Lady Vengeance - A Sociological Interpretation

Lee Young-ae as Lady V

Lady Vengeance is the third installment of Park Chan Wook’s Vengeance Trilogy. With the tagline “Lee Geum-Ja, have mercy on us,” the movie followed Ms. Lee’s journey of redemption after nearly fourteen years of incarceration for a monstrous crime she did not commit. The original poster for the movie during the Venice Film Festival in 2005 stated that “all she wanted was a peaceful life.” Based on the law of retaliation, the macabre nature by which Ms. Lee achieved her goal could be more easily understood and sympathized under the sociological interpretation.

As a tradition in Korea, newly released prisoner is expected to eat a square of hard tofu to symbolize a new beginning. A pastor who helped Geum-ja spiritually during her incarceration was completely shocked when Geum-ja flipped the tofu plate to the ground and told him to “screw off.” Her norm violation drastically dragged viewers to the shocking crime she confessed to when she was only nineteen: she kidnapped and murdered a five year old boy. As a result, Geum-ja ostracized herself completely and received the most negative sanctions to her act. There was a riot when she was forced to re-enact the crime scene. The whole nation was dumbfounded by “her youth, her ruthless methods, her unabashed naivety… but what shocked [us] more were her beautiful looks.” This quotation indicated that her stigmatized identity as a child killer greatly complicated her impression management. She had no knowledge of the murdered child Won-mo’s favorite orange marble or which pillow the actual murderer used to suffocate the boy. Geum-ja’s failure to adhere to her role performance as a cold-blooded murder strongly supported that she indeed wasn’t a “wicked witch.” At this point, viewers had no knowledge of why she had to confess to such a heinous crime.

...so that you'll live white and never sin again.

Geum-ja’s lengthy jail time and her interactions with the cellmates proved essential to her redemption. Consider that the prison was the ultimate example of total institution, the blue uniform that Geum-ja’s cellmates had to wear was a part of a degradation ceremony that served to strip off their old identity and enforce conformity. However, Geum-ja’s greenish-yellow uniform, her status symbol of being a well-mannered prisoner, separated her from the rest of her cellmates. Indeed, through her constant act of praying, meditating, and helping others, Geum-ja’s managed to project a saint-like impression. Despite her physical confinement, she achieved two statuses: “the kind-hearted Geumja” – “the Angel,” and a more subtle “the Witch,” each of which she had the freedom to alternate accordingly within the complex subculture of prison.

Her fellow inmates spent various amounts of time in prison as a punishment for their crimes. The way Geum-ja interacted with the inmates demonstrated her dual statuses in the prison. The kind-hearted Geumja fulfilled her role when she offered calm and peace for Kim, a prostitute who strangled her pimp; donated her own kidney to Woo, a bank robber who was dying of chronic kidney failure; and cleaned up after the disabled Ko, an old North Korean spy who suffered from Alzheimer.

Guem-ja’s role conflict arose from her interaction with So-hee, another inmate who was sexually abused by the “Bitch,” a notorious overweight woman who murdered and barbecued her husband and his mistress. The Bitch had no problem in further exacerbating her deviance, consider her former cannibalistic practice. The first moment So-hee entered the cell, the Bitch stoically instructed her to perform cunnilingus in the presence of everybody else. The humiliating nature of this act forced the rest of the cellmates including Geum-ja to exercise non-observance behavior by turning their heads away. Geum-ja, who couldn’t instantly switch to her role of the Witch, did not jeopardize her Angel status to express her negative sanction toward the Bitch.

In a separate incident, she secretly lubed up the floor with soap, which caused the Bitch to fall down unconscious after abusing So-hee in the bathroom. So-hee, who became a sex slave, expressed pure joy and admiration just like other inmates when they learned that Geum-ja had been secretly poisoning the Bitch with bleach for over three years. On her last moments, the Bitch herself was so convinced of the perfect role Geum-ja played to fulfill her Angel status that she expressed her personal wish for Geum-ja to gain more weight to fit her sexual liking. The kind-hearted Geum-ja then smiled sweetly with her prop of a food tray to feed the Bitch while Geum-ja the Witch squirted the final amount of bleach in the Bitch’s food to end her life for good. This incident showed that Geum-ja had successfully mastered her impression management skill.

The kind-hearted Geum-ja

Normally, deviance and any form of norm violation would be subjected to negative sanctions. In this case, deviances were an expected part of each prisoner. Thus, the morbid version of justice that Geum-ja valued was not a deviance accordingly to the circumstantial norm of this particular prison. In fact, Geum-ja’s act of killing received such immense approval that she became even more of an iconic and beloved figure on top of the positive sanctions she had been receiving from her act of kindness throughout her jail-time. By the time Geum-ja was free, all of the inmates she helped were already released and able to rebuild their lives. Their assistances to Geum-ja out of gratitude drove the storyline forward and the moral approval for her act of killing the Bitch was just a gentle foreshadow to the severity of what was to come.

The role of a kind-hearted Geum-ja was so successful that she had to consider adapting a new self-portrayal that fitted her vengeance goal. Cooley’s definition of the looking glass self could be used to interpret her actions. Throughout her jail time, she perceived that everybody predominantly associated her with kindness, piety, and vivacity, which inadvertently meant to her that they evaluated her as a likable yet unfortunate victim of consequences. This view in result came into conflict with her innermost pain amidst all the injustice and unspeakable suffering bestowed upon her. To rebuild a new self-concept, she stripped off her old self and shocked everyone she knew in many new ways of physical and psychological self-portrayal. She cut and curled her hair, wore blood red eyeliners, and abandoned her old silk peasant clothes for a more mature leather style. Even though she could find a cheap home from Kim and a job at the local bakery whose owner was impressed with her baking skill at the prison, Geum-ja approached everyone with a reserved frigidity that was devoid of life. Her social identities of being a stigmatized child-killer and an ex-convict inevitably generated many obstacles in her effort of being a baker for a living. Therefore, her smile was always as bitter as her flowing tears whenever she recounted that painful incident in the past. With eerie serenity, she instructed her old cellmates to make the avenging weapon in one instance, chopped off her finger begging for Won-mo’s parents’ forgiveness, and eventually seized the actual wrong-doer. From this point on, the identity of the man who destroyed her dream of having a peaceful life crept into existence.  

Deadly Makeover

It is necessary to trace back to the nineteen-year-old Geum-ja to have a deeper sympathy for her deviances. Her poor family of orientation was dysfunctional and she found herself pregnant with a child from someone who was a “big kid himself”. It is also essential to notice that Geum-ja’s downfall was heavily influenced by her intersection of gender, age, education, and economic status. Being a young pregnant girl with no money oppressed Geumja into having a social identity of a fallen woman struggling within a culture of poverty. Consider that pregnancy out of wedlock is still frown upon in Korea, Guem-ja’s only choice was to dream about attending college and carrying her baby simultaneously with no financial support. Desperate, she turned to the help of Mr. Baek, a student teacher at the time at her high school, and asked him if she could stay with him since “he had called her sexy before.” The movie implied that Baek forced Geum-ja into sex in exchange for his help and later on into kidnapping Won-mo. Baek managed to neutralize his deviance by clarifying that – “it was a good kidnapping if the child is returned safely… and since they’re rich, a little ransom wouldn’t make much difference… The emotional reunion would make the family bond more closely.” Using Sutherland’s definition of differential association, it was inevitable that Guem-ja would conform to the criminal act of kidnapping just by associating herself with Baek.

The twist happened when Baek murdered Won-mo. Since Guem-ja was seen with the child earlier, Baek then kidnapped her own infant and forced her to confess to the crime in order to save her daughter’s life. As Geum-ja served her time in prison, her daughter was adopted and sent to Australia while Baek hypocritically worked as a pre-school English teacher. Baek took advantage of his social identities of an educated bilingual person and a dignified school teacher to prey on children and fulfill his self-image of a child-killer. He was a man with a stable income and freedom to indulge in his devious acts. Therefore, the intersection gender, education, and economic status that oppressed Geum-ja in contrast granted Baek many advantages to have a better life.

The journey Geum-ja took to unite with her daughter Jenny evoked many cultural shocks to the young girl after she threatened to slash her throat in front of her adoptive parents in order to follow her biological mother back to Korea. Jenny’s first effort to connect emotionally with Geum-ja started awkwardly due to a tremendous language barrier. Jenny’s assimilation to the Korean culture emerged slowly as Geum-ja’s young lover and coworker at the bakery taught her simple Korean words. Jenny had to go through the whole process of socialization starting from the primary level. Without a common language, Jenny and her mother couldn’t share their perspectives. Jenny accusatively questioned why she was abandoned while Geum-ja helplessly tried to explain why she was forced to give up her beloved daughter. This was where body language held an important role in their communication. The most significant example was when Guem-ja silently held out her arm for her daughter to come closer on the night they were attacked. Baek hired some thugs to murder them since he discovered that Park, a woman who he had been living with, was actually one of Geum-ja’s old cellmates and diverging information about his where-about to Geum-ja. Blasting off the thugs’ hand and brain, Geum-ja protected her daughter with the gun made from an antique model designed by the old spy, made for her by Woo, with an intricate decoration made by So-hee. Knowing that Park had already drugged Baek, Geum-ja then proceeded to complete her vengeance.

Gun Chase Scene

The movie would be a predictable act of retaliation if the story line only concerned Geum-ja. As she took the drugged Baek to an abandoned school house, she was even more disgusted to realize that Baek successfully played his role to fulfill his status of a beloved pre-schooled English teacher. His dressing style was smart and clean cut; even his cellphone’s alarm clock was set to the singing song of a child: “Get up, teacher! Time to go to work!” His failure of performance was exacerbated when Geum-ja noticed that attached to his cellphone was a chain of little toys ranging from an orange marble to shiny ring and little figurine, which meant that Baek murdered not only Won-mo but also four other children. With the help of the old investigator who worked on Geum-ja’s case in the past, the children’s shallow graves and many graphic evidences of Baek’s crimes were found. These discoveries pushed Baek’s deviance to an unimaginable level: there were hidden videotapes that captured how Baek managed to torture and hang the children. The sickening cold-bloodedness of the crimes Baek committed caused the investigator to throw up. Baek violated a taboo, the highest extremity of norm violation. Geum-ja concluded that she must not be the only one to carry out her vengeance. By contacting the guardians of the murdered children, Geum-ja observed in pain every time they broke down in tears watching the beloved littlest member of their broken family fell victim under the hands of evil Baek. From this moment on, the concept of groupthink as coined by Irving Janis in 1972 dictated what was to happen to Baek.

The symptoms of groupthink were prevalent at this point. Each family member viewed him or herself as moral and none of them wanted to be viewed as immoral. What did being moral mean to each of them at this time? How to label an act as moral or immoral? They rationalized that in their circumstances, it was immoral to leave justice to the stereotypical lawyers, incompetent police and “bloody reporters,” which would consequentially give Baek more time to live through “never-ending trials,” smirking at their tragic loss. Without any possibly satisfying aid from the legal system, they experienced anomie in which they had no other choice but to employ deviant behaviors to achieve their goals. Of course, there was opposition to the scheme. Won-mo’s father wanted to “hand him over to the police”, then “leave it up to Geum-ja”, but eventually he was peer-pressured into conformity as another parent declared that “Won-mo’s family has to follow the majority, too.” Won-mo’s mother, who passed out after cleaning up Geum-ja’s gushing blood when she chopped up her finger, censored her opinions of having a weak heart in order to reach a consent with the rest after another mother’s revealed that “Hey… Mine’s weak, too.” It is necessary to note that the investigator was also present during this conversation. He represented the justice system, who was forced to observe in consensual silence since his opinion was muffled by Geum-ja’s kind reminder that “If you’d found the real killer back then… these children wouldn’t have died, right?” Again, using the same rationalization on morality, the investigator conformed to the vengeance scheme that Geum-ja proposed.

The Families

The family of the murdered children together with Guem-ja presented a highly cohesive group with the same goal of gaining redemption to their loss and suffering. There was an immense pressure of how to deal with the situation morally and ethically acceptable, even though Baek was a monster of utmost immorality. Geum-ja emerged to be a strong leader of the group with a blurred boundary between an expressive leader and instrumental leader. She cared deeply for the emotions of the family members and displayed her masterful emotional management by muffling her ears crying as the child in the video beseeching for her mother. At the same time, when conflict started to arise, she declared smilingly that “I killed when I was in prison, I’m also the one who caught Baek after 13 years of planning, and if anyone here informs the police… I won’t say any more,” and successfully coerced them into silence. In other words, Geum-ja was both affiliation and achievement motivated. Above all, she radiated such a divine calmness in the face of evil. The family listened to Geum-ja as if being hypnotized when she told them that Baek “put [ransom money] in the bank… [and] was going to buy a yatch,” how he would “pick his victim, kidnap, and kill them, then move on to another school and never pick a child from one of his own classes to avoid suspicion,” and in reality, “the voices were taped off the videos after the kids were already dead.” Her narrative formula collectively helped Geum-ja become a charismatic leader who exerted superb emotional, moral, and ethical appeal to the family. This was why she successfully helped the group overcome groupthink to achieve their common goal – “a speedier, more personalized death” for Baek. She even suggested what order the family would go to have their share of torturing Baek. By the time Won-mo’s mother, the first one to enter the make-shift torturing chamber, was instructed on how to stab with knife properly, Baek’s human identity was stripped off completely to the point that a parent referred to his act of hackling Baek to death as “Just think of it as using the toilet.” They defined the situation and acted consequentially in accordance to the Thomas theorem since dehumanizing and stigmatizing facilitates inhumanity. In this way, all of them experienced tertiary deviance in which they embraced the label of unlawful vindicators yet they refused the deviant nature of their killing act.

Throughout the movie, the morbid redefinition of norm and its consequential violations greatly distorted what defined deviances and convoluted the character’s personal concept of morality. The success of how the characters played their role, how they managed their impression and self-projection to the world greatly influenced the outcome of their fates. Whether or not everyone regained his or her own redemption was up to the viewers’ interpretation. The parents themselves realized that their act “isn’t going to bring our son back,” and all those years of separation from her daughter would never be returned to Geum-ja. However, there was a strong indication that Geum-ja would ultimately obtain her peace in the last scene. As the snowed fell softly on the ground, Geum-ja could be seen devouring a white cake - her version of the tofu plate she flipped off at the beginning of the movie. She was finally able to have a new beginning, to rebuild her life. “Be White, Live White” – those were the last words she said.