Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Saw Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, an excellent film from Chan-wook Park's Revenge trilogy. The film opens on a pretty 19 year old girl who is sent to jail for smothering to death a 5 year old boy with a pillow. She is beautiful and is visited by a priest who is always shown smiling vacantly and idiotically. He tells her that behind her killer's face is an angel. She begins praying and becomes the madonna of the prison. When she is freed 13 years later (but only 5 minutes later in the film) the priest greets her with a block of white tofu. "It's traditional to eat tofu to celebrate a release from prison! Eat white and sin no more!" With one finger, she tips the plate over and says "Why don't you go fuck yourself."

Brilliant. Delightful. I'm sold. She's now an unknown element, capable of faking a religious conversion for 13 years and cruel enough to swear at a long-time ally. The film promises delights and confusions. The style of the film re-enforces this, the story narrated by a creaky old woman's voice, the narrative zigzagging back and forth over old and new material. When she gets out of prison, for example, she swears vengeance but on who and why we do not know. For all fo the rushing breathless style of the film there's a lot, in fact, we are not told. She has her friends create an incredibly ornate gun which she had designed in prison, but which she then almost never uses (not even on her nemesis.) Confusing.

I believe she is supposed to symbolize vengeance. She is called angelic more than once and claims to have an angel inside of her. This is the angel of vengeance, presumably. She switches eyeshadow to "blood red" and keeps red candles burning in her appartment. Near the end of the film, during a lull in conversation, the characters bring up that the French say that a lull means an angel is passing through the room. The camera pans heavenwards, fixing on a chandelier stocked with faux red candles. There is never any comparison with what the protagonist is doing with the justice of law and order or even with God's justice. The protagonist (and indeed the movie) treats the idiot priest with total contempt. The film never examines the virtue of her motives at all.

It is my understanding however that revenge is a kind of useless thing. It feels good in the moment but doesn't fix anything. Like other revenge films, I think this film is not enriching, but it extremely satisfying. The film's opening credit sequence happens over gorgeous classical music and animated flowers twining over white hands which are kneading flour and sugar and drizzling bright red syrup and frosting delicate confections. These confections, and the decadence surrounding them, are similarly delicious but unenriching. This film knows what it is. Delicious and sinful and probably bad for you. I loved it.