The film Lady Vengeance that viewed in film class was probably the one I have had the hardest time grasping thus far in the course. I think the obvious reason for this is that the film is told in a non-linear form, and being that this particular type of literature is not popular in the western culture of the world, especially America, I simply am just not very familiar with it. Aside from the manner in which the film was presented, I feel that I was able to somewhat understand one of the main themes coming through in Lady Vengeance, that being one of revenge. I feel that the color in the movie, the struggle for the characters to decide the killer’s fate, and the fact of the daughter being the narrator of the film all added to the strength of the theme of revenge.
The use of the color in the Lady Vengeance was probably the most evident way that I was able to tell that Lee Guem-Ja was looking to seek revenge once she was released from prison in 2004. That color was red. One of the earlier scenes in the film, after she was released from prison, specifically showed her up close with the eye red make-up. This was the first sign to me that some type of drastic or even evil action was about to take place in the film, and that became more obvious as the movie progressed.
Speaking for myself, the scenes when Lee Guem-Ja was speaking to the parents/families of the children who were murdered and explaining the situation to them was when the story line finally clicked and I realized the circumstances of what was taking place. This was also a major scene for portraying the importance of revenge in Lady Vengeance. They went through each parent/ family member and showed the struggle they had with deciding how to act out on the teacher who was responsible for the deaths of all the children. Not that I have any personal experience with the matter, but I had sympathy for all the characters, no matter what the choice they made or how they felt, because I feel that it would be an impossible situation to be in. Revenge is a dangerous thing, and these scenes did an excellent job of making that clear to the audience.
While the fact that the daughter was the narrator of the film may not directly relate to the theme of revenge within Lady Vengeance, I feel that it had an important role. We didn’t see a huge amount of interaction between Lee Guem-Ja and her daughter, the narrator, in the film, but one of the main things we did see was that the daughter was present throughout/around the killing of the teacher. I feel that her presence at this time in Lee Guem-Ja’s life gave her a deeper look at the person and struggles her mother was experiencing, and ultimately led for her to sympathize with her even though she may not be worthy of it.
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