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.