Yu Ji-tae Movies
A woman looks for both revenge and redemption after spending 13 years in prison in this offbeat thriller from South Korea. Lee Geum-ja (Lee Yeong-ae) was in her early twenties when she was found guilty of kidnapping and killing a young boy, and though she confessed to the crime under duress, while behind bars she dreamed of one day being able to clear her name -- and even the score with the people who railroaded her, including the police officer who brought her in (Nam Il-woo) and Mr. Baek (Choi Min-Sik), a teacher who wronged her in a number of ways. Lee Geun-ja teams up with a number of friends she made during her time in lock-up, including Woo So-yeong (Kim Bu-seon), a thief with a gunsmith for a husband; Oh Su-heui (Ra Mi-ran), who was saved from assault at the hands fellow inmates by Lee; and Preacher Jeon (Kim Byeong-ok), an eccentric man of the cloth who was struck by her gentle nature in jail. As Preacher Jeon helps Lee seek salvation for all she had to do while in prison, her other friends stand by her side as she gets even with her rivals and searches for the daughter she was forced to leave behind when she was convicted. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (aka Chinjeolhan Geum-ja-ssi) was the third film in a series, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Old Boy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Yeong-ae, Kim Shi-hu, (more)
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook directed this violent and offbeat story of punishment and vengeance. Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is a husband and father whose reputation for womanizing is well known. One day, for reasons he doesn't understand, Oh Dae-su finds himself locked up in a prison cell, with no idea of what his crime was or whom his jailers may be. With a small television as his only link to the outside world and a daily ration of fried dumplings as his only sustenance, Oh Dae-su struggles to keep his mind and body intact, but when he learns through a news report that his wife has been killed, he begins a long and difficult project of digging an escape tunnel with a pair of chopsticks. Before he can finish -- and after 15 years behind bars -- Oh Dae-su is released, with as little explanation as when he was locked up, and he's soon given a wad of money and a cellular phone by a bum on the street. Emotionally stunted but physically strong after 15 years in jail, Oh Dae-su struggles to unravel the secret of who is responsible for locking him up, what happened to his wife and daughter, and how to best get revenge against his captors. Oldeuboi was screened in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and won the coveted Grand Prix. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Choi Min-Sik, Gang Hye-jeong, (more)
- 2006
The inexplicable, real-life collapse of a Seoul department store back in 1995 serves as the catalyst for this tale of a grief-stricken lawyer who must learn to love again after losing it all. Law student Choi Hyeon-woo (Yu Ji-tae) and television director Seo Min-ju (Kim Ji-su) were the perfect couple - he having earned the respect of her old-fashioned parents and she a quick-witted beauty with a sunny disposition. Though their fulgent future together was soon to be cemented in marriage, fate dealt Choi and Seo a cruel hand when a popular Seoul department store simply folded in on itself one day, instantly snuffing out the radiant young beauty as her soul-shattered fiancée watched helplessly from across the street. Flash forward ten years later, and though he may have a successful career as a public prosecutor Choi has yet to recover from his devastating loss. As Choi struggles to comprehend the corruption that forces him to drop the case he was just about to close, panic prone Yun Se-jin (Eom Ji-weon) does her best to cope with the anxiety that prevents her from living up to her full potential. Strangely, Yun was always in the background of Choi and Seo's lives. When Yun and Choi meet by chance on the very same island where Choi and Seo were set to honeymoon, it begins to appear as if fate may not be as casually cruel as lovelorn lawyer Choi was once lead to believe. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Two men pursue a woman form their past in this drama from South Korea. Heon-jun (Kim Tae-woo), a struggling filmmaker who has just returned from the United States, runs into his old friend Mun-ho (Yu Ji-tae), now an art professor, and they decide to get a bite to eat. Over dinner, they find themselves talking about Seon-hwa (Seong Hyeon-ah), a beautiful woman they both dated in college. While both men flirt with their waitress, talking about how Seon-hwa has renewed their fascination with their old love, and they individually decide to track her down. They discover Seon-hwa, once an artist, is now working as a bar manager; they learn, in her personal life, the fates have not been kind to her, and in many respects, she's not the women she once was. Yeojaneun Namjaeui Miraeda (aka Woman is the Future of Man) was screened in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yu Ji-tae, Seong Hyeon-ah, (more)
