by SARAH ROWLAND

Brainwashing a man and woman into thinking they’re lovers and not father and daughter just so that you can film them screwing for future blackmailing purposes... seems like an extreme way of exacting revenge, no? But what if that person sullied your kid sister’s good name, essentially driving her to suicide?

Anyone who’s seen 2003’s Oldboy, will recognize the above scenario as the work of Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, a man who takes the old adage “an eye for an eye” to new ultra-violent extremes. Settling the score in his films can be very costly, not to mention time-consuming for his characters, and the victims don’t always warrant our sympathy.

To wit: In his third and final tale of revenge, Lady Vengeance (which follows the award-winning Oldboy and the straight-to-video Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), we see a child serial killer strapped to a chair with his eyes bulging out in fear. Meanwhile, the parents of his victims are lined up outside the secluded torture chamber debating the pros and cons of vigilantism as they sharpen their respective weapons.

For this latest installment, Chan-wook uses his usual flare for sadism, but this time he’s added a woman’s touch to the mix. The story follows the angelic-faced woman Geum-ja Lee (Yeong-ae Lee), who has just served 13 years for a crime she didn’t commit (but played a supporting role in).

As a result, she has lost custody of her beloved baby daughter, so she sets out to destroy the man who put her behind bars. It’s a nice gender reversal—especially after all the testosterone-fuelled violence in Oldboy and Mr.V, where the female characters are basically pawns in a masterfully drawn-out game of tit for tat.

Though feminized and a lot more humorous than its predecessors, Lady Vengeance still begs the question: where does Chan-wook’s fascination with revenge come from?

“During my childhood, I never openly expressed anger toward another person,” says Chan-wook. “I was too small and shy to stick up for myself so I never got the chance to get any kind of retribution against people who wronged me. But now I can do that through my films.”

Pacifist in disguise

Righting his wrongs on the big screen is probably a good thing, especially since the 43-year-old director doesn’t exactly come across as someone with the physical stamina to cut out his own tongue, ram a screwdriver into a main artery or take on an army of thugs.

When the prim and proper director sat down with the Mirror during the Toronto film fest, he delicately nursed his head cold with some tea whilst carefully listening to every word his translator fed him. He seemed far too fragile and considerate to be the kind of man who gets off on the onscreen hyper-violence that makes Tarantino foam at the mouth.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that of all the raging psychos featured in his revenge trilogy, Chan-wook relates to the one pacifist. The peace-loving character in question is a mourning father who’s given the chance to dismember the man who killed his only child, but ultimately refuses.

“I feel closer to him than any other people in my films because he couldn’t follow through,” says Chan-wook. “If something like that happened to me, I wouldn’t be able to take part in any kind of violent retaliation. I don’t see the point, because it’s not going to undo what’s already been done.

“People in general spend so much time and effort on this purpose. But in the end, all that’s left is an emptiness inside. It’s not for me.”

Killer humour

For these scenes of complete and utter bloodshed, Chan-wook uses a little black comedy to lighten the mood, like when a machete-wielding parent looks sympathetically at another parent armed only with a stick and offers him his own weapon—turns out the stick is the handle for a big-ass axe. (It’s all in the timing; you had to be there.)

“If you’ve ever been an observer of that kind of moment in real life, then you see the humour in it,” says Chan-wook, referring to more pedestrian forms of violence like bar fights. “No matter how dead serious it is for the people involved, it’s always fun for the third-party observers because we see the absurdity of the situation.”

And don’t think just because there’s a 90-pound heroine manning this latest revenge plot (who just happens to be a cute, kick-ass pastry chef), that Chan-wook eases up on the carnage. Actually, he seems to counteract the sweeter, more maternal aspect of Lady Vengeance (namely the relationship between Geum-ja and her estranged daughter) with even more bloodshed than his previous efforts. But how much is too much?

“There is no such thing as too much blood,” concedes Chan-wook. “It’s not like I’m dealing with romance; I’m dealing with revenge. Violence is necessary and with that comes a lot of blood.”

Chan-wook may never get enough blood, but he’s definitely had his fill of retribution... for now anyway.

“I’ve dealt with enough revenge in these three films and I have no plans in the near future,” he says. “I’m more interested in exploring themes pertaining to identity-confusion issues. So my next movie will take place in a mental hospital.”

Seoul purpose

As far as putting Korean films back on the map as well as reviving interest on the home front, Chan-wook is reluctant to take any credit.

“I think it has more to do with how much progress has been made in terms of Koreans appreciating their own culture just in general,” he says. “So if they have a choice, they tend to choose Korean stuff first because they can identify with it.”

And according to Chan-wook, that’s not necessarily a positive thing.

“Korean audiences go to domestic films whether they’re good or bad, which is unfortunate because they’re missing out on a lot of worthwhile foreign films,” he says.

There’s no doubt that Lady Vengeance falls under the category of good Korean film. But the chances of it being the critically acclaimed festival darling that Oldboy was were quickly squashed thanks to a certain pair of lovelorn cowboys. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, Chan-wook had the misfortune of premiering his latest film at the 2005 Venice film fest alongside Ang Lee’s monumental Brokeback Mountain, which scooped up the coveted Golden Lion award—an honour that Chan-wook had his heart set on.

In fact, on the day of the Mirror’s interview, we were told by sources close to the director that he was still smarting from the defeat—which is why I saved the “how important are awards to you” question till last for fear he would turn on me. Quite the opposite. Instead of giving the standard bullshit answer about how he doesn’t care because he’s only in it for the art of filmmaking, the ever-polite and humble Chan-wook was very straightforward.

“Whenever possible, I like to win,” he says. “It’s a lot of work for me at these competitions. I have to go through endless interviews. So yes, I’d rather be rewarded at the end of it all than not be.”

Lady Vengeance opens Friday, May 26

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