Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2010, Film (Fine Arts)

This article situates the three films of Park Chan-wook's, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) within recent South Korean history and offers a historicized analysis of the films' substantial use of violence. Through contextual analysis that looks to the films as well as the history and society that produced them, this article discovers that the violence is an allegorical tool which serves to convey social commentary pointed at the processes of democratization and capitalism in South Korea.

Committee: Louis-Georges Schwartz Ph.D (Committee Chair); Julie Turnock Ph.D (Committee Member); Michelle Brown Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Mass Media