The two best movies of female vengeance of recent times are undoubtedly Kill Bill Vol II and Lady V. They are two very different films, if it wasn't for the fact that they are dealing with the same theme: female vengeance.
Incidentally, or perhaps crucially, both women are mothers and this plays a central role in the plot, their characters and ultimately to the deeper "message" of both movies.
Both Geum-ja and the Bride, gain a long-lost daughter in their quest for revenge. Both of them get reborn from this act, and reinvent themselves as something different. In the extremely poignant end credits of Kill Bill, Uma Thurman is credited for playing the Bride AKA Beatrix Kiddo AKA Black Mumba AKA Mommy. This last role is the one that the Bride chooses to hold on to the most, and is the one that defines her. In the end of Lady V, Geum-ja wants to give her daughter back to her adopted parents not because she doesn't love her, but because she feels she is not worthy of this relationship that has so much to give her. On the contrary her daughter disagrees and 'forgives' her, in way helping her being reborn.
Motherhood therefore, is not the end of the road for the two female protagonists. Instead it is what defines them and ultimately redeems them from the horrible acts that they both did. I think that the message of these two movies, perhaps more clearly demonstrated in Lady V, is that revenge is a self-indulgent pointless act and the only redemption that can be achieved is if you are loved. Pure unconditional love is only a result of a mother-daughter relationship, that's why women (who can also be murderous bastards) can be saved by their daughters' love.
Men, in short, do not stand a chance.
Neither does Medea who killed her only chance of redemption.
Oh, well...
1 comment:
I think you're making a really good point, Lady V. But I like to think that women can be redeemed by other things other than motherhood, or at least motherhood is not the only salvation they have.
Men can be good fathers too. That should be enough for them as well, but it never is. Why should it be enough for women?
I agree that the point of both movies is that vengeance is selfish and ultimately pointless and that the mother-daughter love saves you. But there must be another way. Even for Medea. She lost everything in the end, but she also won, I think.
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