After being wrongfully imprisoned for thirteen years and having her child taken away from her, a woman seeks revenge through increasingly brutal means.
A recently laid off factory worker kidnaps his former boss' friend's daughter, hoping to use the ransom money to pay for his sister's kidney transplant.
In the DMZ separating North and South Korea, two North Korean soldiers have been killed, supposedly by one South Korean soldier. But the 11 bullets found in the bodies, together with the 5 ... See full summary »
In a small Korean province in 1986, three detectives struggle with the case of multiple young women being found raped and murdered by an unknown culprit.
A girl who thinks she is a combat cyborg checks into a mental hospital, where she encounters other psychotics. Eventually, she falls for a man who thinks he can steal people's souls.
Wrongfully accused of child abduction and murder, the angelic-faced single mother, Lee Geum-ja, is released from prison after thirteen long years. Hell-bent on taking her sweet revenge on the man behind the hideous crime, Lee hatches an infallible plan of retribution with the help of her cellmates; however, planning is easier than doing. Now--as Lee Geum-ja struggles to make amends with the daughter she was forced to give up--at the same time, she finds herself torn between her insatiable thirst for vengeance and the desperate need for atonement. Can she have both?Written by
Nick Riganas
Having wanted to make a film on a middle aged woman's revenge, the director originally considered casting Du-shim Ko for the part of Geum-ja. However, he had to abandon his plan for a couple of reasons. He found that Ms. Ko was rather old for the character and was afraid that the movie would look quite similar to John Cassavetes' Gloria (1980). See more »
Goofs
[All goofs for this title are spoilers.]
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Quotes
Geum-ja Lee:
Listen carefully. Everyone make mistakes. But if you committed a sin, you have to make an atonement for that sin. Atonement, do you know what that means? Big Atonement for big sins. Small Atonement for small sins.
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Alternate Versions
There are two different versions of the film. One is full color. The other, called "Fade to Black Version", shifts from color to B&W over the course of the movie. Like Sin City, there are color highlighted, even in the B&W scenes. The second version is what the director intended, but he was not able to complete it properly until the Korean DVD (which includes both versions). See more »
There I was, in Sitges' film festival, in Barcelona, where one year ago Chan-Wook Park had won his prize for the great masterpiece Old Boy. This time he was presenting his last movie "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" to end the revenge trilogy.Everyone was waiting for the movie to start, all Park's fans and the lady at the festival announced the director's arrival. There he came in, the Korean director with the translator, trying to explain the meaning of his surname in Korean, and talking about loads of stuff - except the movie. Finally he thanked people for making his movie Old Boy "win a lot of money". I think is this personality that makes Park's movies so special. Just like this last one, its a beautiful bizarre movie, like its creator. The audience was already amazed with the starting credits of unusual beauty that just took the breath away from all audience and guarantied that the movie was going to be something different. Truth is that the movie is different, at least more different than his early Old Boy. This time he had created a movie where the story didn't count as much, but maybe the visual side of it, images that contain so much beauty that just makes the movie already worthy of seeing. The story is also really good, charged with all sort of surrealism and irony that makes it extremely interesting. Also, this time the director had treated vengeance with another style, more beautifully and also comprehensive, accomplishing that the audience can identify themselves with the main character, Geumja. When it was ended, the movie received a warmly applause from an audience, including myself, that hadn't been disappointed and that thought the director had done a great and bizarre job to end his trilogy.
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There I was, in Sitges' film festival, in Barcelona, where one year ago Chan-Wook Park had won his prize for the great masterpiece Old Boy. This time he was presenting his last movie "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" to end the revenge trilogy.Everyone was waiting for the movie to start, all Park's fans and the lady at the festival announced the director's arrival. There he came in, the Korean director with the translator, trying to explain the meaning of his surname in Korean, and talking about loads of stuff - except the movie. Finally he thanked people for making his movie Old Boy "win a lot of money". I think is this personality that makes Park's movies so special. Just like this last one, its a beautiful bizarre movie, like its creator. The audience was already amazed with the starting credits of unusual beauty that just took the breath away from all audience and guarantied that the movie was going to be something different. Truth is that the movie is different, at least more different than his early Old Boy. This time he had created a movie where the story didn't count as much, but maybe the visual side of it, images that contain so much beauty that just makes the movie already worthy of seeing. The story is also really good, charged with all sort of surrealism and irony that makes it extremely interesting. Also, this time the director had treated vengeance with another style, more beautifully and also comprehensive, accomplishing that the audience can identify themselves with the main character, Geumja. When it was ended, the movie received a warmly applause from an audience, including myself, that hadn't been disappointed and that thought the director had done a great and bizarre job to end his trilogy.