(2005) Lady Vengeance

Chan-wook Park offers you no reprieve from the bleak and depressing here in what is definitely the hardest film to enjoy of the vengeance trilogy.

I don’t think Park has ever given us a protagonist that’s straightforward morally but the ones from the first two movies always had overlying good intentions. Our Lady here is, to put it quite frankly, kind of a piece of shit. That’s basically the theme of the entire movie; it’s all about how she’s a piece of shit and how someone else being more of a piece of shit, doesn’t make her less of a piece of shit. Well, I guess if someone is “more” of a piece of shit that directly implies that she’s less of a piece of shit but you know, still a piece of shit.

Anyways, the film of course does everything with elegance, like Park always does. Expect it to gently crush your soul with beautiful music and some stunning cinematography.

It took me the entire goddamn movie to decide if I even likes this a little just because, like I said before, it doesn’t offer you any of the expected satisfactions of a normal revenge film. I took it as a huge statement on complicity, as well as an almost comically depressive reiteration on how we cannot change the past.

There’s a theme of redemption here but I’m not sure if it’s the graceful, sentimental painting we’re all used to. This was definitely a really interesting film but one that I never want to see again, it really depressed the shit out of me.

Despite my initial hangups, the ending was a super emotional, tactful finale that solidified it as a really successful film. That’s it, that’s all I have for you.

7.5/10