The film debuted on July 29 in South Korea, and competed for the Golden Lion at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival in September 2005. While it failed to win in competition, it did walk away with Cinema of The Future, the Young Lion Award and the Best Innovated Film Award in the non-competition section. The film had its U.S. premiere on September 30 at the New York Film Festival. It began its limited release in North American theatres on May 5, 2006.
In the UK and North America, the film has been screened under the title Lady Vengeance.
The plot follows the character of Lee Geum-ja (Lee Young Ae). She is a teenager with a big problem: pregnancy. She desperately seeks help and finds it with a seemingly kind man: Mr. Baek (Choi Min-sik), who gives her a room and plenty of food.
Later, she is jailed for the kidnapping and murder of a young schoolboy. As the story unfolds, it turns out that Mr. Baek, the actual murderer, threatened to kill her newborn daughter if she did not take the fall for him. During her 13 year sentence, she befriends the other inmates (donating a kidney to one for instance) and kills the prison bully through food poisoning, winning the respect and loyalty of her peers. She is known to them as the "Kind Miss Geum-ja." When she is released, she suddenly changes her persona to a more icy one. As she is walking from the prison, she is greeted by a priest with a tofu cake to symbolise a fresh beginning. She coldly tips the cake off of his hands and on to the ground, then insults him. After being in jail for 13 years, she has become hardened.
It turns out that Geum-ja was planning a way to have the perfect vengeance against Mr. Baek. With the help of her fellow inmates, she puts the plan into motion by calling in favors from the now-freed inmates. She acquires an apartment, a custom-made gun, a job at the bakery, and decoration for the gun from them.
She goes to the house of the parents of the murdered boy. In an act of begging for forgiveness, she chops off her own pinky, and was prepared to sever all of her fingers, but becomes unconscious. The distraught parents call 911 and has her transported to a hospital, along with the mother who is now hysterical. In the hospital, her finger is reattatched. She is then released from the hospital with a cast on her hand.
Meanwhile she is distraught that her daughter has been adopted. She finds out the information on her daughter by breaking into a building by rappelling down the side of a building. It turns out that her daughter--now named Jenny--does not speak Korean, but rather English because now she resides in Australia with her foster parents. When she visits her in Sydney, Jenny asks Geum-ja what you call mom in Korean, and Geum-ja responds "Miss Geum-ja." Jenny the next day, threatens to slit her own throat with a pair of scissors if she was not allowed to go back to Seoul with Geum-ja, and the parents oblige.
Geum-ja then plans a capturing of Mr. Baek. The plan is to have one of her ex-inmates (who is now Baek's wife) drug his dinner, knocking him out, but there is a problem. Through the photographs that the same priest that greeted Geum-ja gave him, he knows that his wife has been talking to Geum-ja. He then attacks her, and ties her onto a chair. Then he unknowingly begins to eat the food, while he watches her from across the table. On the way to capture Baek, Geum-ja and her daughter are ambushed by thugs hired by Baek. They manage to render Jenny unconscious with chloroform, but Geum-ja resists. The thug manages to knock Geum-ja down and beat her. When the thug attacking is looking at Jenny, she gets up and shoots him in the head with the custom-made gun. The other thug then tries to drag Jenny's body away, while using her as a shield, but is also shot with the gun. After the ordeal, she heads to Baek's house and ties Baek to a chair. She then transports him to an abandoned school.
When Baek wakes up, he is greeted silently by Geum-ja. She then begins to pull him down with his tie. She begins to strangle him, kick him, and beat him. When she is done, She rips the curtain off of the sole window and leaves.
Geum-ja then calls the parents of the children that have been slaughtered by Baek to the school. They discuss on what to do with the now-defenceless Baek and decide to attack and eventually kill him, while Baek is forced to listen through a stereo system in another room. Some go in individually to the room where Baek is kept and attack Baek, while others do it in a group. Eventually, the last person to go in finishes him off by impaling his neck with a pair of scissors that belonged to her murdered grandson. They then bury him outside the school after Geum-ja has shot his corpse a few times. After that, she throws her gun in with the body.
With the parents, she heads to a bakery where she works and has a "birthday party" for the dead children. They sing happy birthday their own child, then begin to eat the cake that Geum-ja has made for them. Meanwhile at Geum-ja's apartment, Jenny is sleeping with her foster parents (who had just come from Australia), when she notices smoke. Then Geum-ja is seen carrying a cake box walking towards her apartment. She runs towards Jenny when she sees her barefoot coming towards her. The hug tightly for a moment before Geum-ja opens the box to reveal the same kind of cake that the priest had brought her when she had been released. She then tells her daughter to live purely, as pure as the cake. Then Jenny says that Geum-ja should live even more purely, then they look up at the snowing sky, while Jenny tries to catch snow in her mouth. Geum-ja cries while looking up, then stuffs her face into the cake, trying to become more pure.
The movie ends with the narrator saying, "Farewell..." followed by Jenny's line: "Miss Geum-ja."
"Lady Vengeance" UK DVD cover
Music
The theme music of Lady Vengeance is an edited version of Vivaldi's "Ah ch'infelice sempre" from "Cessate, omai cessate." The song is appropriate since the unedited version's melody is sung by a woman who is seeking revenge on a man who has betrayed her, much like the movie itself.The entire soundtrack is heavily baroque-themed, featuring many pieces with harpsichord, baroque guitars, and other instruments. The soundtrack is also heavily influenced by Vivaldi's works.
Awards
Won "Best Director" at Bangkok Festival 2006
Lee Young-ae won "Best Actress" at Spain Film Festival 2005
Won "Little Golden Lion" at Venice Film Festival 2005
Lee Young-ae won "Best Actress" at Sitges Film Festival 2005
Lee Young-ae won "Best Actress" at Blue Dragon Awards 2005
