Park Chan-wook’s “Sympathy For Lady Vengeance” breaks the mold of the traditional thriller with its paradoxical setting, beautiful mise-en-scene, and unrealistic elements of a clean-cut female protagonist taking revenge. The complex emotions and themes of maternal and paternal love and revenge make this movie stand out from other thrillers and evoke a unique emotional response from the audience.
Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, the final installment of Park Chan-wook’s revenge trilogy, is a thriller full of paradoxes. Compared to ‘Vengeance is Mine’, which is a movie about revenge from the title alone, and ‘Oldboy’, a movie that seems to be born for darkness and revenge from the beginning to the end, this movie is called ‘kind’ in the title, and the main character is a woman who is spicy and has a neatness that seems to fall down if touched. What is it that such a woman is taking revenge?
This movie is a movie of paradox: there are guns, violence, and all kinds of crimes, but it doesn’t feel like a thriller, even though it’s brutal enough. Where does this feeling come from, that your head says it’s a thriller, but your heart says it’s not?
The first reason is the protagonist. Lee Geum-ja is a woman.
Traditionally, thrillers are based on suspense, depicting the process of crime or deducing the crime. Because of the physical limitations of women, it’s difficult for them to be the subject of crime, and they are often the victims of crime. The main thriller structure is that a man decides to take revenge, and it becomes a story of man vs. man. Even if a woman is not the victim of a crime, the female protagonist in a thriller is usually a female detective, a female detective, or a female lawyer, all of whom are part of the good guys. It’s rare to find a thriller in which a woman commits murder.
What makes a woman the center of a thriller? If you look at the few female thrillers that do exist, the motif is motherhood. Whether it’s Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, Mother, Seven Days, or Don’t Cry Mommy, when a woman commits a murder or sets out on a quest for revenge, it’s not just because it’s a female thriller, it’s because she’s a mother. When a child is in danger, a mom unleashes her superpowers, and when a child dies, a mom opens her eyes to evil? Of course, the act of murder itself is considered evil, even if it is a justifiable crime to avenge the death of a child. These movies seem to be examples of the extremes of maternal love, and a movie that goes in a slightly different direction is Lee Chang-dong’s ‘Poetry’.
‘Sympathy For Lady Vengeance’ is a movie that explodes with all kinds of child love, both maternal and paternal. The sanctuary that Geum-ja, who had a child, went to was not a sanctuary but a hell. Not a hell she went to because she sinned, but a prison where she would sin. If the film had ended with her killing Dr. Baek, apologizing to Jenny for her sins, it would have been just another Korean thriller. Instead, it’s the vengefulness of the four other children and their parents who are not involved that makes this movie so full of grit. The parents’ greed for money is also shown as they poke and prod at the sore spots, and Geum-ja is definitely not forgiven. Unlike Korean thrillers, which usually end with a kwon seon jingak, this movie has a different feel.
My only quibble with the movie is why the heroine is not a psychopath and can only become the heroine of the thriller, the criminal mastermind, through extreme maternal love and vengeance? Based on Korean movies, I think it might be because of the image of the actress. It would be nice to see female characters in Korean movies who were born that way, not female killers who were forced to turn into monsters for a good reason. It’s a bit of an odd example, but I’m talking about a character like Annie Wilkes in Misery.
The second reason is the mise-en-scene. Noir, which is often compared to thrillers, is characterized by literal black screens and extreme contrasts, but thrillers don’t have a special mise-en-scene. If I had to pick one, it would be fast-paced.
While the pacing of events and the intensity of sound are elements of a thriller, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance is a beautiful mise-en-scene no matter which timeline you choose. It’s like a painting. The red-oriented colors and the gore that appears when needed are eerie and beautiful. The line ‘You’re good at what you do’ is followed by ‘It has to be pretty. Everything. Pretty is good.” is a faithful reproduction of this line. It’s literally a beautification. It beautifully packages her reasons for revenge and makes you nod your head in agreement, just as the media admires her for her beauty and the prison admires her for her smarts.
On top of that, the narration sounds like a crime show, the subtitles are jarring, and the few humorous elements pull you out of the thriller. I don’t mean that in a negative way. The ending, which is not a simple cliffhanger, also makes this unrealistic movie feel real.
Once again, “Sympathy For Lady Vengeance” is a paradoxical movie. These unrealistic elements and fantasy-like visuals make it feel like a realistic thriller. It makes us think twice about female characters and beauty. Even thrillers that aren’t specifically defined can try to go beyond convention.
Lastly, Park Chan-wook’s style exudes a unique charm throughout the movie. His films don’t fit into a simple genre mold, but instead offer audiences new experiences through a variety of artistic endeavors. ‘Sympathy For Lady Vengeance’ is one of those films that breaks the mold of the conventional thriller and presents the possibility of a new thriller. The director’s challenging attempts give the audience a new perspective and deep impression, further enhancing the artistic value of the movie. As such, ‘Sympathy For Lady Vengeance’ is a work that stands out for its original vision and sensibility, and opens up new horizons in the thriller genre.
