Ginger Post

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (hereafter, SLV) is Director Park’s culminating film in the revenge trilogy. Using a woman as a principal character, Park, again, attempts to draw viewers into the ethics, psychology, and now, sociology of revenge. There are elements that have remained constant, and simply assumed a priori in this film, perhaps presupposing that astute viewers would know and anticipate his logic and rationale. That is, rather than asking if “revengers” (those who carry out the revenge) are changed by their conative and corporeal necessities of revenge, he assumes that they are. This difference is repeatedly shown in scenes where Lee Geum-Ja’s accomplices tell her that she has “changed.” Because she has. After her release from prison, she begins wearing make-up; she wears sexy clothes and high heels. The angelic glow that once accompanied her is replaced by candy-apple red lipstick and heels. She is burning for revenge. Park’s use of color reflects that intent quite well.

In addition to the strategic use of color and audio, in the final installment Park shows the viewers the sociality of revenge. Viewers will recall that in the first film, revenge is unadulterated and almost Biblical; in the second film, revenge is moral and psychological. In the last one, revenge is social. This facet of revenge is explored in all its full nudity.

Lee Geum-Ja falsely confesses to the killing of Park Won-Mo, a six-year-old toddler. She does so because Teacher Baek has kidnapped her own son and threatens to kill him if she does not turn herself into the police and confess to the murder. She is sent to prison, and for thirteen years, she plots and plans her elaborate revenge (a la Old Boy). Notice that kidnapping, false imprisonment, and prison (both private and public) are used as settings for the stories throughout the trilogy. What is noticeably different in SLV is that Geum-Ja does not sit in a cell by herself and ponder the reason for her imprisonment. She already knows. She has willingly participated in the tragic outcome; and rather than enduring the pains of imprisonment or eating dumpling alone, she participates in the socio-moral life of prison and its economy of hustling: she enlists the help of others. Or put more accurately, she forces them to help her through acts of premeditated altruism. Geum-Ja creates the debt that she will later collect; she becomes a creditor of the highest order by creating moral debts that can only be paid in kind. This is the first social face of revenge.

The second social face of revenge surfaces when she begins the debt collection. In these scenes we are shown the various components in the wheel of revenge; that is, why these various—colorful—characters are helping Geum-Ja in her revenge. The six secondary characters represent essential links in a social network of revenge.

The third social face of revenge unfolds after Geum-Ja and associates dupe, kidnap, and transport the “revengee” (target of the revenge) to the actual murder site. We learn that to fulfill his dream of owning a yacht, Teacher Baek has kidnapped, extorted, and killed five children. She finds evidence and gathers the victims’ parents at a secluded location. This scene is one of the most titillating parts of the movie, for we are treated to social order at its most tenuous moments. The victims’ parents know that they have the chance to “do justice.” But how will this play out? Will they turn Teacher Baek over to the police or will they deliver street justice then and there? Will they go into the confinement room all at once or deliver non-fatal blows individually? How will the group decide who goes first and last? How will the group deal with the possibility of a potential informant who might later rat them out?

The SLV represents sociality of revenge precisely for such reasons. Viewers learn that revenge is not a solitary affair between the revenger and the revengee. It is a collective and social process. There is, however, one kink in the story Park wants to tell. Despite having used a female protagonist and female supporting characters in the movie, assuming a feminist perspective would lead to a critique of the director for being a chauvinist: after all, a woman has to rely on other women and a strong male figure (a detective) to execute her thirteen-year-old plan. We find no such connotations in his two previous films.