Vengeance Trilogy Deluxe Edition
Region: UK Region 2
Company: Tartan Asia Extreme
Number Of Discs: 6
Packaging: This 6 disc special collections edition come in a replica OldBoy purple box complete with ribbon. The disc’s are contained in a fold out case.
Gifts: Tartan have put a lot of effort into making this a special item for collectors. Along with the OldBoy box is also a bottle opener/hammer, lobby cards and an A3 poster of the gun’s blueprints from Lady Vengeance. I would have liked to have seen the official sound tracks included with or on the discs, that would have made it even more so than it is already, a must own boxset. It looks like different companies own the rights to the music, meaning they will have to be purchased separately.
Read the reviews of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance | Oldboy | Lady Vengeance
Disc One Contains
Film: The film is in Korean with optional English subtitles. The subtitles are easy to read but sadly some text isn’t translated into English. Some examples of this include; what I can only assume is a suicide note from the sister and the message pined to Song Kang-Ho at the very end. Apart from that the translation is as good as it’s going to get.
Picture: Anamorphic 2.35:1 film presentation. The picture has been restored making the main green tone seem even more present.
Audio: Since sound is a very important factor in Park Chan-Wook films this comes with a selection of three different settings; Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and a booming DTS track.
Extra Features: This disc includes an audio commentary by director Park Chan-Wook and actor/director Ryu Seung-Wan. The commentary is in Korean with easy to read English subtitles. The two talk in detail about the main themes, shooting dates, sets, sounds, acting, camera lenses, editing techniques, they also talk about things such as what the film was originally going to be called; The Destroyed Man. They joke about the cameo appearances including themselves, Ryu Seung-Wan as the delivery man and Park Chan-Wook as the guy on the bus. Chan-Wook discusses some of the things that he dislikes about the film and why he decided to include a lot of repetition.
The only other feature on the disc is a scene selection which allows you to choose from the 16 scenes that Tartan have broken the film down into.
Menu: The menu is simple but effective, it moves slowly with different images from the film appearing and fading away. It has the same music as the end credits, complete with Song Kang-Ho’s groans.
Disc Two Contains
Jonathan Ross on Park Chan-Wook - This is a 17 minute documentary on director Chan-Wook, it was taken from the BBC show, Asian Invasion. It contains a interview with Chan-Wook and refers to his films; JSA, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and OldBoy. The feature is in English.
The Process Of Mr. Vengeance - This 32 minute documentary includes interviews with the cast and crew, behind the scenes footage, outtakes, deleted scenes and how the special effects were achieved. Shin Ha-Kyun and Bae Du-Na learn sign language, Song Kang-Ho talks about how he bruised Ha-Kyun and took him out for a drink and karaoke afterwards as a way of apologising, and Chan-Wook speaks about the how he cast the roles for the cameo appearances. At first I thought this was the same feature found on Tartan’s one disc edition, but this contains different material. How they did the special effects is the highlight of this feature, it goes into detail about the tricks and techniques used to achieved things like the screwdriver in the neck and the autopsies. The feature is in Korean with easy to read English subtitles. Since Korean text is at the bottom of the screen the English subtitles are found across the top, the Korean text is translated with BOLD CAPTIAL subtitles.
My Boksu Story - This features five interviews with key cast members and lasts 17 minutes. Song Kang-Ho admits he refused the role because he didn’t like the script, but he finally accepted after Chan-Wook kept insisting. He was pleased with the end result. Bae Du-Na tells us why she liked the script and admits to being a Chan-Wook fan after watching JSA. Shin Ha-Kyun talks about his most memorable scene and how he feels that the film will be appreciated in years to come. Lim Ji-Eun who plays the sister, talks about the script and her experiences working with such a good director and actors. Han Bo-Bae who plays the kidnapped girl, talks about her favourite scene and she also apologises for kicking Shin Ha-Kyun in one scene. All the interviewees speak Korean, the feature is accompanied by easy to read English subtitles.
Crew Interviews - This runs for 21 minutes, it features interviews with key crew members. Park Chan-Wook speaks about his difficultly in choosing an appropriate ending and why he insisted that the film have a distinctive green tone. Kim Byeong-Il who is the director of photography, talks about his favourite scenes and his faith in director Chan-Wook. Park Hyun-Won who was the main lighting technician, wishes that the audience would appreciate the lighting more and notice the hard work put into it. Oh Jae-Won the art director, talks about his trouble in designing a unique look for the film, he feels that Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is one of the finest South Korean films ever produced. Aen Sung-Hyun who was the set decorator, talks about her troubles finding the right props for different sets, she feels that Ryu’s green hair is a deep expression, because he can’t express himself by speech. Again everyone speaks Korean.
Storyboards - This is about 10 minutes long and shows a range of storyboards accompanied by the sounds and dialogue from the actual film.
Original Trailer - The Korean trailer runs for 2 minutes and is subtitled into English.
Menu: Very much like disc one, it has the same music only this time it showcases different images.
Disc Three contains
Film: The main feature can be viewed in either the original Korean language with easy to follow English subtitles or in dubbed English. The onscreen text is translated with capital subtitles while the narration is subtitled in italics.
Picture: Anamorphic 2.35:1 film presentation. The picture quality is top notch, it’s crisp and clear, which adds to the overall viewing experience.
Audio: Talk about choice, this disc offers three settings if your watching it in Korean, and two setting if your viewing it dubbed. The Korean soundtracks are Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Ex Surround and DTS ES Digital Surround 6.1 while the English version has Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. I must admit that I couldn’t bear the dubbed version, and switched back to Korean after about five minutes, in my opinion it makes the acting look shoddy and it ruins the dramatic tension.
Extra Features: This disc is crammed with three different commentaries and the original trailer. The trailer is 1 and a half minutes long and is subtitled in English. Now the commentaries, the first one is a solo effort by the director Park Chan-Wook. He is very soft spoken but rallies out some interesting information nevertheless. He explains his idea’s behind certain scenes, admits to scenes he dislikes and gives a brief rundown of the shooting schedule. He also likes to point out where CGI shots are used and lets us in on the joke about the names Choi Min-Sik shouts down the phone, they’re all names of assistance directors he has worked with in the past. I was surprised to learn that the bleach bypass process used for the film was so risky, if it was overdone the film would have been ruined, but as the director points out himself it makes for a refreshing viewing experience.
For the second chat track Chan-Wook is joined by the cinematographer Chung Chung-Hoon, they expand on the bleach bypass process, going into lots of technical detail. The two have discussions relating to other technical areas such as camera angles, lens and filters. It is an interesting listen and worth sitting through if your interested in filmmaking as it is very informative.
Finally in the last commentary Chan-Wook is joined by main cast members Choi Min-Sik, Yu Ji-Tae and Gang Hye-Jung. The cast are full of giggles and have interesting stories to tell, Chan-Wook almost uses the time to interview the actors by asking them questions. Min-Sik complains about the shot where his pupils look directly into the sun, and that he still has scars from the prison tattoos he gave himself. Ji-Tae uses the time to apologise about bruising the actor with the broken CD, while Hye-Jung talks about how she wanted to portray her character in a realistic way, by pretending that the situation was real. Chan-Wook does drop in some more information such as; in the television version of OldBoy the sex scene will be replaced by a kissing scene, and that the cityscape from the penthouse window was actually the largest photographic background ever used in Korean cinema. Min-Sik jokes about the fact that in the final scene when snow is falling over the actor, it’s none other than Chan-Wook sprinkling the flakes down, he also mentions that Hong Kong director Tsui Hark asked him how the knife in the back shot was achieved. All the commentaries are in Korean with easy to read English subtitles.
The only other feature on this disc is a scene selection which allows you to choose from 16 different scenes.
Menu: The menu has a montage of different scenes playing to the haunting main soundtrack with the titles ticking and rotating like a clock in the corner. This instantly gets you geared up to experience the sick world of OldBoy.
Disc Four Contains
OldBoy Extra Features
The Autobiography of OldBoy - This is the king of behind the scenes “making of documentary‘s” lasting 210 minutes, which covers the shoot from day 1 until the wrap. The feature is subtitled in English but obviously not all the spoken Korean gets translated (due to multiple conversations). As well as behind the scenes footage, this also has some short on location/set interviews with cast and crew. On the first day of shooting Chan-Wook tells us that the 1st shot of OldBoy took 11 takes. For such a vengeful film the cast and crew seem to enjoy themselves, only on a few occasions does Chan-Wook lose his cool. He gets slightly annoyed at the actors messing up their lines or cracking up during takes, asking them “what’s so funny?” or telling other crew members “Min-Sik’s messing with me”. But this doesn’t mean that Chan-Wook has no sense of humour, in the octopus scene he is literally on the floor laughing at the creature clinging on to Min-Sik’s nose. That wasn’t the only interruption in that scene either as someone’s mobile phone goes off, too which Min-Sik jokes “Woo-Jin you’re calling too early”.
As well as acting we get a good insight into what the actors do when there not in front of the camera. Min-Sik is constantly discussing scenes with the director while Yu Ji-Tae can be seen helping out with the prop team. Chan-Wook’s sets are frequently visited by other stars, actor Song Kang-Ho seems to be their every other day, the first time he shows up he gives Min-Sik a shock by sneaking up behind him. He generally annoys Min-Sik but the director isn’t that bothered about his presence. Maybe he was looking for a cameo appearance, he may as well have had one as he was their most of the time. During the shooting of the hallway fight, Kang-Ho was there to “encourage”, saying things like “no, not good enough”, he later admits that Choi Min-Sik is the only actor who can portray this revenge fuelled character. Lee Byung-Hun visit’s early on during the shoot to get a sneak peak at some of the footage, he had previous worked with Chan-Wook on JSA. Shin Ha-Kyun visit’s the penthouse set to see what the next vengeance instalment is all about.
The shoot stops for the celebration of the lead actor’s birthday, in which Min-Sik get sick and tired of the behind the scenes cameraman always filming him, telling him not to film him on his birthday. It seems as is Chan-Wook cares for each and every member of his team, letting them stop for luscious onset meals, or he is just making sure that the cast and crew are fuelled. One time, even Song Kang-Ho drops in for some food, when asked by Min-Sik “How did you know we were having a dinner party” he claims “I smelt it”.
It is interesting to see how some shots were achieved, I was always curious about the guy landing on the car near the beginning. I found out how this was achieved along with other stunts, such as when Min-Sik is falling through the glass display cases in the penthouse. His stunt double was seriously injured when performing the wire stunt which required him to be lifted into the air then smash into the window. On a lighter note it is also interesting to see the outtakes, one scene that springs to mind is the tooth pulling scene, as that actor made the whole cast and crew laugh (and lets not forget Song Kang-Ho who was visiting the set that day).
Overall I thought that this feature is one of the best I have ever sat through, at no point did it get boring, if you’re a filmmaker yourself than this is defiantly worth seeing (just make sure you allocate yourself toilet breaks). It is an enjoyable insight into how films actually work, and especially worth watching if you’re a fan of OldBoy. This feature is exclusive to this release, so you won’t find it on the other Tartan DVD, but that also applies the other way around, as the features found on that disc aren’t found here.
Menu: Near enough the same as the disc that features the film, only here the images are slightly different.
Disc Five Contains
Lady Vengeance Fade To White Version
Film: This print of the film is slightly different to the previous print found on the one disc Tartan release, in this version “Fade To White”, the director has gone back and slowly removed the colours. His reason for this is that the colour represents Geum-Ja need for vengeance, this is why the colours are strong and bold at the start of the film but as it progresses, the colour slowly fades away, until we’re watching the final part of the film in black and white. The feature is mainly in Korean with some English dialogue, the English subtitles aid the Korean language but are left out during the English speaking parts. The subtitles like the previous discs are easy to follow. This disc only features the “Fade To White” version, if you want to see the original then you are going to have to fork out on the previous release from Tartan, if they weren’t such money grabbers then they could’ve included both version in the same set.
Picture: The film is presented in Anamorphic 2.35:1. The picture is rich and sharp.
Audio: This disc boasts three different selections; Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and DTS Digital Surround 5.1. All the tracks are in it’s original language. I noticed that about half way through the film the picture and audio go out of synch with each other, it starts most noticeable when all the parents are in the classroom watching the video’s of their children, this is distracting and makes the acting look bad. It’s not only dialogue either as the sound effects are way out, such as when Geum-Ja shoots Baek in the toes, the noise from the gun is heard before we see it. I thought it might just have been the one audio track I was viewing, but afterwards I tested all three, and it’s the same, even when there are silent parts in the commentaries you can still faintly hear that the feature is out of synch in the background. I would of thought that Tartan would have at least fixed the problem before releasing it. (Note: I haven’t tested other discs of the same release, and do apologise if its only a problem is my version)
Extra Features: Like the OldBoy disc we are again treated to three different commentaries. The first one being by the director Park Chan-Wook and the leading actress Lee Young-Ae. The two talk about lots of interesting points, the main topic up for discussion is Lee Young-Ae’s performance but they do go into detail on other actors performances. Lee Young-Ae admits to the director about the scenes she had a hard time filming, an example of this is the scene in which she is being attacked by Song Kang-Ho, she says that he was really kicking her, to which the director can only feel sorry and apologise. Chan-Wook goes into detail on the scenes he dislikes and the scenes he really likes such as the part where Young-Ae cuts Choi Min-Sik’s hair. It’s clear that they are talking about the normal “colour” version as Chan-Wook says at one point when it’s already in black and white “There should be no colour left by now”.
For the second commentary Chan-Wook is joined by cinematographer Chung Chung-Hoon and art director Cho Hwa-Swang. They talk about the title sequence which was done in the USA, how they used the bleach bypass technique in a similar way to how they did in OldBoy, and how the audience misinterpreted some things. One of these misinterpretations was the cake at the end being made from blood, they discuss how it was shocking for them to hear that the audience believed this. They also joke about one scene where the DOP got inside an oven to get a shot. These commentaries are in Korean with easy to follow English subtitles.
The third commentary is by the English speaking critic Richard Pena, he discusses many of the themes linked with Chan-Wook’s past vengeance films and generally picks up on things that the average film goers might miss. While most of the points were rather obvious, I was surprised when he pointed something out that I didn’t notice or had missed. He talks about the characters rather than the actors, he goes into detail on what the characters are thinking and why they do certain things, but a few name checks would have been nice, Choi Min-Sik maybe, in fact the only performer he mentions is Lee Young-Ae.
The directors introduction to the feature is a short 2 minute interview in which, Park Chan-Wook tells the viewers about this newer edit and his reasons for removing the colour.
As usual there is a scene selection that allows you to choose from the 16 chapters available.
Menu: The menu has Lee Young-Ae walking into frame with extravagant animated visuals in the background that switch in and out of colour. The piece of music playing is the main strings track heard throughout the film.
Disc Six Contains
Lady Vengeance Extra Features
The Making Of Lady Vengeance - This lasts about 11 minutes and shows a verity of behind the scenes footage accompanied by narration. Highlights include; the secret that the snow at the end is actually two truck loads of salt placed across the road. Choi Min-Sik is seen messing up his English dialogue, even though he has a massive cheat sheet in front of him telling him what to say. Lee Young-Ae being nervous about abseiling down the building, Song Kang-Ho annoying the director and that the set is always full of laughter even though the subject matter is far from funny.
The Style Of Lady Vengeance - The 37 minute feature is broken down into different sections the first being “visualization”. In this, Chan-Wook discusses why the camera movements are kept to a minimum and how this is more stylised than OldBoy. The cinematographer Chung Chung-Hoon touches on the same subjects as the director but goes into more detail about the flashback scenes. Park Hyeon-Weon, the lighting director, had concerns with the directors idea of removing the colour, according to him, Chan-Wook had planned to do this with both Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance and OldBoy but decided against it at the last minute. Finally Chan-Wook reveals that this was true and he wanted to be the first director to use this removing colour technique, as he was sure that soon someone else would soon come up with this idea.
The next section is “production design”, in which the production designer Jo Hwa-Seong talks about his experiences with the sets and colours, a great deal of planning went into every set and it paid off. He says his favourite sets are the; female prison, because it’s uplifting in its use of colours, and the preachers house because of the wallpaper.
Next up is the “costume and make up”, here the people interviewed, make-up artist Song Jong-Hee and costume designer Jo Sang-Gyeong, talk about their roles in the production. Also they both list their favourite scenes and costumes.
The “art” section is very interesting, the interviewee here is the special art director Hwang Ho-Kyeun. He is in charge of the special props such as the Choi Min-Sik dog, the dog is robotic with a silicon mould of Min-Sik’s head attached to it. Clips show how freaked out Min-Sik was by it when he first saw it on location. He was also in charge of making the Song Kang-Ho head prop, which had to get it’s brains blown out when it was shot. He goes into details on how they prepared the prop so if something did go wrong, it wouldn’t take long for them to set up again for another take. Other things he was responsible for was the hand of Shin Ha-Kyun, which is shot clean off of his arm, and the fake Choi Min-Sik’s torso (which the crew called Man-Sik), this was what the scissors were stuck in and what was buried in the woods.
Finally the last section is “CG” in which the F/X director Lee Jeon-Hyeong is interviewed. He reveals many of the shots in which were touched up using computer graphics, and goes into details on what he did. From obvious effects such as the glowing face of Geum-Ja to less obvious effects such as CGI snow, compositions and the removal of shadows. He talks about the mosquito and how a lot of research was put into finding out how they move, and most interestingly he reveals that the speaker cable in the school was shot on a digital camera frame by frame, then sped up during editing. This feature is all in Korean with English subtitles.
Alternate Scenes With Commentary - This last around 17 minutes and shows a verity of clips that were trimmed down or cut out of the film altogether. Park Chan-Wook, Lee Young-Ae and Choi Min-Sik commentate. This is in Korean with English subtitles.
The Characters - This feature is 26 minutes long and broken down into different sections, the first being “Lee Young-Ae”. The cast and crew talk about how much they enjoyed working with her before she is interviewed herself. She talks about her bakery lessons (with accompanying clips), the misunderstandings that the cake at the end was made from blood (something which I believed on my first viewing) and how glad she is that she accepted the role.
Next up is “Choi Min-Sik”, he talks about why he didn’t care about playing a bad guy saying that, if he cared for his image he wouldn’t of become an actor. He also talks about his early days in acting when someone gave him a piece of advice “The actor may be small but there is no such thing as a small role”, basically meaning that every actor is important. His most memorable scenes were; the one in which he speaks English and the one in which he was a dog, because it was a rare chance to play an animal.
“The Prisoner” is a series of clips with the female cast that made up the prisoners. Kim Bu-Seon (gun makers wife) admits that her small role in Chan-Wook’s “Cut” lead her to this role. Lee Sung-Shin (Mr. Baek’s wife) talks about her role in OldBoy leading her to the role here. Seo Yeong-Ju (red head) talks about her audition and finally Ra Mi-Ran (figurine maker) talks about her thoughts on her role and the director.
Finally in the “Bereaved”, Chan-Wook tell us how he cast the roles for the victims families, before it goes on to interview some of the actors themselves. They all talk about their roles and what it is like working on such a film. There is an interesting sub-topic called “Vengeance Trilogy Actors”, which interviews the three cast members who join Chan-Wook for the third time. Oh Kwang-Rok, Kim Ik-Tae and Park Myung-Shin talk about how they first met with director Park Chan-Wook, and how they got involved with the trilogy. This feature is in Korean with English subtitles.
Lady Vengeance In Venice - This follows the progress of the cast and crew during the Venice film festival. It shows a short Q&A session with the cast and crew before interviewing members of the festival on their thoughts. Chan-Wook was surprised that the standing ovation at the end lasted longer here, than it did for OldBoy at Cannes. This lasts 8 minute, the spoken Korean is subtitled in English while the spoken English is subtitled in Korean.
Trailers and TV Spots - In this section you can choose to watch the following; Teaser trailer, original Korean trailer, UK trailer, TV spot 30, TV spot 20 and TV spot 15. Altogether these last about 5 minutes and are subtitled in English.
Menu: The menu is identical to that of disc five except for obviously the selections you can make.
Final Verdict: This is a great set and well worth owning, if you’re a purist your going to want to get the other Tartan releases for different extras and the original version of Lady Vengeance. So your going to have to be pretty minted, with that said though I can guarantee that it’ll be worth every penny of your money. Buy it.
Rating: 9.8 out of 10.0
