Stylish S. Korean filmmaker completes vengeance trilogy

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Even though his achievement is impressive, one hopes that South Korean director Park Chanwook has gotten revenge out of his system. With “Lady Vengeance,” he has completed a stylish, convoluted and ultra-violent trilogy on the subject.

First was “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” his 2002 film, and then “Oldboy,” made in 2003 and released locally last year. “Oldboy,” as wild a ride as any moviemaker has created in the last half-decade, was a film of comic-book proportions and hair-curling violence.

“Lady Vengeance” (a title shortened for U.S. release from “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance”) can’t match “Oldboy” for shock or scope. I’m not even sure why another movie on the subject of revenge is necessary after “Oldboy.” Maybe it’s because Park knows that revenge is the oldest (and probably most-used) plot in all drama.

The title character is Geum-ja, an angel-faced jailbird who is released from a 13-year prison stint at the beginning of the movie. She was convicted of killing a little boy after kidnapping him; although she confessed to the crime, there’s more to the story (which we will find out in good time).

You must be on your toes from the beginning of this film to piece together its initial patchwork of flashbacks and characters. While in prison, Geum-ja carefully cultivated a group of friends who now owe her something. They will be instrumental in her plan to take revenge against a man who was the cause of her problems.

The story gets even more complicated. We learn that Geum-ja gave up a baby before she went to prison; the girl, adopted, now lives with her new family in Australia. And at Geum-ja’s new job as a bakery chef, she is courted by a younger man, who can’t begin to suspect the extent of her plans.

I won’t give those away here, but the final third of “Lady Vengeance” widens the scope from Geum-ja’s singular revenge to bring in even more people. It’s a disturbing turn, and it allows Park Chanwook some leeway in discussing the price and usefulness of vengeance.

That has been the subject of Park’s trilogy, although “Lady Vengeance” raises the issue with less searing force than “Oldboy.” I almost feel I should reserve judgment on that, because this movie is relatively difficult to follow, and it was only after it was over and I started piecing together the strands that I realized how it all fit together.

It looks amazing, like Park’s other films. And it has two strong performances: Lee Young-hun as the title character and Choi Min-sik as the object of her revenge. Choi played the exhausting lead role in “Oldboy,” and here he gets a break – merely playing a fiendish monster.