HONGKONGERS WHO GREW to love Lee Young-ae for her role in the television period drama Jewel in the Palace are likely to be shocked by her latest big-screen effort. In Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, the South Korean actress has been transformed from a generous, hard-working historical figure into a pretty but cold-blooded woman with a thirst for revenge.
'I made the right choice to be in this film,' says the 34-year-old, wearing the familiar warm smile that made her so popular in Jewel. 'If people love me just because of Jewel in the Palace, but not for this film, that's their choice.'
In the South Korean TV series that kept many Hongkongers glued to their sets, Lee was all charm in her role as Jang-geum, Korea's imperial doctor, noted for her kind heart and sturdy, sometimes stubborn, determination.
But Lee's reunion with director Park Chan-wook, with whom she worked on South Korean hit JSA: Joint Security Area (2000), will go a long way towards getting Jang-geum out of her system.
Park, who won the Grand Prix at last year's Cannes Film Festival with his violent Old Boy, never doubted that Lee should play the lead in Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, the third instalment of his 'vengeance trilogy', after Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Old Boy.
She plays Geum-ja, a woman with an angelic face who has just served 13 years in jail and is plotting her revenge.