Chinjeolhan geumjassi (2005)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Chan-wook Park

Writers:

Seo-Gyeong Jeong (writer)
Chan-wook Park (writer)

Release Date:

29 July 2005 (South Korea)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

All she wanted was a peaceful life...they didn't give it

Plot:

After thirteen and half years in prison for kidnapping and murdering the boy Park Won-mo, Geum-ja Lee is released and tries to fix her life...

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Bakery | Murder | Teacher | Vengeance

Awards:

9 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Yeong-ae Lee	...	Geum-ja Lee
Min-sik Choi	...	Mr. Baek
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tony Barry	...	StepFather, Australian
Anne Cordiner	...	StepMother, Australian
Su-hee Go	...	Ma-nyeo
Hye-jeong Kang	...	Tv announcer
Bu-seon Kim	...	So-young Woo
Byeong-ok Kim	...	Preacher
Shi-hoo Kim	...	Geun-shik
Yea-young Kwon	...	Jenny
Dae-yeon Lee	...	Prison head
Seung-Shin Lee	...	Yi-jeong Park
Su-gyeong Lim	...	A prison officer
Il-woo Nam	...	Detective Choi
Dal-su Oh	...	Mr. Chang
Kwang-rok Oh	...	Se-hyun's Father
Mi-ran Ra	...	Oh, Su-hee
Seung-wan Ryoo	...	A passerby
Yeong-ju Seo	...	Kim, Yang-hee
Ha-kyun Shin	...	A hired assassin 2
Kang-ho Song	...	A hired assassin 1
Ji-tae Yu	...	A grown-up Won-mo
Jin-seo Yun	...	A prisoner

Directed by
Chan-wook Park

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Seo-Gyeong Jeong		writer
Chan-wook Park		writer

Produced by
Young-wuk Cho	....	producer
Chun-yeong Lee	....	producer
June Lee	....	associate producer
Miky Lee	....	executive producer
Tae-hun Lee	....	producer

Original Music by
Seung-hyun Choi

Cinematography by
Chung-hoon Chung

Film Editing by
Jae-beom Kim
Sang-Beom Kim

Casting by
Ju-yeol Lee

Production Design by
Hwa-seong Jo

Art Direction by
Hyeon-Seok Choi
Ji-hyeong Han
Synderella Peng

Set Decoration by
In-ho Oh

Costume Design by
Sang-gyeong Jo

Makeup Department
Jong-hee Song	....	makeup department head

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Min-woo Seok	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Chang-seop Kim	....	sound
Seok-weon Kim	....	sound
Seung-cheol Lee	....	sound

Special Effects by
Gwang-su Kim	....	special effects
Tae-eui Kim	....	special effects
Yeong-il Yu	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Jeon-hyeong Lee	....	visual effects supervisor

Editorial Department
Soojin Chung	....	production editor

Music Department
Yeong-wook Jo	....	music director

Other crew
June Lee	....	title producer
Synderella Peng	....	title designer
Garson Yu	....	title designer
Roland Yu	....	title designer

Production Companies

• CJ Capital Investment
• Centurion Investment
• Ilshin Capital Investments
• Korea Capital Investment
• Moho Films
• Samsung Venture Capital
• TSJ Entertainment

Distributors

• 3L Filmverleih (2007) (Austria) (theatrical)
• 3L Filmverleih (2007) (Germany) (theatrical)
• A-Film Distribution (2006) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• ArtCam (2006) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• CJ Entertainment (2005) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• Festive Films (2005) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Metropolitan Filmexport (2005) (France) (theatrical)
• Odeon Films (2006) (Canada) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Shaw Organisation (2005) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Shaw Renters (2005) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Tarantula Films (2005) (Mexico) (theatrical)
• Tartan Films (2005) (UK) (theatrical)
• Tartan (2006) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Future Film (2006) (Finland) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• Palisades Tartan (2005) (USA) (all media)
• Platina Filmes (2008) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Tartan Video USA (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Tartan Video (2006) (UK) (DVD)
• e-m-s new media (2007) (Germany) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Eon Digital Films

Other Companies

• Bluecap  sound
• HFR  dailies
• HFR  digital cinema
• HFR  digital intermediate
• yU+Co.  titles

Also Known As:

Lady Vengeance (UK) (USA)
Kind-Hearted Ms. Geum-Ja (literal English title)
My Lady Vengeance (Hong Kong: English title) (DVD box title)
Shed Tears for Lady Vengeance (Philippines: English title) (DVD title)
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (UK) (DVD box title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violent content - some involving children, and some sexuality.

Runtime:

112 min | Argentina:112 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean | English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Hong Kong:III | Singapore:R21 | Japan:R-15 | Denmark:15 | Germany:16 | UK:18 | Ireland:18 | USA:R | Argentina:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Sweden:15 | Finland:K-18 | Australia:MA | Singapore:M18 (edited version) | Italy:VM14 | France:-16 | Brazil:18 (DVD rating) | Mexico:C | South Korea:18

Company:

CJ Capital Investment

Trivia:

The snow at the ending is not real. They brought two trucks of salt, scattered it all over the street and finally adjusted the scene using computer graphics.

Quotes:

Geum-ja Lee: Be White. Live White. Like this.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "To kokkino domatio: I ekdikisi mias kyrias (#2.1)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Ah ch'infelische sempre

standing ovation

i usually don't enjoy movies that contain gore, suspense, and violence. still, sympathy for lady vengeance was undoubtedly, a movie worth watching. even for those who actively dislike movies in this certain genre, sympathy for lady vengeance is an absolute must. out of the trilogy, this one was the one i enjoyed most. there was nothing overly-excessive and/or gratuitous (which i honestly found oldboy and sympathy for mr vengeance had a bit of), and it definitely cannot be considered a brain-candy film. with an extremely intelligent and interesting plot, and visually stunning cinematography, it was a spectacular piece of art, from the start to the finish, and had me thinking about it and talking about it for days afterward.