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Lady Vengeance review

Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 30 September 2010 10:43

To me Chan Wook-Park is one of the most visually fascinating directors working today. His film's are worth watching for this reason alone. Luckily he's also a sly and crafty story teller, one that challenges and engages viewers in ways many aren't accustomed to. Lady Vengeance is the final installment of what has become known as the Vengence trilogy, preceeded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy. LV may be the most accessible film of the three in terms of wrestiling with the big ideas present in most of his work, namely morality, guilt, revenge, and suffering (emotional, physical, spiritual). Here Woo-Park appeals to audiences in an almost participatory manner, compelling us to ask ourselves how we would respond if confronted with the realities faced by the characters. He does go to extreme measures to raise some of these questions, fliriting with absurdity in a film that asks to be taken seriously. I'll leave it up to you to decide if this discredits the process/result or not. My largest complaint with LV involves the narrative mess that occupies the first half of the film. Woo-Park enjoys dropping viewers right into the middle of dramatic events, something I generally enjoy as well. But in this effort he plays around with jumps and loops in time and story-telling that seem to detract from the film's power and effectiveness more than anything. A second viewing may alter my opinion, and this one is worth a second watch regardless.


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