After making a splash in the U.S. with his ferocious 2003 thriller Oldboy, South Korean filmmaker Chan-wook Park concluded his “Vengeance Trilogy” with Chinjeolhan geumjassi, a title that literally translates into the misleadingly subtle “Kind-Hearted Ms. Geum-Ja,” but has been perhaps more appropriately marketed in the U.S. as Lady Vengeance.

As in Oldboy and Park’s earlier Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the drama in Lady Vengeance is based on the notion that unjust punishment demands carefully plotted, stylish, brutal payback. A chilly and often disturbingly funny affair, Lady Vengeance recalls the “ancient proverb” that opened Quentin Tarantino’s similarly violent revenge opus, Kill Bill: “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

The film begins after the 13-year imprisonment of Lee Guem-ja (Yeong-ae Lee), who was forced to confess to the kidnapping and murder of a 6-year-old boy. Hardened by her years behind bars, Lee cleverly earns her freedom and immediately embarks on a plan to simultaneously reunite with her daughter and punish the twisted schoolteacher (Min-sik Choi) who was actually responsible for the boy’s death (as well as the cruel murder of several other children). This culminates in a remarkably poignant climax in which the parents of the youthful victims grapple with their own desires for bloody revenge and the moral issue of vigilantism. Does a ruthless killer deserve an equally violent demise? (This is not to suggest that the film’s finale is simply a lively debate on one of the most pressing moral issues of our time. Instead, Park’s unflinching depiction of the group’s savagery reveals just how ugly “justice” can become.)

Director of photography Chung-hoon Chung previously shot a segment of the 2004 horror anthology Three Extremes and Oldboy for Park, and his work here features similarly provocative Super 35mm widescreen cinematography. Lee’s face serves as a beautiful example of how a performer and cinematographer can combine their talents to create expressive images, as the character transforms throughout the picture from soft, girlish beauty to hard-edged killer and back again. Extreme close-ups of Lee dominate the film; these are generally punctuated by wide shots before and after and a paucity of medium angles.

On this DVD, Chung’s comments in an informal-yet-informative audio commentary with Park and art director Cho Hwa-sung describe how the color red thematically represents the anger-fueled main character, who is frequently seen in her trademark chic crimson eye shadow and high-heeled shoes. The filmmakers used a variety of visual cues to help distinguish sequences set in the past and present. In many contemporary scenes, a bleach-bypass-type look (achieved in a digital-intermediate process) often dampens the colors, and was used because Chung “wanted it to feel more bucolic.” He adds that the effect was also used to varying degrees on many shots featuring Lee, depending on her character’s emotional state. (A more intense use of this effect was employed in a scene in which Lee visits a steel works, where she contracts a smith to build a vicious-looking firearm of her own intricate design.)

Whimsically, faux dirt and scratches were digitally added to certain flashbacks to visually mark the temporal transition, while an overlaying peach hue was also applied.

In their commentary, the filmmakers candidly describe how their ideas and motivations constantly changed throughout the production, especially in terms of the bleach-bypass effect, which often resulted in higher contrast than the director desired. At one point, Chung dryly derides Park for forcing his crew to pull up set floors to get certain low-angle coverage that was eventually discarded in the editing room. “Can you please tell them to go find another job if they don’t like it?” the director artfully shoots back. The further discussion reveals a true creative collaboration filled with trial and error, as the filmmakers experimented with different choices in prep, production and post.

Tartan Video’s DVD carefully reproduces all the subtle color and tonal changes described by the filmmakers and seen during the film’s brief U.S. theatrical release in 2006. Also included is a separate commentary by Park, a thoughtful commentary by Lincoln Center Film Society program director Richard Peña, a nicely produced making-of documentary, and several trailers.

While Lady Vengeance is not for the squeamish, it offers a glimpse into the burgeoning South Korean film scene and a unique take on familiar Hollywood themes as seen through the prism of another culture.