Lady Vengeance (2005)

After being wrongfully imprisoned for thirteen years and having her child taken away from her, a woman seeks revenge through increasingly brutal means.

Director:

Chan-wook Park (as Park Chan Wook)

Writers:

Seo-kyeong Jeong (as Seo-gyeong Jeong), Chan-wook Park

Stars:

Yeong-ae Lee, Min-sik Choi, Shi-hoo Kim

12 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Yeong-ae Lee	...	Geum-ja Lee
Min-sik Choi	...	Mr. Baek
Shi-hoo Kim	...	Geun-shik
Yea-young Kwon	...	Jenny
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
Yoo-Jeong Kim	...	Jae-kyung
Byung-Joon Lee	...	Dong-Hwa
Dae-yeon Lee	...	Prison head
Seung-shin Lee	...	Yi-jeong Park (as Seung-Shin Lee)
Su-gyeong Lim	...	A prison officer

Storyline

Wrongfully accused of child abduction and murder, the angelic-faced single mother, Lee Geum-ja, is released from prison after thirteen long years. Hell-bent on taking her sweet revenge on the man behind the hideous crime, Lee hatches an infallible plan of retribution with the help of her cellmates; however, planning is easier than doing. Now--as Lee Geum-ja struggles to make amends with the daughter she was forced to give up--at the same time, she finds herself torn between her insatiable thirst for vengeance and the desperate need for atonement. Can she have both?

---

Plot Keywords:

revenge | murder | vengeance | christian | cake | 

---

Taglines:

Coming For You

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

Having wanted to make a film on a middle aged woman's revenge, the director originally considered casting Du-shim Ko for the part of Geum-ja. However, he had to abandon his plan for a couple of reasons. He found that Ms. Ko was rather old for the character and was afraid that the movie would look quite similar to John Cassavetes' Gloria (1980).

---

Goofs

[All goofs for this title are spoilers.]

---

Quotes

Geum-ja Lee: Listen carefully. Everyone make mistakes. But if you committed a sin, you have to make an atonement for that sin. Atonement, do you know what that means? Big Atonement for big sins. Small Atonement for small sins.

---

Alternate Versions

There are two different versions of the film. One is full color. The other, called "Fade to Black Version", shifts from color to B&W over the course of the movie. Like Sin City, there are color highlighted, even in the B&W scenes. The second version is what the director intended, but he was not able to complete it properly until the Korean DVD (which includes both versions).

---

Connections

References Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

---

Soundtracks

Mareta no'm faces plorar
Composed by Jordi Savall
Vocal by Montserrat Figuera, Arianna Savall
Baroque Guitar by Xavier Diaz-Latotte
Baroque Flutes Traversieres by Mare Hantai
Bass Viola da gamba by Jordi Savall
Courtesy by Alia Vox

User Reviews

Brilliant ending for the revenge trilogy

There I was, in Sitges' film festival, in Barcelona, where one year ago Chan-Wook Park had won his prize for the great masterpiece Old Boy. This time he was presenting his last movie "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" to end the revenge trilogy.Everyone was waiting for the movie to start, all Park's fans and the lady at the festival announced the director's arrival. There he came in, the Korean director with the translator, trying to explain the meaning of his surname in Korean, and talking about loads of stuff - except the movie. Finally he thanked people for making his movie Old Boy "win a lot of money". I think is this personality that makes Park's movies so special. Just like this last one, its a beautiful bizarre movie, like its creator. The audience was already amazed with the starting credits of unusual beauty that just took the breath away from all audience and guarantied that the movie was going to be something different. Truth is that the movie is different, at least more different than his early Old Boy. This time he had created a movie where the story didn't count as much, but maybe the visual side of it, images that contain so much beauty that just makes the movie already worthy of seeing. The story is also really good, charged with all sort of surrealism and irony that makes it extremely interesting. Also, this time the director had treated vengeance with another style, more beautifully and also comprehensive, accomplishing that the audience can identify themselves with the main character, Geumja. When it was ended, the movie received a warmly applause from an audience, including myself, that hadn't been disappointed and that thought the director had done a great and bizarre job to end his trilogy.

Details

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean English Japanese

Release Date:

29 July 2005 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Lady Vengeance

Filming Locations:

Seoul, South Korea

Box Office

Budget:

KRW4,200,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,850, 30 April 2006

Gross USA:

$211,667

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$23,834,149

Company Credits

Production Co:

CJ Entertainment, CJ Capital Investment, Centurion Investment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min 112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1