Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)

The rest of my weekend viewing either left me cold (The Day After Tomorrow) -- literally, since it was about America freezing over -- or put me to sleep (The Notebook), although I usually like watching James Garner, so we'll give those a miss.  Instead let me tell you about the above movie which is the third in the Korean director's (Park Chan-Wook) revenge trilogy which started with "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and continued with "Oldboy" -- both immensely interesting films.  This one was a little more subdued, although it had its share of violence, but was beautifully filmed, exquisitely scored and forcefully acted.  The heroine has just been released from jail after serving 13 years (from the age of nineteen) for a child murder which she did not commit.  She appears to have an angelic nature but nurtures revenge against the man who put her there and made her lose her young daughter.  The movie focuses both on her years in prison together with the backstories of some of her cellmates and her plan for vengeance in the days after her release. How she tracts him down, unearths his other crimes and gets others to partake in the bloody finale is the gist of the tale, but it is also full of many other nice touches which don't necessarily further the action but which add to the richness of the scene.