Lady Vengeance

South Korean director Park Chanwook wraps up his laborious revenge trilogy (preceded by "Oldboy" and "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance") with a feminist avenger played by Lee Young-ae. Park Chanwook works his Grand Guignol sense of humor against Korean social conditions to effect a call-and-response logic to the metaphoric and literal things that happen onscreen. Geum-ja (Young-ae) is released after a 13-year prison sentence for a kidnapping and murder committed by her former teacher. Besides reuniting with her own daughter Geum-ja goes on a revenge spree that necessarily involves reaching out a communal hand to a group of victims in need of their own sense of requital. "Lady Vengeance" is not a good date movie, and that's a cool thing.
Rated R, 111 mins. (C+) (Three Stars)