MOVIE REVIEW: Lady Vengeance 2006Geum Ja (Yeung-ae Lee) spends 13 years in prison for kidnapping and killing a 5 year old boy. Technically, she was not responsible for killing the child, but she was a part of the kidnap plot…so for all intent and purpose, we’ll say she was wrongfully imprisoned. During her prison stay she is constantly haunted by images of the murdered boy. Geum-Ja makes herself invaluable to several of her cellmates. She rescues several ladies from a brutal female prisoner known as The Witch, donates an organ to another, and volunteers to nurse an elderly inmate. Geum Ja is a model prisoner and becomes very religious. In contrast of her angel status, she has been plotting an elaborate plan of revenge against the people who betrayed her. The main person of interest is Mr. Baek(Min-sik Choi). Mr. Baek was a teacher of Geum Ja’s who took her in when an unplanned pregnancy left her with little resources. He was the actual person responsible for the boy’s death but threatened to take away something sacred to her if she didn’t cop to the murder. Upon her release Geum Ja seeks out her prison buddies to help her with her revenge plans. She also looks for her daughter who was given up for adoption after she was sent to prison. In prison Geum Ja learns the fine art of baking and gets a job at a bakery owned by her culinary teacher. You need money to fund a good revenge plot haha! Dressed in black clothing and wearing red eyeshadow, Geum Ja is now ready to stick it to the dude who was responsible for taking away 13 years of her life. What Geum Ja doesn’t know is Mr. Baek has been awaiting her release and has some plans in place of his own. No more spoilers from me y’all.
This film was directed by Chan-Wook Park, same man responsible for Oldboy. Whereas Oldboy was superior, this one was just good in my opinion. This film was more of a black comedy, it was not the ice-cold revenge film I was expecting. This film also lacked the extreme violence that made Oldboy so great. Geum Ja’s revenge tactic was certainly a surprise but a good one indeed. The cinematography was top-notch, if nothing else this film is beautiful to watch. Geum Ja’s character is very complex, she is an angel, a cold-hearted bitch, a lover, a mother, and she executes each trait flawlessly. Although I was expecting much more ass-kicking, this film was good. In Korean with English subtitles.
VERDICT: 3 Soul Claps
Labels: Movie Reviews
This entry was posted
on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 12:55 PM.
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