Lady Vengeance

Saw this the other night in 35mm and at first I wasn’t sold, like this is good BUT then it got to the half way point into the third act and I had like a moment of realisation of Yh this a masterpiece! This was unreal!! I think he’s the only filmmaker that can take an inherently selfish act of revenge and then make it a communal experience with insane flashy editing tricks, at least 3 or 4 times where I was smiling just in amazement, who else could connect two complete opposite scenes and edited it so smoothly together..park chan-wook can! It’s such a meticulously planned out movie, part of the fun of it is finding out later what was happening In an earlier scene, you’ll get more context later and also he knows what details to fixate on and it’s got an incredible ending, it’s just HORRIBLE to watch, it’s so cool and interesting ending to a quote on quote “vengeance trilogy” it’s somewhat informal but it’s just fascinating to watch a group vengeance that is executed and thought through, “moral?” Just completely insane and I just loved every minute of it! I think this “trilogy” even though I haven’t seen sympathy for Mr vengeance yet really does probe deeply the true nature of revenge and particular lady vengeance as it questions the impact it can have on somebody. Once you’ve decided to take revenge your life effectively ends and you become a new person. It becomes a game of pretence, accompanied by the eventual cold revelation to others that you were pretending. Everybody wants to commit revenge but most will never act on it. Most motivations for revenge are unjustified or uninformed, with people often unaware of why someone would wrong them! I think unlike a lot of other revenge films, lady vengeance deals with society's use of revenge. Society is already obsessed with evil and revenge( probably why we watch revenge thrillers) and Lady Vengeance shows multiple cameras staring at a criminal re-enacting murder, the exact kind of sick spectacle we've now come to accept. Later on, Lady Vengeance presents a cross section of characters with a difficult moral choice, lawful justice or righteous justice? It extremely blurs the line between what is fair and what is right, what can be done and what should be done. Good people, innocent people, will decide to become a monster to get revenge on a monster. As a collective they will make a decision for vigilante justice which exceeds each individual's fear of committing wrongs; people will always go with the herd. Yet the characters must still take their revenge individually and overcome their personal morals. Everyone wants revenge because everyone has their own pain and suffering, and who are we to judge others who feel wronged. An incredibly gripping psychological thriller! It’s incredibly bleak and disturbing but it’s probably him and the height of his powers using complex plotting and such an incredible style to tell such a perverse story, bright contrasting colour scheme, you get mainly primary colours at first then the black & white later on and then just pure imaginative transitions Score is fantastic, it provides a sense of evocativeness that I just love, whilst paired with elements of celebratory symphonies! The film is intense, cold but it’s just SMOTHERED by a warm like jacket of dark humour, fantastic performances and the odd moment of joy! Bravo