So I was out one day at my local video store and I rented 10 Asian films as I'm quite a fan of Asian cinema. I got round to watching this and have to say I had quite a good time with this and was quite impressed.The film does sort of play along with you and doesn't have any answers for the first hour or so. All you pretty much know is that you have your leading heroine (or anti heroine to some) Jung Sun (Jeong-hwa Eom) who looks perfectly innocent and cute, works as a car salesperson and starts going on a killing spree for reasons ambiguous to the audience to begin with. And she keeps playing a cassete tape that has a kid singing a song.Obviously people kill for a reason - whether they have a tormented psychological issue, or are just plain psycho or may be killing thinking they are doing society good by killing people deemed a nuisance or unnecessary to live (think Taxi Driver style). So I knew there was something more to this character, and luckily the film delivers on that aspect and the reasons for each murder she does is explained at the end as you have no idea why she has targeted some of her victims.Towards the end, it does sort of get a bit over the top but I didn't mind it and made me sympathise a lot more with the character. The policemen working on capturing her are stupid only because of the fact that the main cop also has a role to play in all that is happening.I won't say what her motivations are for killing her victims - it makes it more surprising and involving when you find out for yourself. Perhaps you could say the end is slightly cliché but I think it was well deserved in terms of its outcome.The performances are pretty good, especially from Jeong-hwa Eom who is able to pull the film on her shoulders and combines beauty with deadly vengeance all in one while also displaying human emotions in terms of her past. While the killings can get repetitive as you still don't really know where some of it is going, it pays off at the end, though some things were a bit hazy in terms of how she just happened to have luck in finding some of her victims after everything that happened.What the film also sends in terms of its message is how we can sometimes overlook simple acts of kindness which can actually prevent major problems or accidents from happening. Our own selfish desires or self interest often results in harm to others which is apparent in any society whether it be Korean or in any other part of the world.So yeah, I would recommend this film as it was pretty solid and I found myself enjoying it while also packing an emotional depth in its form.

For those of you that like the amount of cruelty and bloodshed in Lady Vengeance, this film will seem subtle.The acting of the female lead is convincing enough to warrant the 106 minutes of it.At first, the movie seemingly revolves around a young woman who kills mercilessly for justice. However, as the story continues, her actions became methodical and preempted. Only at the very end of the story do we actually get to know the angst, grief and pain that forced her into such a state of mind.This movie, although Korean, also reflects on the other Asian societies where wealth, materialism and self-centredness are overshadowing the importance of kindness and virtue.

Okay, so as a fan of the Korean cinema look I brought Princess Aurora... and I have to say that I was VERY impressed. It is a difficult film to watch at times, and it does take a while for the film to get going.I'm not going to put in any spoilers but if you do not want to know anything at all about the film please just accept that it is worth it and stop reading.Im trying not to sound to geeky but imagine if David Mamet (glengarry glen ross, Ronin) wrote for chan Wook Park (old boy, lady vengeance) and you would know what I mean.OK, so half an hour into the film I thought it was just another murder film, but it really is so much more.It is not perfect by any means. the police seem clumsy at times and the film gel as well as it could, but this is all for a reason, and that reason is shown in the 20 minute finale which is better than anything Hollywood can do. It is the type of ending that has you literally hiding behind a cushion one minute, then jumping up and cheering the next.If you liked lady vengeance or dark water, this is a film for you, if you like good cinema that makes you think then again this is a good movie for you.Park may be the fashionable director at the moment, and rightly so if you have seen his films, but Eun-jin Bang who directed this film is definitely one to look out for. Also, you should watch this before Hollywood remakes it, which no doubt it will at some point.I just liked the movie, and I hope more people give it a go.

From the initial looks of the trailer and the poster Princess Aurora looked like a calculating, comic book-inspired revenge drama. While it's definitely about revenge, I think the screen writers have grown a bit lazy with this particular subject in recent times. ** The following comments contain some spoilers**Story here deals with an on and off lunatic, Jung Soon-jung, played by Jong-hwa Eom. She was a mother once, now left carrying mental scars. Meanwhile she keeps herself busy by killing off random (or aren't they?) mean people. Her deeds challenge the authority as after consecutive killings the only thing they uncover is the sticker of a cartoon character next to the victims. Maybe the investigation is stalled due to her ex-husband, a cop trying to become a pastor, working on this case. Before the film was able to get to the motives of the story I was irritated with a few things. The police work and psychology behind this case was made to look insignificant and felt undetailed and tension free for the most part. The death scenes were formidable, although a bit too easily conceived by the leading lady. The sex scene between the unmarried couple served no purpose, and instead should have focused on telling us something of their past. A particular scene in the spa where a staff member hears a noise, which people even next door couldn't, and after walking an endless corridor misses to see any traces of the killer, was quite dubious. The film eagerly tries to clinch for a deeper impact as Soon-jung captures the lawyer who trialed the serial killer to a mental institution instead of a prison. Jong-hwa displays her acting chops as she dangles him from a crane above the cops and press, while speaking in her daughter's voice. Sung-keun Moon, playing her ex-husband cop, achieves zero to nothing while noting how neglectful he was when the wife asked him to look for their child, to what he suggested that she should file a police report. The film gets down to the mechanics of the story, voyeuristically revealing the day the girl was abducted along with the people who Soon-jung thought were liable for her murder, with moderate conviction. The girl herself was left to brood the busy streets, but instead of going up to someone or getting noticed by anyone for hours, she decided to instead take a cab for which she didn't have enough fare, resulting in her getting kicked out and later picked up by the killer. But the further butchery of probability didn't stop there, as the vengeful mom got sent to the same cuckoo's nest where the killer was kept. Conveniently seated a table away from him to be exact. ** End of spoilers ** In conclusion, Princess Aurora was an unconvincing revenge film which might have gotten some slack 5-6 years ago, but now it gets crushed by the opposition. 2005, which early on seemed like a candidate for a year as remarkable as 2003 and 2004 in Korean Cinema, provided fewer truly remarkable features, but here's hoping for a better, stronger 2006.