Review: Sympathy for Lady Vengeance


Lee Yeong-ae stars as the title character who took the fall for the murder of a child, and who has just been released from prison after 13 years, in which she had to contend with a hefty, sadistic lesbian (natch), and apparently found God somewhere in the process. Needless to say, she ain’t happy, and those who crossed her had better run and hide. Choi Min-shik plays a repugnant teacher, and Aussie character actor Tony Barry turns up in a surreal plot development as the adopted father of the title character’s daughter.

 

Boring, overrated, somewhat confusingly plotted (some say slowly revealed, I say pretentiously, intentionally confusing) 2005 Korean revenge saga from Park Chan-Wook is the third in his Vengeance trilogy after “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” and the overrated “Old Boy” (starring Choi Min-shik). It’s filled with uninteresting and unpleasant people, and it’s all surprisingly bland, really. Like “Old Boy”, I expected something enjoyably sleazy (or at least entertaining like the “Kill Bill” movies), but all I got was something cold, austere (I fucking hate austere films almost as much as critics who use that pretentious word to begin with- full irony understood), uber-pretentious and rather icky. The director seems to be aiming for something like grindhouse done in arthouse fashion, not a good idea in my view, and certainly not successful here.

 

I should have learned from “Old Boy”, though that film looks like “Citizen Kane” in comparison. Another on the list of films Ryan just doesn’t get, I’m afraid, and I’m perfectly aware that it could say more about me than the films, but I’m not so sure about that here. With a screenplay by the director and Chung Seo-kyung, at least there’s no live octopus eating here, that’s one thing I suppose.

 

Rating: C

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