadens into an even bigger event than Geum-ja expected. Funny and horrifying, Lady Vengeance is as measured as Geum-ja's own preparations, and has a gorgeous sort of logic about it. As impressive as those machinations are to watch, the movie doesn't make as forceful an argument as Oldboy on just how revenge might be as punishing to the revenge-taker as for his target. Lee is a cool heroine, and Min-sik Choi, who did such heroically exhausting service in Oldboy, is here employed as the monster. (The film's title in the U.S., Lady Vengeance, is different from international title Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, a closer tie to the first part of the trilogy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.) --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

**Justice and choices** There are no spoilers in this review. Dvd Features below........2007-08-14

I would give this more stars if I could, I've made a list of "great movies" here on Amazon and when I see something I love I add it to my list, After this review this movie will be added, I believe I have it in some pretty amazing company.

Director Park Chan-Wook's conclusion to his vengeance trilogy is an amazing film. Out of the trilogy I have seen Oldboy (Three-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition), which i liked very much, i found this to be superior in every way, a masterpiece.

I will not go into any detail or spoil anything this movie is a rare treat and I wouldn't want to spoil any minute so I will give you the basic premises a beautiful woman Geum-ja Lee played perfectly by Yeong-ae Lee is wrongly imprisoned at the age of 18 for 13 years, so begins her plan of 13 years for revenge on the real criminal.

I believe this movie is all about choices and what is right and wrong. Are gods laws right? Are mans laws right? Lady Vengeance let's you analyze and decide that for yourself well after the credits roll.

On the cover it says "The best revenge thriller since Kill Bill." Kill bill was very good and entertaining movie, this movie goes deeper like all great movies it stays with you, you experience this film, it seeps into your subconscious, becomes one of your memories. I also enjoyed the Kill Bill's and as a drama and a thriller i believe it is better than both of them combined, however Kill Bill is superior on the action side of things.

This film is something you could debate and analyze it has deep meanings but it is also just a great story which keeps you guessing and at times can shock you while others make you laugh.

The score is beautiful to match the movie, the cinematography, and the transfer. Geum-ja Lee is referred to as an angel i believe she was an angel of vengeance and wrath. There is a beautiful shot at the end we get a god's eye view camera angle as snow falls onto three faces 2 open there mouths as if to receive communion from the white pure snow, but who doesn't? Was justice served? I think so.

Lady Vengeance was also on Reel's website on their top 10 of 2006, Was also on one of the editors at IFC's. It also has me rethinking which movie to drop from my personal top 10 of 2006 to make room for this gem.
Thanks for reading, share any thoughts.

DVD Special features (from the back of the dvd)
-Interview with director Park Chan-Wook
-The making of Lady Vengeance
-Audio Commentary by Director Park Chan-Wook
-Audio Commentary by Director, Cinematographer, and art dirctor
-Audio Commentary by Richard Pena- Program Editor, film society of Lincoln -Center, and associate professor of film, Columbia University
-International and U.S. theatrical Trailers
-English and Spanish subtitles

A Woman's Masterful Touch.......2007-07-13

An absolute masterpiece. Each film in the Park's vengeance series stands on its own as a great film. Nevertheless, Lady Vengeance stands out from Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Old Boy for the simple reason that the story is seen through the blood-red eyes of a woman scorned. This could be misinterpreted as a cheap gimmick or Kill Bill ripoff, but I assure you that is not the case. Far from it, Lady Vengeance plunges you into the mind and soul of a woman to live out the betrayl, pain, loss, vengeance, and even redemption as a woman. This is not a movie that crams a macho-dude-with-guns into a super-model. This a masterfully crafted story of a character who uses her wits, cunning, love, kindness, seduction, patience, and consideration to exact her revenge on one of the most rutheless villains in modern cinema.

Not "Oldboy" class, but still a good film.......2007-06-11

Despite some fancifull effects and some really terrific and artistic director's shots in some points, this film is probably the weakest link in Park's magnificent trilogy on revenge. It keeps though the viewer's interest throughout, albeit it is not so unpredictable as the two previous films in the series. On the plus side, I may add that revenge is more than justified this time, since the evil doer is a serial killer of small children and the revenge itself is delivered finally in a more "democratic" way.

Venceance is best served cold........2007-06-11

Lady Vengeance (Chan-wook Park, 2005)

In 2000, Chan-wook Park, a relatively obscure director, and Yeon-ae Lee, a young actress, teamed up for JSA: Joint Security Area, the movie that shot both of them to stardom in their native Korea. Park was to explode onto the international scene with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and the multiple-award-winning Oldboy; Lee continued being popular in Korea, but not so much outside it. All that changed when Park brought her back in to be the lead in Lady Vengeance, the final installment of his revenge trilogy. Poof--instant international stardom!

As with the other revenge films, Lady Vengeance has as its main character a person who has been wrongly imprisoned. In this case, it's Geum-Ja (Lee), who went to prison for kidnap and murder for thirteen years. Now she's out, and she wants revenge. In order to get it, she enlists the help of a number of previously-released prison inmates who'd grown fond of her while they were incarcerated together, and the bunch put together an elaborate plan for the real killer's demise.

It's a fun movie, as long as you're not turned off by a pervasive suggestion of violence (not a great deal of which is actually shown, in contrast to Oldboy). It's very straightforward, which lends the movie a somewhat deliberate pace; there aren't any red herrings being tossed around. We just have Geum-Ja's single-minded devotion to revenge, her plan, and its execution, on the plot side of things. This gives Park time to develop a number of the characters in interesting ways, especially Geum-Ja; interwoven with the flashback scenes of prison life are a number of earlier scenes that give us a sense of who she is as a person, and the extent to which prison changed her. Or did it? Were all her selfless acts in prison, where she was known as an angel, geared towards making allies to help her with her plan (which, at one point, she said began the day she went to prison)? We're never explicitly told, but in the end, it's a secondary consideration; the revenge is what matters. Lady Vengeance is simple and powerful, and worth your time. *** ½

A tale of revenge and redemption for Lee Gum-Jaa.......2007-05-30

Lady Vengeance is the third and final installment in Park Chan-Wook's revenge trilogy that began with Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy, and to me, the best in the series. And all thanks to Lee Young-Ae as Lee Gum-Jaa, exuding a calm, sad, but elegant beauty. Love that red eyeshadow, long black coat and boots! The vengeance is justified, plotted more strategically, created like a cake per the wondrous artistic opening sequence, and the emotional poignancy more than that of Park's first two films. And the mostly melancholy music, highlighted by the theme "Mareta Mareta" adds to the film's ambience. But this movie makes more of a case for justified revenge and killing than the other two films.

In the story, told with recurring flashbacks, Lee Gum-Jaa has finished serving a thirteen and a half year sentence for murdering a 5-year old boy. Turns out though that she was forced to take the rap or else her own daughter would be murdered. During her incarceration, she spends her time hatching up a scheme against the actual killer, Mr. Baek, the elementary school English teacher who took her in when she was pregnant, and blackmailed her by threatening to kill her daughter if she didn't take the rap.

For her grand scheme, she does favours for or uses certain people. She gives a kidney to an inmate suffering from chronic kidney disease. She also slowly poisons the Witch, a horrible, obese predatory inmate who has a penchant for chubby females and is a terror among the other inmates. Creating a wonderful cake out of some pathetic ingredients wows the baker Mr. Chang, who gives her a job at a bakery after her release. And becoming Christian is just a way to reduce her sentence to show how reformed she is. Indeed, her cold response to the warm welcome given her by the preacher who "converted" her at the train station is, "Why don't you go sc--w yourself?"

She finds her cute daughter Jenny living in Australia with foster parents. Jenny can't speak a word of Korean, but nevertheless wants to go to Korea--check out the brief scene where she forces Lee Gum-Jaa to take her there. Jenny though is a bit disgruntled, wondering why she was dumped.

The turning point in the film is when Gum-Jaa is about to kill Baek and discovers he has killed other children. It's not now a point of personal vengeance but giving the parents of the murdered children their bit of vengeance to this serial murderer.

There are highly emotional bits, where Lee Gum-Jaa explains her past to Jenny, with Mr. Baek translating at gunpoint. More disturbing is the scene where the parents of the murdered children react after seeing videos of Baek killing their offspring.

It's not only the search for revenge that's key but also redemption. Although Lee Gum-jaa's life stemmed from a great mistake she made in her youth, she perceives this pessimistic indelible brand of a sinner. My sins are too great and deep She says of Baek, "he made a sinner out of me," and when Jenny asks if she wasn't happy to meet her, Lee tearfully says "Too happy for a sinner like me." She tells an inmate in her "Christian phase" that "Prayer is like a scrubbing towel. It scrubs off all your sins, then your skin will become as new as a baby's a**." Seems she didn't take her own advice, because she is too hard on herself.

Lady Vengeance is the most stylish of the three revenge films, although maybe with some over-elaborate and indulgent bits. The pistol made for her only shoots at very short distances, but the double barrels and ornate carvings are clearly for aesthetic purposes, but in one scene, she has enough wits to run and shoot the hand off the knife-wielding thug who's abducted Jenny. Why not use an automatic?

Symmetry: at the beginning, the Christian preacher waiting for her encourages to eat the block of white tofu so she won't sin again. At the end, she holds a cake with white frosting and tells her daughter to live white. Falling snow symbolizes purity, a new start, and makes for one poignant ending to a film I've watched over and over again.

Average customer rating:

Vengeance Is a Golden Blade
Starring: Ping-Ao Wei , Peng-fei Li , Ching Tang , Hua Yueh , and Hsiung Chiao
Director: Meng Hua Ho
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000LPS2PE
Release Date: 2007-03-20

Description

From the fearless director of The Flying Guillotine and Mighty Peking Man, this colorful adventure will thrill all fans of brilliant cinematic swordplay! The stage is set for a fast-moving story of greed, lust, death, and vengeance as a servant's daughter must escape from a murderous married couple who will stop at nothing to have a golden blade called "The Flying Dragon." Only a martial arts master familiar with the rare "Silver Swallow" technique can hope to stand up against these ferocious villains, leading to a fierce showdown that will determine the fate of the world's most deadly weapon!

Santo and the Monsters (8 pack) Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dr. Frankenstein/Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter/Santo In The Vengeance of The Mummy/Santo & Blue Demon vs. Dracula & the Wolfman/Santo In The Treasure of Dracula/Santo Vs. The Riders Of Terror/Santo In The Vengeance of the Crying Woman/Extraterrestrial

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Santo and the Monsters (8 pack) Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dr. Frankenstein/Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter/Santo In The Vengeance of The Mummy/Santo & Blue Demon vs. Dracula & the Wolfman/Santo In The Treasure of Dracula/Santo Vs. The Riders Of Terror/Santo In The Vengeance of the Crying Woman/Extraterrestrial

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

-Santo y Blue Demon Contra el Dr. Frankenstein (Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dr. Frankenstein) -Santo Contra la Hija de Frankenstein (Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter) -Santo en la Venganza de la Momia (Santo In The Vengeance of The Mummy) -Santo y Blue Demon Contra Dracula y el Hombre Lobo (Santo & Blue Demon vs. Dracula & the Wolfman) -Santo en el Tesoro de Dracula (Santo In The Treasure of Dracula) -Santo Contra Los Jinetes Del Terror (Santo Vs. The Riders Of Terror) -Santo In The Vengeance of the Crying Woman -Santo: Infraterrestre (Extraterrestrial)

Old Skool Killaz: A Daughter's Vengeance

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Old Skool Killaz: A Daughter's Vengeance
Starring: Old Skool Killaz
Manufacturer: Crash Cinema Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007OP25W
Release Date: 2005-03-08

Description

This Maid is Just Plain Crazed!
Get ready for cinema of the insane when a seriously deformed "Snow Woman" raises a cutie named only "Snow Maid" to take vengeance on the man who knocked up her mother…a man known only as Golden Hair Mouse. Yes…Golden Hair Mouse. She pouts, she kicks, she swings swords and throws darts, but none particularly well, making the hard-working stunt and camera crew work overtime in this prize example of The Greatest Martial Art Turkeys of all time. It's so bad, it's great!

ABOUT THE PRINT: Indifferently full screened, and hilariously dubbed so the already perverse plot seems all the more demented.

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