Tartan Films reported late last night that they’ll now be releasing into theatres (in a limited run) the finale of Chan-wook Park’s VENGEANCE Trilogy, SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE, on April 21st instead of February 2nd.
Now, releasing a film at this time of year almost always means that your film is garbage (BLOODRAYNE, anyone?) or you have high hopes that the film will succeed. Pushing a film back to April doesn’t solve the problem, since studios will still be releasing garbage, but they’ll also be starting to release their gems, so it’s a bit of a gamble. With Park’s previous success (OLDBOY, SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE), it seems that Tartan is pretty confident in the film. Now all that remains to be seen is the marketing, which will help to make or break it.
The film centres on Lee Geum-Ja, who at the age of 19, goes to prison for the murder and abduction of a child on the behalf of her accomplice Mr. Baek, only to find out that she is betrayed. While in prison, she carefully prepares for her revenge by winning the hearts of her fellow inmates with her kindness, thus earning herself the nickname ‘kind Ms. Geum-Ja’. Upon her release from prison after 13 years, she finally sets out to seek revenge on Baek, with the help of her former prison mates.