Marsh Film Club - Lady Vengeance (2005) [Entry #4 / June 2019]

[tao]

Just a friendly reminder that the deadline is coming up.

[v9733xa]

Already? Hm, alright. Guess i can't go another week without watching some rando sociopathic Asian cinema.

[chocollama]

Jun 14, 2019 13:57:53 GMT -5 tao said:

Just a friendly reminder that the deadline is coming up. :)

shit, looks like I'm marathoning all three tomorrow!

[essien]

Think I'm gonna be a little late to this one. Unlikely I'll get a chance to watch it before Thursday. 죄송합니다!

[v9733xa]

Review: letterboxd.com/v9733xa/film/sympathy-for-lady-vengeance/

★★ Watched by Andrew C 16 Jun, 2019

☆"Go screw yourself."☆

No, you first, movie.

This is the fourth film I'm watching as part of a little film club -- Josh, George, Mr_Macaroon, Brock, Zeke, and Stuart are just some in our private group, others not on LB but in another social media page we share -- and this collection of XY chromosomes really loves their sadistic Asian cinema. So it was chosen and here we are.

Lady Vengeance is the third film of Park Chan-wook's "Vengeance Trilogy," immediately following the acclaimed Oldboy -- which I liked but didn't love -- and stars Lee Young-ae as Lee Geum-ja, a woman wrongly convicted for a brutal crime. A model prisoner and beacon of Christian salvation for many in Korea, she was given an early release for good behavior and eager confession for the murder of a young boy. Yet, now free, she is hell-bent on revenge, and set to track down the real killer. Her ruse as a reformed inmate was part of an elaborate plan for vengeance, and she begins to call favors on other paroled prisoners who now help in her quest. Additionally, after finding her daughter who was given away for adoption just as she was jailed, she uses this bond to further her revenge plot on the man who soon finds out he is the target, where even more is ultimately revealed.

This is another highly stylized film from Park Chan-wook, and at times a needlessly confusing time-shifting nonlinear narrative. I guess that's his shtick, revealing twists just at the right time for peak thrills. He leans into it hard for this movie, and it made the plot particularly evasive for me. Without the help of Wikipedia, I literally would not have understood what was going on. Perhaps I'm just stupid. Or perhaps I just didn't care enough to try to figure it out on my own.

It is also features a screenplay written by the director and Jeong Seo-kyeong that is downright sleepy for the first half, setting up a much more interesting climax and conclusion. This snail's pace, though, had me hoping for some sort of shocking reveal; this notably does not happen, just a violent revenge film with a few stylish flairs.

Lady Vengeance features a couple themes and motifs that are viscerally reprehensible to me. First, a (visibly unattractive and "butch") woman in prison essentially sodomizes our heroine; it is yet another example of movies perpetuating the myth that gays and lesbians are somehow morally bankrupt and sadistic, and I'm tired of this stereotype. Secondly, the idea that a prisoner would refine herself for many years through deception and lying, in order to earn a release, is only sure to placate right-wing reactionaries who are convinced that most convicts are forever guilty and that the death penalty is justified because they are irredeemable. In truth, the vast majority of false confessions are coerced from suspects who feel cornered. That a film like this would twist that into a story where a young woman cons everyone and earns a release is antithetical to the very idea of reform and restorative justice and compassion. So, fuck that.

It would be too spoilery to reveal, but I also fundamentally disagreed with the central tenet of the movie's climactic resolution. That idea simply upset me.

There is some inventive editing though, and especially captivating cinematography by the talented Chung Chung-hoon. After investigating, I realized I apparently watched the "fade to black and white" version (the version available on Tubi) unknowingly, as I thought there was something wrong with my television at first. Clever, but it added nothing to the film for me. Just a "look what I can do" needless choice.

A significant drop-off from Oldboy, and an uncomfortable and unpleasant watch. I understand why many people like this, and the entire trilogy from Park Chan-wook, but several aforementioned scenes and ugly choices -- combined with my idiocy of not undertaking what was happening without outside assistance -- made this far and away the worst of the selections of The Daily Mosh Film Club.

[chocollama]

I think I'm with Andrew on this one a bit. I probably would have liked it more if I didn't watch the other two right before it. My roommate was being pretty distracting with his girlfriend during the first half hour, and that made it disorienting for me, too. I liked where it got to, and there could be a hearty discussion about the morals of this particular climax, but overall was a difficult one for me.

Definitely gonna come back to this in a few months, though!

[tao]

Yes! Worst selection!
#winning

[edit]: still respect the hell out of you v9733xa, and I (kinda) knew this would be a divisive pick going into it, just happy you made the effort.



Will post my questions up as soon as I can find wherever I put the paper I wrote them down on lol.

[stuartoxlade]

Im gonna try and get this done this week. Been far too busy before the deadline so apologies!

[essien]

Jun 17, 2019 23:25:13 GMT -5 tao said:

Yes! Worst selection!
#winning

*whispers* this is why I preferred it when we made decisions as a group~

[v9733xa]

No! This is a good thing!

We can't all pick movies that we all already love or will love! Do NOT let this turn into that.

I've already picked my documentary for later this year, don't you take that away from me.

[v9733xa]

May 31, 2019 15:54:58 GMT -5 tao said:

Watched. I’ll withhold questions until just before the deadline.

[tao]

Jun 18, 2019 17:29:41 GMT -5 v9733xa said:

No! This is a good thing!

We can't all pick movies that we all already love or will love! Do NOT let this turn into that.

I've already picked my documentary for later this year, don't you take that away from me.

pleasebeShoahpleasebeShoahpleasebeShoah...

[tao]

Alrighty, I’ve updated my review on LB for “Lady Vengeance” if anybody wants to read it, and my questions are as follows:

1) Do you think Mr. Baek was low-key keeping tabs on Geum-Ja post-release, as evidenced by the scene with him and the pastor?

2) What do you think of the scene at the end with the grown Won-Mo (first victim) placing a gag in her mouth? Do you think that that symbolizes she doesn’t need to ask for forgiveness from him, or do you think that by gagging her, it signifies forgiveness denied?

3) With the way it ended, do you think she attains redemption?

[Ghosty]

Gonna be honest, this was almost completely incomprehensible to me. It's been a while since I've seen Oldboy, but I don't remember the plot in that one being difficult to follow. I found it hard to sympathize with any of the characters whatsoever, although I did find the film interesting visually. I'll think on the questions before posting any further thoughts.

[Ghosty]

Jun 18, 2019 22:28:06 GMT -5 tao said:

Alrighty, I’ve updated my review on LB for “Lady Vengeance” if anybody wants to read it, and my questions are as follows:

1) Do you think Mr. Baek was low-key keeping tabs on Geum-Ja post-release, as evidenced by the scene with him and the pastor?

2) What do you think of the scene at the end with the grown Won-Mo (first victim) placing a gag in her mouth? Do you think that that symbolizes she doesn’t need to ask for forgiveness from him, or do you think that by gagging her, it signifies forgiveness denied?

3) With the way it ended, do you think she attains redemption?

1. Yes. I think his motivations were unclear in general, but it seemed pretty explicit that he wanted to keep an eye on her given the nature of her imprisonment and "crime."

2. Gonna go with the former choice. As far as I understood, she didn't actually do anything to Won-Mo and didn't have any reason to seek forgiveness from him or his family.

3. Not sure how to answer this one. Redemption in the eyes of whom? Herself? Won-Mo? The parents of the other victims? Her daughter? It didn't really seem it ended all that well for anyone to me, but I hardly understood what was happening most of the time.

I think my main qualm with this film is a style over substance thing. The flashbacks and dream sequences or whatever are intercut with the narrative in a way that makes the whole thing more confusing than it needs to be, especially given that the core plot is a pretty run-of-the-mill revenge flick; there's no real twist like in Oldboy either (I haven't seen the first in this trilogy, though, so maybe Oldboy is the outlier there). I'm also in agreement with Andrew that it was a pretty uncomfortable watch. I don't normally mind violence in film (Martyrs and Cannibal Holocaust are the only two that come to mind which actually got under my skin), but the characters and their motivations here aren't fleshed out enough for me and it ends up feeling like exploitation. I didn't hate it, but I don't see myself ever coming back for seconds.