Sympathy for Lady Vengeance review

 Number 618 on the top 1000 films of all time is the South Korean neo-noir, psychological thriller ' Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.'

Lee Geum-Ja (Lee Young-oe) has just been released from prison. Her crime? She was falsely convicted for the murder of a five -year-old schoolboy thirteen years earlier. She swears revenge on the real killer Baek Han-sung (Choi Min-Sik.)

Let's star off with the criticism, which I'm sad to say was Choi Min-Sik. He is one of Korea's most pre-eminent actors wowing audiences in Old Boy, but also terrifying them in I saw the Devil. In the latter, he paid a monstrous serial killer. Yet as murderer Mr Baek, he was disappointing. He lacked the same intensity as his other role roles. And he wasn't anymore threatening than a bank manager.

Lady Vengeance is the third installment of Park Chan-Wook's Vengeance trilogy after Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and the aforementioned Old Boy. Old Boy still remains my favourite. Everything about it was perfect - confusing and complicated sure, but not as much as Lady Vengeance.

True everything does resolve and become clear, but it took a while to get there. There is a lot of set-up in the beginning as the film delves into Geum-Ja's fellow inmates, who in one way or another help her to track down Mr Baek. It was interesting to an extent. After a while, I was waiting for them to hurry up to the next plot point.

Despite the slow start, it all built toward a thrilling conclusion - perhaps the darkest of the Vengeance trilogy. *spoilers to follow.*

 Having tracked down Mr Baek and imprisoned him in an old school, Geumg-Ja discovers he has killed other children. She invites the victim's families to exact their own vengeance. Enter a 12 Angry Men-esque scene, where the families debate the morality behind the actions they're about to take. Here Park Chan-Wook rightly took his time to delve into the psychology underpinning such a morally-deprived act.

There exists two versions of the film. A standard version and one where the colour progressively fades into monochrome. Unknowingly, I had watched the latter. I thought this was a great device that really highlighted how in the pursuit of vengeance, we become black-in-white in our thinking. There is no longer space for nuance or doubt. Maybe some would argue this is on-the-nose storytelling, but I still enjoyed it.

And I did enjoy Lady Vengeance. A slow start, a great ending, but also a disappointing performance from Choi Min-Sik.

Once review

 Number 349 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Irish musical romantic comedy Once.

A busker in Dublin only known as Guy (Glen Hansard) meets a Czech lady (Marketa Irglova) who is a musician as well. Through their shared love of music, they start a budding relationship.

I know that in my  'the Notebook' review that as a rule I don't like romance films. Once is the exception to that rule. The main reason is its simplicity. Cillian Murphy was originally set to play Guy, but after he pulled out, so did most of the film's investors. Director John Carney had little choice but to produce this film on a shoestring budget. He gave his salary to Hansard and Irglova, filmed at friends' houses, used natural lighting and filmed in Dublin's busy streets without a permit.

Seeing this simplicity was refreshing compared to the standard American high-budget production. And it gave the film a lovely sense of authenticity. These are struggling musicians and it makes perfect sense that they would do everything on a budget. Further, everything felt more natural. As Hansard was filming in Central Dublin without a permit, he had to use a long lens. This often led to Hansard and Irglova forgetting that they were being filmed, allowing them to adlib and feel more natural with each other.

A great example of ad-libbing comes when Guy and Girl are on a bus. Guy sings a joke song explaining why he and his ex girlfriend broke up. Hansard improvised the expletive-filled ditty and you can see the other passenger's genuinely amused reactions.

Hansard and Irglova were great as the two leads. They had great on-screen chemistry, probably due to how they dated while filming, and that made Guy and Girl's relationship all the more believable. They were adorable together especially when Girl tells Guy "Miluji Tebe," but coyly refuses to translate what she means. Although I think it's pretty obvious. This was another ad-lib, this time completed by Irglova.

Both Guy and Girl were estranged from their previous partners and it seemed like the two of them would end up as a couple. There were multiple moments where I thought a kiss was on the cards, but it wasn't to be. Once ends with Guy flying too London to win his girlfriend back and Girl reuniting with her husband. Both of them have happy endings, just not with each other. And I liked this. Having the two end up together would be too obvious and predictable and I'm glad they went their separate ways.

Having said that, the film was far from perfect. I know Once is about music with most of the storytelling done through singing, but the musical numbers dragged on for a bit. I would also argue that at times Hansard's singing bordered on screechy, but, then again, I'm tone deaf. It also made no sense that they were still using cassette tapes. This isn't the eighties, it's 2007 where CDs were in full swing with digital streaming and downloads not far behind. On a similar note, why were the characters using payphones and not mobiles? This was strange too.

But, ultimately, I did enjoy Once. The simplified, stripped-back story made for a refreshing and sweet watch.