Princess Aurora

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.

Uhm Jung Hwa movies are all good and she excels at playing the beautiful sales lady and ruthless killer out to avenge her daughter. Quite violent but always watchable. It is fun to see how things play out as she gets her revenge one by one. Eagerly anticipate the explanation on how things come together and are linked up and it is delivered. The ending is satisfying.

Sharp direction and good tone. Good vendetta movie.

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.

I have seen the 2005 South Korean movie "Orora Gongju" (aka "Princess Aurora") once before, though I have to admit that I have entirely forgotten about the movie's storyline. And thus, as I had the opportunity to watch it again here in 2023, of course I did so.

And having just sat through 106 minutes of this, I realize now that there was a reason for why I had forgotten about this movie, because it just wasn't a particularly good movie. The storyline in "Orora Gongju", as written by Pang Eun-Jin and Min-Hui Seo, started out quite good and the movie was rather enjoyable, right up to about halfway through, then the narrative went crashing downhill fast and the movie lost all momentum and became quite an insufferable drag to sit through.

The acting performances in "Orora Gongju" were good, despite the fact that the actors and actresses didn't have a fully wholesome script to work with.

Visually then "Orora Gongju" was not overly impressive. There were some watchable violence scenes to spruce up the ordeal, but that was about it.

Ultimately, then director Pang Eun-Jin didn't manage to bedazzle me with this 2005 movie. And having revisited it now, and gotten its narrative refreshed, I can honestly say that I am not returning to watch the movie again. Nor is it a movie that I will recommend for fans of the South Korean cinema to rush out and get to watch, if you haven't already seen it.

My rating of "Orora Gongju" lands on a very generous four out of ten stars.

But not the best that has been produced in that land. If your looking for the revenge master, look no further than "Park Chan-Wook" (or you can put the Park at the end, like it's done in Korea) and you'll get the best!

Having said that, the story presented here is not bad. Not bad at all and the acting is quite good also. But the pacing, the rhythm and the overall flair of this movie, never quite feels right. The script could've used a few rewrites and I'm pretty sure, there could've been a few better fleshed out characters. But this still is very emotional and you might not like what you see, especially concerning the ending (and yes the last sentence is intended to be understood in more than one way!)!