Violence is a disease of the mind and eyes that so often tricks us into numb belligerence through television and theatre and video games. We find ourselves consumed by emotionless abuse and gruesome deaths for the sake of entertainment. After being subjected to such an extensive amount of pointless violence eventually our minds will lose their ability to distinguish between humanities terms of what is physically right and wrong. This is when watching body parts fly from the swoosh of an assassins sword becomes as humorous recreation as watching a chef chopping up vegetables for a salad on the food network. The mind is a fragile and impressionable tool that should have great care taken in what images condition it for life.
I normally do not prefer to watch vengeful stories that play out in cruel tragic death. I have never found myself in a situation where someone close to me was violently murdered. Therefor I cannot say exactly how my emotions would allow me to react if I were to watch such documentation as of my child being tortured and murdered. I find it difficult to hold anything against the families in this movie who chose to murder the murderer of their children but at the same time I do not know if I can agree with their actions. "Lady Vengeance" has really pulled at my heart strings and made me think about what should be considered "just" punishment and what actions can be defined as playing "god". There is a fine line between the two and even though I do not believe in an all powerful "god" watching over our every move I also do not feel we should invoke the power to take lives of another human being no matter what atrocious crime they have committed. We have the ability to bring new life into this world but I do not believe that the right to take those same lives is given to us. There is a balance to the world and we must put into it what we wish to get back in return. I believe the only way to do that is to send out positive vibes that will overpower the negative ones. What can we possibly learn from these tragic situations if we allow ourselves to become the same monster as the murderer?
The ethical concepts this film forces you to consider remind me in such a similar way what i felt when watching the hit Showtime television show "Dexter". As a young child Dexter witnesses his mother and three other people being hacked to death with a chainsaw which sparks his addiction for blood and killing. For a great deal of his life he has no real recollection of what he had seen but only new that he could only feel alive when he was taking another life. The series tells us that this demented forensics specialist only seeks out disgusting criminals who seemed to have gotten away with horrific crimes they committed as his victims. I find myself drawn to this story much like "Lady Vengeance" because I do believe that violent criminals should be punished for the pain and suffering they've inflicted upon the innocent. However internally I struggle so much with this idea of vengeance that Guem Ja and the families of the kidnapped children along with traumatized blood specialist Dexter carry out. I have always been taught to rise above the trials and tribulations life has dealt me and learn from the mistakes of others. I find it hard to think about allowing myself to become a murderer even if i was murdering a murderer. What may feel right for some people I find would cause too much guilt within my own heart and destroy my will to live.
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