Lady Vengeance (2005)

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Lady Vengeance is the third film from Park Chanwook's revenge trilogy following "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Oldboy". Lee Geum-Ja, at the age of 19, goes to prison for the murder and abduction of a child on behalf of her accomplice Mr. Baek, only to find out that she is betrayed. While in prison, she carefully prepares for her revenge by winning the hearts of her fellow inmates with her kindness, thus earning herself the nickname 'kind Ms. Geum-Ja.' (imdb)

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Directed By: Chan-wook Park

Written By: Chan-wook Park, Seo-Gyeong Jeong

Starring: Dal-su Oh, Kang-ho Song, Choi Min-sik, Lee Yeong-ae, Su-hee Go, Bu-seon Kim, Seung-Shin Lee, Shi-hoo Kim

Genres: Drama, Suspense/Thriller, Crime, Action

Franchise: The Vengeance Trilogy

AKAs: Chinjeolhan geumjassi, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Country: South Korea

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Lady Vengeance belongs to 46 collections

1. Passed the Bechdel Test (collaborative: moderated by geohawk - 30 stars)

2. Netflix Instant (collaborative: moderated by somnivore - 29 stars)

3. Female protagonist (collaborative: moderated by djross - 25 stars)

4. Vigilante / Revenge (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 13 stars)

5. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)

6. Mind-rape (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 11 stars)

7. Cinema Discusso Yearly Consensus (2008) (public: PeaceAnarchy - 10 stars)

8. Voiceover narration (collaborative: moderated by djross - 5 stars)

9. Times Online: The 100 Best Films of the Decade (collaborative: moderated by hristos - 5 stars)

10. Capsules, guest reviews, list candidates... (366weirdmovies) (collaborative: moderated by sesito71 - 5 stars)

11. Top 3000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 5 stars)

12. Dream/Fantasy/Hallucination Sequence (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 4 stars)

13. Coheed's Films I Need To See Or Try To Track Down (public: Coheed - 3 stars)

14. The Vengeance Trilogy (collaborative: moderated by whatismyname - 2 stars)

15. Korean Movies (collaborative: moderated by manbeer - 2 stars)

16. mwgerb's Netflix Instant Queue (public: mwgerb - 2 stars)

17. Foreign - Korean (public: NhanLa - 2 stars)

18. Flashback Sequence (collaborative: moderated by doganay - 1 star)

19. Blue Dragon Film Awards: Best Film (collaborative: moderated by iceblox - 1 star)

20. 100 Greatest Korean Films Ever by Korean Screen (collaborative: moderated by Equanimity - 1 star)

21. Film Comment Best 50 Films of 2006 (public: djross - 1 star)

22. Woman Protagonist (public: shalev - 1 star)

23. Favorite Films from Around the World (public: Dorkovsky - 1 star)

24. Wishlist (collaborative)

25. noike/caffes Topp 100 filmer! (collaborative: moderated by Aron Ericson)

26. simon (collaborative: moderated by f_ranzen)

27. My DVDs (public: Kavu)

28. Nepogledano (public: aney)

29. To Watch (public: normalchaos)

30. zae's DVDs & Blurays (public: zae)

31. Owned (BD) (public: bizarre_eye)

32. My DVD Collection (public: balseiros)

33. Home (public: moretso)

34. Peliculas que tengo (public: escarta)

35. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 37 (public: PeaceAnarchy)

36. Movies to See: Thriller (public: Lady Moe)

37. Movies I Own (public: Farzan)

38. Asia/Pacific Top 100 (public: Sleepy Dogs)

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46. 90+ (public: Daria)

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TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
6	Farzan	77 _70th
Very interesting to see a woman lead character in a film like this, and she blew me away. In all honesty Lady Vengeance did nothing for me for about the first hour, but when the parents confront the killer, and the scenes that ensue and come before it are job droppingly fantastic and at the same time horrifying. A smart picture that looks beautiful as well. Inferior to Oldboy, but definitely worthy.
5	MartinTeller	94 _97th
I was let down by Chan-wook Park's Oldboy, but this one more than makes up for it. It's SO much better that I can't understand why it's Oldboy that gets all the hype. The film is visually delectable, with oodles of striking images and clever effects. The story is rich and multi-faceted, without needing to resort to convoluted plot twists or cheap thrills. It's funny, moving, tense, engaging and often heartbreakingly beautiful.
4	Okkervil	95 _99th
Geum-ja Lee is one of the finest female charactors ever brought to the silver screen. For me this is Chan-wook Park's direction at its most fluent and intricate, yet somehow this film never loses its aura of menace and loonacy! Powerful, savage, beautiful and funny, Lady Vengeance is my favourite of the Vengeance Trilogy. Movies simply don't get much cooler than this.
3	slackerish	95 _94th
It's just a near-perfect movie. It doesn't use any gimmicks or twists to keep our attention, but rather uses compelling directing, writing, and storytelling. I don't really see why Park decided to screw around with the time segments, but other than that, this is one of the best "revenge" tales ever made, if not THE best revenge tale ever made.
2	auritech	88 _87th
Personally, it's my favorite of the Park Chan-wook Vengeance trilogy. It doesn't have the relentlessly drab, misanthropic outlook that Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance has, nor the weird-out final third that Oldboy is. It is definitely still emotional and stylish. A superb film that rounds out the three beautifully.
2	weirdyoda	91 _88th
insanely awesome. This bitch is hardcore.
2	Boobjuice	90 _92nd
This was excellent, as are the other two films in the trilogy. Gets extra credit from me because it's got a smart, engaging, badass female lead and, let's face it, those are few and far between.
2	Drewlephant	83 _77th
Generally the least-liked of the Revenge Trilogy. I still enjoyed this more than Oldboy, personally. If Oldboy represented the action and mechanics of revenge, and Mr. Vengeance represented the human side of it, Lady Vengeance does a perfect job with the poetic and aesthetic aspects. Perhaps I'm a sucker for a pretty picture, but Lady Vengeance really got me there.
2	e_e	100 _99th
A contender for my favorite film of the decade. It's bold, edgy, funny, unpredictable, thought provoking and best of all, moving. The other entries in the vengeance trilogy are top quality too, but I love the dark neofeminist tones running through this the most. Just be prepared for the sharp 180 degree turn it takes halfway through.
2	Langelund (CinemaZone.dk)	85 _89th
Far from flawless, but I dare anyone to take their eyes of this movie for just a second. Every frame, every sound has some sort of merit, some sort of magic intensity either symbolic og concrete. A truly great ending to a magnificent trilogy.
2	Omicron91	89 _72nd
Not as good as oldboy but better than sympathy for mr. vengeance.
2	moraesfelipe	50 _33rd
It only won my attention in its last 45 minutes or so, when the Lady gets the dead kids' families together to watch vids of their children and then let them claim revenge. The 1st hour works as a bloated and comic post-Kill Bill prison film, while the 2nd finally accepts the Gospel melodrama tone ironically suggested before, bringing into the scenes ultraviolence and a story of (lost) motherhood. In the end, beauty arrives: snow as a symbol of purity from a dirty woman to an innocent kid.
2	Cinema_Asia	85 _92nd
Difficult film to digest because at times the viewer is hit with so many emotions at once that it takes awhile to absorb what you are experiencing. Lady Vengeance is about redemption, failure, and the dissatisfaction of vengeance. There is no dumbed down Hollywood moment where a smug heroine walks off into the sunset in glory there is only sadness at life. The last 30 minutes of the film are simply stunning and a reflection of what vengeance really does to individuals.
1	Dorkovsky	10 _99th
Great style and great substance. Other than a few small pacing problems toward the end, this film is near flawless.
1	Pickpocket	9 _93rd
The trilogy ends with a gut wrenching punch in the stomach. And I loved it. Guem-Ja is one of the best characters you'll ever see, interesting, badass, sexy. The cinematography and direction are both excellent, it's a great film to look at. I think we all would have this type of fantasy if someone hurt someone we cared about but to see it on screen was shocking to say the least. Made me think and question things which I sadly can't say about most of the crap I watch.
1	mikeparasol	99 _99th
The most visually stunning director working today. The story perfectly mixes comedy, drama, and violence.
1	Derekstar	90 _85th
Visually stunning. Really. Oftentimes what was happening on screen was so well done that distracted me from the subtitles, and I had to go back. My favourite of the trilogy.
1	PeaceAnarchy	85 _81st
Great movie about revenge. The style is a bit of a mix of Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance but the movie fails to live up to its predecesors. Still a very good story with wonderful visuals and music.
1	HalfJapanese	75 _50th
My least favorite film of the "Vengeance trilogy," Lady Vengeance is still very good, but feels a little too "weird for the sake of weird."
1	Skenkere	76 _75th
Visually really good, and while it takes a lot longer to build up, it takes a twist that makes for a really interesting last third. I liked Oldboy better, but this is still a really good movie.
1	nilkynarfy	90 _92nd
Compared to the harsh neo-realism of the first film, or the stylish nouvelle vague brutality of the second, this one is fairly surreal and magical. There's plenty of violence and cringe, bad actions do still have tragic consequences, but there's much more positivity and gentleness. Not that those other films lacked those qualities, but this one actively pursues them. All told, each entry in the vengeance trilogy is as good as the next and last and first. A great series.
1	Geodacius	95 _98th
Amazing. Thrilling and heart wrenching. Park Chan-Wook is a genius.
1	darkman	76 _68th
Great style. A bit confusing at times.
1	sensei	80 _69th
5 years later and I am still listening to the soundtrack.
1	Quicky	66 _51st
As with the other two films in this 'trilogy', in a way I didn't really like it, but at the same time I felt I was supposed to like it. The cinematography is indeed good, as is the directing, but for some reason I couldn't really enjoy any of these movies.
1	calharding	78 _60th
Typically virtuoso-like editing decorate another violent but emotionally deep Park Chan-Wook film. There's an undercurrent of sadness in this stylish and haunting revenge tale, but I found the character of Lee Geum-Ja a tad difficult to connect with emotionally.
1	chemical404	76 _91st
Very elegant movie. Story is simple, but the narrative structure makes it confusing, because the plot constantly jumps through time and space. Cinematography is top notch, the film is pleasure to look at. Park Chan-wook got really confident with this film, maybe even too confident. Sometimes it balances on the line of being pretentious. Unforgettable, powerful movie with a few flaws.
1	Pepsi-Man	2 _39th
Visually spectacular, but I just plain didn't like it. There were some good ideas and themes here, but it often felt too gratuitous to me.
1	Rufam	65 _42nd
"Chinjeolhan geumjassi" has Park's idiosyncratic wit, his trademark visual panache and, during the final scenes, a snowy, melancholic resonance. Still, the labyrinthine structure, the self-absorbed weirdness and the largely vapid characters prevent me from loving the film. I appreciate the craft, the uniqueness, the few moments with an emotional ring, but overall this left me kinda disoriented.
1	backwardsuit	70 _48th
Visually rich but too much incoherent storytelling with flashy style that doesn't quite seem to add up with the substance. Nice feminine twist on the revenge theme though and borders on being tasteless which I like.

Average Percentile 65.48% from 2770 Ratings