The purpose of this essay is to study the expressed form and color and also to examine the inner symbolic meaning of the movie “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” by producer Chan-Wook Park, which is considered as a masterpiece both in and out of Korea ...
The purpose of this essay is to study the expressed form and color and also to examine the inner symbolic meaning of the movie “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” by producer Chan-Wook Park, which is considered as a masterpiece both in and out of Korea at the current period which is the period of upphase of Korean movie.
As a researching method, it centered multiple forms of the heroine of the movie, and considered whole images of clothing including character's clothing at each scenes, decoration, hair style, and make up.
First, we took a look at the total 10 clothing of the main character, and for the actual research for symbolism examination, it centered 8 pieces of priority clothing.
For the abstract research background, we analyzed documents related to movie both in and out of Korea and essay, for symbolism research we referred DVD of the movie <Sympathy for Lady Vengeance>, other visual sources, internet, magazine and etc.
In the movie, the main character Geumja has double personality, having both images of a wicked woman and a woman saint, and she showed the clothing of both good and evil.
For example, while she was in prison, her prisoner uniform while she was taking care of her inmates, her pajama which is the symbol of innocence when she was atoning and praying, Geumja's appearance wasn't fabulous when she was wearing baker's cloth that symbolize pure inside, and it also expressed Geumja's pure inside and nature by using upright hair style, no make-up face, and bright color.
But in contrast, Geumja who was released from prison planned and execute vengeance, dress colorful dress and primary color make-ups.
Blue color coat with gloomy mood, black leather coat with the image of female warrior, and the slip with intensive image and etc express Geumja's will of revenge. During the vengeance process, Geumja emphasize about violent words and action, and present gloomy atmosphere with dark colored background.
Moreover in the movie <Sympathy for Lady Vengeance>, meaningful colors were used and took the role of symbol.
Red color represented Geumja's courage and wrath and simultaneously was used as the color that protects Geumja. Black color with intensive feeling represented Geumja's threat and fear, and blue color with gloomy feeling made the images of Geumja with many stories who pursues her revenge.
But in contrast, bright colors used for ivory color pajama, beige color baker's clothing, prisoner's uniform of pale yellow color, were used to effectively depict Geumja's pure and innocent nature.
Like this, depend on the psychology of main character Geumja, it's easy to recognize the change of clothing and color, and it's possible to understand the symbolic meaning in it.
This research through the movie <Sympathy for Lady Vengeance> allowed symbolic role of multiple forms could represent the theme what the director tried to express and moreover it was used asa method that helped to effectively understand the flow of the movie.