Chanwook+park

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-He is renowned for technical and extravagant use of mise-en-scenes in developing both plots and themes. Placement of actors and use of particular props are set to foreshadow the following phases of the whole plot chart.=====

[] http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2006/feb/10/8

**Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)**
The film tells the tale of an innocent, beautiful young woman released from prison after serving time for abducting and killing a child. Once freed, she seeks out her long-lost daughter and unveils her plan for revenge against the ghastly man for whom she served time. Through the revenge of the ghastly man, Mr. Baek, the young woman, Geumja, desperately wants salvation and solace. However, even after murdering Mr. Baek, she cannot dismiss her guilt towards the child she was forced to abduct, towards her own child who she had to give up for adoption, and towards her own morality. The film, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, reveals an underlying theme that revenge begets another horrific outcome, which eventually results in universal and permanent suffering devoid of salvation and solace.

In Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, through various mise-en-scenes and cinematography, the director Chanwook Park exhibits one of the main motifs of the film, hatred. Red is a universal color that represents some evil matters, such as hatred. He directs Geumja to put thick makeup with red eye shadow throughout the movie. Geumja removes the red eye makeup immediately after finishing the revenge to Mr. Baek. This shows that Geumja has kept hatred towards Mr. Baek throughout her life, who threatened Geumja to abduct an innocent child and put a false charges to her, and that her hatred perishes only after she murders him. In addition, Geumja always lights a red candle and imagines scenes that she shoots Mr. Baek. Even when she has to leave her house to meet her daughter, she asks a guy to visit her house frequently and keep lighting the candle, so that the candle does not go out. The red candles are used as props to represent Geumja's perpetual hatred towards Mr.Baek like the eternal flame, and her willingness not to forget or lose the strong hatred. At the end of the movie, when she and parents of children who Mr. Baek independently kidnapped and murdered kills Mr. Baek and eats cake made of his blood, chandelier hung from the ceiling is shot. On the chandelier, candle-shaped light bulbs are stuck instead of real candles. This symbolizes the parents' artificial and passive hatred towards Mr. Baek, in which Geumja has implemented and augmented. After long period of time has passed, she apprises the parents of the criminal of their children's murder, and reminds them of long forgotten, but strong hatred towards the criminal. Cinematography also enhances the development of the motif. Geumja is often placed in the middle of medium shot alone, in which camera angles are often eye-leveled. This cinematography gives a sense that she directly stares at the camera while reading her lines, as if she is actually talking to the audience. These use of medium shot and eye-leveled camera angle contribute to transmission of her strong abhorrence to the audience. When she eventually meets Mr. Baek after freed from the prison, and finds out that Mr. Baek actually killed other children as well as the child who Geumja was forced to abduct, Geumja is taken at extreme close-up shots, showing only her eyes. This use of close-up shots well convey Geumja's mental state burning with loathe. When Geumja collects the parents of the victims, and shows them video-taped children, the camera moves around and shoots crying parents. The camera movement stops at Geumja and takes her crying facial expression at close-up shots. This camerawork is directed to leave an impression that Geumja and the parents share the enmity, and Guemja is the one who has represented it.

The director deals with another motif, salvation from the sin. Throughout the movie, Geumja is often taken at high camera angles. These camera angles imply the existence of an omnipotent power, such as God or her faith, whom she looks up and desperately asks for salvation. Even when Geumja is freed, and gets out somewhere like a subway station, back lighting is used to draw long shadows of her body. This lighting and creation of shadow symbolize Geumja's guilt and desire for solace that does not leave her and imprisons her even after she finishes her sentence. In contrast to red, a universal symbol of evil and hatred, white often represents good and innocence. The director uses a lot of props, such as snow, white cake and tofu to reveal Geumja's strong desire for salvation. When she is freed from the prison and a pastor gives her a white tofu, she rejects it and throws it to the ground because she is not yet prepared for the salvation as she is planning to kill Mr. Baek. However, after she kills Mr. Baek, she now wants a new, innocent life like white color, so she voraciously eats white cake in snow.

Chanwook Park also discusses meaninglessness of vengeance through mise-en-scenes and editing. A scene, in which her daughter draws whiskers on her face is intercut into a scene, in which Geumja experiments a gun with a dog before shooting Mr. Baek with it. Through this editing, the director compares the dog and her daughter, and shows that both the dog and her daughter are the victims sacrificed by the revenge of Mr. Baek. It is because innocent dog is bought and killed for the experiment, and her daughter may live the same miserable life begetting another revenge of Mr.Baek for her mother. Furthermore, the director emphasizes the meaninglessness of revenge through several mise-en-scenes. While Geumja takes actions for revenge, wallpaper of her house, tattoos on a guy's arm, and steps to her house of complex and geometrical designs have represented her mental complexity, including both delight and anxiety. However, even after she kills Mr. Baek, the interior design of the place where is still in very complex design. In addition, in Geumja's imagination, when she tells the kid she abducted that she killed Mr. Baek, the kid is not satisfied at all and puts a bit in Geumja's mouth, which Geumja did to Mr. Baek. These use of props and mise-en-scenes tell that the revenge actually brings no change and any other better consequence.

The director's skillful use of sound, editing, cinematography and lighting establish very anxious and tensioned tone of the movie. Throughout the movie, there are several scenes that are taken at dutch angle to set volatile atmosphere. When Mr. Baek first appears in the movie, he sings a song with the children in his kindergarten, and their song resonates as the background music. The lyrics of the song are that "where is mother, where is mother, run away, run away." The sound reconciles with the situation that Mr. Baek kidnaps and kills a lot of children, and increases the suspense. As Geumja's plan to revenge Mr. Baek unveils, the lighting hugely changes: when she was in prison and acted nice to the prisoners to ask help later for revenge, the director uses natural lighting from the sun and maintains bright and warm tones. As Guemja collects the victims' parents and begins the actual revenge, the lighting gradually changes to dimmer and darker. Also, the director uses Halloween lighting when parents stab Mr.Baek to maximize the intensity and tension. When the parents approach to the place where Mr. Baek is tied, all the sound, but their footsteps is eliminated to add to the suspense. In addition, through use of continuous editing, the camera seems to slowly move from the place where the parents are to the place where Mr. Baek is tied, and builds more tension.