Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, the final installment in director Park Chan-wook’s revenge trilogy, is an extraordinarily convoluted and hopelessly overlong thriller that boasts some intriguing visuals and a surprisingly compelling third act but little else. Lee Geum-ja (Lee Yeong-ae), just released from jail after a thirteen year stint, enlists the help of her former cell mates to carry out an epic plan for revenge against the man responsible for her imprisonment. That’s the simplified version of the plot, though Park packs the story with an almost-absurd amount of needless diversions and superfluous characters. To say that Sympathy for Lady Vengeance sports an uneven pace is a gross understatement, as Park’s relentless use of cut-aways and flashbacks eventually becomes nothing more than a distraction. As a result, it’s virtually impossible to get into the story – until, that is, Lee Geum-ja’s plan finally comes to fruition. It’s during this 25-minute portion that Sympathy for Lady Vengeance finally becomes interesting, as there’s a brutal simplicity to this stretch that’s completely absent from the rest of the movie’s far-too-long running time. Unfortunately, it’s followed up by more meaningless lunacy, and though it’s clear that Park possesses a certain amount of talent, the filmmaker has yet to corral that talent into something worth watching.

** out of ****