After being wrongfully imprisoned for thirteen years and having her child taken away from her, a woman seeks revenge through increasingly cruel and brutal means.
A recently laid off factory worker kidnaps his former boss' friend's daughter, hoping to use the ransom money to pay for his sister's kidney transplant.
In the DMZ separating North and South Korea, two North Korean soldiers have been killed, supposedly by one South Korean soldier. But the 11 bullets found in the bodies, together with the 5 ... See full summary »
A girl who thinks she is a combat cyborg checks into a mental hospital, where she encounters other psychotics. Eventually, she falls for a man who thinks he can steal people's souls.
In a small Korean province in 1986, three detectives struggle with the case of multiple young women being found raped and murdered by an unknown culprit.
After a thirteen-year imprisonment for the kidnap and murder of a six-year-old boy, Guem-Ja Lee seeks vengeance on the man truly responsible for the boy's death. With the help of fellow inmates and reunited with her daughter, she gets closer and closer to her goal.Written by
Spekkie Big
The bakery that Geumja works in is called "Naruse", which is the name of the Japanese director Mikio Naruse. See more »
Goofs
[All goofs for this title are spoilers.]
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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.
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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). See more »
"Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" is a surprisingly poetic finale to Park's excellent Revenge Trilogy. The film fuses the relatively low-key style of "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" with the jet-black humor of "Oldboy," while adding welcome moments of poignancy and sentiment. The film is nowhere near as violent as its predecessors, although a good deal of mayhem takes place offscreen.
Yeong-ae Lee is outstanding as the troubled protagonist Geum-ja, the ex-convict who is seeking redemption as much as revenge. Although the supporting actors -- including several from Park's earlier films -- are uniformly fine, Lee's performance is the heart of the film.
"Lady Vengeance" is difficult to describe without revealing major plot points, as the most memorable scenes come at revelatory moments in the story. Suffice it to say that the climax blends tragedy and hilarity with a degree of success that few directors could hope to match.
9/10. Bravo.
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"Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" is a surprisingly poetic finale to Park's excellent Revenge Trilogy. The film fuses the relatively low-key style of "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" with the jet-black humor of "Oldboy," while adding welcome moments of poignancy and sentiment. The film is nowhere near as violent as its predecessors, although a good deal of mayhem takes place offscreen.
Yeong-ae Lee is outstanding as the troubled protagonist Geum-ja, the ex-convict who is seeking redemption as much as revenge. Although the supporting actors -- including several from Park's earlier films -- are uniformly fine, Lee's performance is the heart of the film.
"Lady Vengeance" is difficult to describe without revealing major plot points, as the most memorable scenes come at revelatory moments in the story. Suffice it to say that the climax blends tragedy and hilarity with a degree of success that few directors could hope to match.
9/10. Bravo.