Lady Vengeance

"With this thrilling final installment of his revenge-cycle (including Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Old Boy), cult director Park Chanwook has made his finest movie to date. Geum-ja, or “Lady Vengeance” (Lee Yeong-ae), is a pale beauty who was wrongly imprisoned at 19 for the murder of a small boy. Fourteen years later, she is released and wants to begin living a good life—which means, naturally, making the real killer pay. As always, Park displays his talent for capturing subjective experience and flaunts the storytelling panache that has often gotten him compared to Quentin Tarantino. But in its second half, the movie pushes beyond its initial Kill Bill-style exuberance and takes on enormous emotional force. Rather than exulting in spectacular violence, this dazzling film becomes an exploration of the spiritual price of vengeance, however justified it might seem. Park makes us ask: Is it possible to atone for one sin by committing another?"

(New York Film Festival 2005)