Sympathy for Lady Vengeance - A Timely DVD
April 25th, 2007 in Directors, Drama, Dvd, Indie
When John Hinckley attempted to shoot Ronald Reagan, it was soon revealed that Hinckley was inspired by the film Taxi Driver. Somehow Hinckley was convinced that shooting the President of the United States would guarantee him a date with Jodie Foster. As a former student of Scorsese’s, I was briefly interviewed by a major newspaper about Hinckley and Taxi Driver. What I have learned over the years is that people who use movies as an excuse to kill people are clueless about what the films that inspired them may actually be about. “Pundits” who choose to blame films are usually clueless as well.
I bring up the old news only because the shooting at Virginia Tech as caused all sorts of people to suddenly pay attention to Park Chan-wook. Park is the Korean filmmaker whose film Oldboy has received attention, primarily because of a photo of the shooter that shares a pose similar to that of Park’s title character. Oldboy is the first of Park’s “vengeance” trilogy. When asked about his theme, in the DVD interview for Lady Vengeance, Park states that vengeance is both wrong and stupid.
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is about a former female prisoner who took the rap for a kidnapping that ended up with the killing of a child. Out of prison, she seeks revenge against the man who set her up. The film asks whether, if given the chance, an ordinary person would kill or maim the kidnapper if they had the chance, or would they turn the person over to the police. The film also asks what it takes to have a sense of resolution when you are the victim of a crime, or the survivor. The DVD offers several way to have additional insights into this film with commentary tracks by Park and his star Lee Yeong-ae, as well as a second commentary with Park with his cinematographer and art director, and a third commentary by film historian Richard Pena. This is a beautifully photographed film, but also thought provoking. Even if attention has been foisted on Park Chan-wook for the wrong reasons, he is a filmmaker worth your time.
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April 26th, 2007 at 4:00 am
Dude, Sympathy For Mr Vengeance is the first of the vengeance trilogy.
Also, Park’s opinion about vengeance being wrong and stupid is not that simple. He also sees it as something unique to human kind and a fascinating subject full of moral holes. If he saw vengeance as simply wrong his films wouldn’t be so good.
Personally, I think Lady Vengeance is the worst of the trilogy by far, due to bad pacing and a lack of the moral ambiguity that made the previous two so good. But it does have amazing cinematography.
April 26th, 2007 at 6:48 am
According the the Internet Movie Database, as well as what Park stated in the DVD interview with his film, “Lady Vengeance” was the third of the trilogy.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0661791/
I apologize if I did not convey the moral ambiguity as well as I should have.
April 26th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Er… that’s not what I said. I said MR Vengeance, not lady Vengeance, is the first. The order is:
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance
Oldboy
Sympahty for Lady Vengeance
Anyway, for what it’s worth, I think they’re three of the best films around, and I think Park could be the director of this generation
April 27th, 2007 at 6:45 am
It saddens me that the shootings are bringing unwanted publicity to Chan-wook Park’s films. It’s all too easy to play the blame game when there are so many unanswered questions- the why’s and hows which we may never truly know.
The short of it was that Seung-Hui Cho had very deep mental problems. He could have found many pieces along the way of his dark path to bring him to his final days. It so happened that Oldboy was on that path. The film’s violent themes are easy to blame. However, we have to look at the bigger picture. Cho did not kill because of Oldboy. Cho did not kill for any reason other than his own instability.
Was Helter Skelter really to blame for Sharon Tate’s murders, or was it Manson’s insanity?
I am not trying to downplay what happened at Virginia Tech. My heart goes out to the families that were affected. They have been in my thoughts every day since.
I just hope in the years to come that these films are able to stand on their own as three of the most masterful ever committed to celluloid, and not the trigger for a mad man’s rampage.