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Review

Korean director Park Chan-wook’s ascendance to the forefront of prominent auteurs has largely been cemented by the previous two films in his renowned “Vengeance” trilogy, familiar to this festival’s audiences: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance took home our fest’s award for Best Feature Film three years ago, and Oldboy played to sold-out crowds here last year. The concluding chapter in this trilogy, Lady Vengeance, is the most intricate and challenging of the series – and some (including Park himself) feel that it might also be the most accomplished.

Geum-ja (recurring Park player Lee Yeong-Ae) has just been released from a 13-year prison sentence for the alleged kidnapping and murder of a preschool boy, but her incarceration was actually an injustice forced upon her by the real criminal, schoolteacher Mr. Baek (Oldboy star Choi Min-Sik), who cruelly framed Geum-ja for his sadistic acts. Whereas the revenge quests in Park’s two previous films were individual obsessions, Lady Vengeance finds this bloodlust transformed into a collective goal, as Geum-ja enlists her former inmates and several bereaved parents in her actions, raising the film’s emotional impact in the process.

Park’s sensational visual style is very much in evidence in this final “Vengeance” trilogy entry, but the film is clearly more restrained and less comic than Oldboy. Park focuses more on the story’s fragmented narrative (influenced by Boorman’s Point Blank, one of Park’s favorite films), constructing a complex cinematic puzzle that is ultimately harrowing – and richly rewarding – viewing. (Korean with English subtitles)