LADY VENGEANCE (2005, dir. Chan-Wook Park / limited NY release April 2006)
Arden ♥s this movie!!
A breathtaking film. You know, as a cinephile, it is always refreshing to see a brilliant match cut. Every once in awhile you get a really gorgeous one (2001) but you usually end up just sifting through your Hitchcock collection. You rarely get more than one for every 200 films you see. So imagine my surprise when I started watching this film and it started off almost immediately with a falling plate to crashing cymbal cut that practically made me swoon. It was followed by several others as well as some psychotically hyped-up direction with detailed sound design and staggering production design. This is when I thought... "Who is THIS guy?" The final installment of a "revenge" trilogy that includes the much-celebrated Oldboy, Lady Vengeance is directed by Park Chan-wook as well as the product of something called "Extreme Asian Cinema". Now, I can understand that to the untrained eye this guy may seem like a Tarantino-humping thrill-seeker. But it is quite the contrary. He's more like Fassbinder on crack. It's absolutely the real deal. This was probably the best directed film I've seen all year. Was it the best film... I wouldn't say that... I have a real hunger for films that are this gruesome. I hate horror films and I get very scared easily but this film and Miike's Audition get to me. They are so well-directed that it distracts me from the violence and horrific things I'm watching until... someone gets raped or her finger gets cut off... then I'm paying attention. The narrative is uniquely structured. It's smart, sexy and competely and utterly disturbing. I LOVED IT.Bottom Line: If you have a weak stomach or don't like scary movies, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT SEE THIS FILM. But if you're a movie geek... this is as close to zeitgeist filmmaking as you get.
6 comments:
Finally! I've been waiting for someone to review this movie I saw almost a year ago..
This may sound really corny but I found it truly poetic and breathtaking, I ended up with much more than what I expected. It was a great mixture of technical grandeur and a superb script, unlike many films nowadays ahem ahemchildrenofmenahem ahem.
At the time I hadn't seen the other 2 of the trilogy, after I saw Lady I inmediately rented Oldboy and ended up somewhat disapointed. Is Mr Vengeance any good?
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (the title for Australian release) is definitely the most stylish of the trilogy. Not to say that Old Boy and Mr Vengeance don't have their own thing going on, but they don't seem to have the stillness, and the hypnotism which that brings.
I remember when I saw Old Boy, though, there was that intense, dreadful sense of foreboding as I realised what was going on... which I don't think was quite there in Lady Vengeance.
In any case, it was a fine conclusion, and I have to say, I loved all three equally, if for different reasons.
Oldboy and Audition were two of the worst movies I've seen in last... oh... decade (and that's a lot of movies).
Sick and stupid. And I'm not squeamish.
This would've made my top 5 list this year if I'd not seen it way back in 2005 at the NYFF... or if I'd made a list for 2005, which I did not. But after watching it maybe 3 times now, I def. think it's my fave of Park's Vengeance trilogy (which is saying a lot, I love them all). It's just soooo beautifully made and rich. God I love him.
I really liked 'Oldboy' despite my distaste for the gruesome so I'll definitely check this out.
nice. i agree. I reviewed this myself a while back and it made me change my top five favorite movies ever list.
wow.
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