This was the only one of Chan-wook Park's Vengeance Trilogy I had yet to see. Oldboy is one of my favorite films. Mr. Vengeance... I didn't care for it, but I need to check it out again. And now this one. Geum-ja (Yeong-ae Lee) has just gotten out of prison for the murder of a young boy... that she probably didn't kill in the first place. And now she's out for revenge on one Mr. Baek (Min-sik Choi). Having put together a complicated plan while in prison, she begins her quest to bring it to fruition.The first thing I need to mention is that this movie is unnecessarily complicated. The first thing that makes it complicated is on a plot level--unlike Oldboy, the revenge plot of this film has no need to be drawn out in this complicated fashion. The plan was very simple, but it was done in a way that just overcomplicated an otherwise simple idea. The other thing that makes the film complicated is on a storytelling level--I had a hard time sometimes figuring out whether what I was watching was real time or a flashback... or even a dream sequence. It was all very confusing for the first half of the film.
Otherwise, I think the basic idea and story is fantastic. The mystery behind why revenge was happening and then how she plans on performing it is very good. The last half of the movie with all the parents and family members of certain people is a fascinating and powerful sequence.
I really don't have a lot to say about the movie, honestly. It was good. The cinematography was good. The acting was good (primarily by its main actress). How everything connected together, especially with the flashbacks and how she met people and used them to their advantage was good. I just think it was very strange at times and everything was presented a bit too complicatedly. But otherwise, it was quite a fine film, and I enjoyed it immensely.
A Keanu 'Whoa'
