Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  8 / 10

  Lady Vengeance (or Sympathy For...) is a stylish quirky revenge thriller that unsurprisingly has a dark third act. Like most of Park Chan-Wook's films, he adds flair to his direction that creates an illusory effect. He makes every scene feel important and integral to the plot, but actually they aren't. To me, that's admirable. After being in prison for 13 years, Lee Guem-Ja plans to murder a pre-school teacher. Obviously for good reason (for which I shan't spoil), this story is solely about her and how meticulous her mind works. Beneath the cold surface, themes of repenting sins, religion and family are explored deeply. No matter how far we strive to be good, none of us are perfect. Evil always finds its way within us. Perhaps disguised as false justice to clear our own personal vendettas. Chan-Wook conveys this eloquently with a surprising amount of heft to each scene. He rounds off his self-titled "revenge" trilogy in style...and I mean lots of style. He directed the heck out of this! Long ponderous takes, characters talking directly to the camera and addressing us, quirky scene transitions, POV shots...the list goes. He quite possibly used every technique a filmmaker could utilise, yet it works so well. It never felt over-stylised to a point that it detracts from the story. I would've like to have seen more character and emotional development of Guem-Ja and the bond with her daughter. The narrative does lack that added power. The pace swims along nicely, but not many moments where the film takes you by surprise and leaves you breathless. Although, the final thirty minutes were dark. I mean quite literally, Chan-Wook used a monochrome filter but also figuratively. To give the opportunity of personal justice to the families of the victims was intriguing, and its execution was deeply disturbing and utterly memorable. I also thought Lee Young-Ae performed the central role well. Lady Vengeance yet again proves that Chan-Wook is an exquisite director who understands the medium of film. Whilst this might not be his strongest film, it's certainly not his weakest.

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