This is a comparison between the Fade to White Version and the Original Version (both included on the British Blu-ray set from Arrow Video)

Some background informations about LADY VENGEANCE and current releases

In 2002, director Park Chan-wook caused a stir among interested fans of Korean movie culture with his 4th movie Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and with the successor Oldboy>> he achieved his international breakthrough one year later. In 2005 he released Lady Vengeance, a film that also combines the theme of revenge and thus the three thrillers are classified as the "Vengeance-Trilogy". Until today Oldboy has surely made the biggest impression and in 2013 a US remake of the same name followed.

As we reported, Arrow Video has released the new 4K restoration Blu-ray set of Oldboy. The Label Capelight Pictures has even released it for the first time on November 22th, 2019 as a 4K-UHD in Germany. On Arrow's limited edition Blu-ray set the predecessor and the successor were surprisingly added. This limited edition, which was also used for the present comparison, was quickly sold out, whereupon Arrow released a boxset of the same content The Vengeance Trilogy on December 09th, 2019 with all three films.

Both UK releases include a bonus for Lady Vengeance, the "Fade to White" version in HD. This version was already available in Korea, France or other countries and in Germany it was already available on DVD in the 3-Disc limited deluxe edition. On Blu-ray, however, only the original colour version has been released in this country so far. Reason enough for us to take a closer look at this version.

The Fade to White Version of LADY VENGEANCE

In several of the countless bonus featurettes on the UK Blu-ray especially cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung and also director Park Chan-wook indirectly address what's behind this second movie version. The cameraman, for example, always assumed that the film would be black and white in the second half. Chung-hoon Chung emphasizes that he used filters for the snow scenes, for example, which he wouldn't have planned for otherwise. According to his own statement, he would have illuminated many scenes a little bit differently, but director Park Chan-wook explained his vision to him clearly at the beginning.

However, when viewing the finished material the director was so convinced by the beautifully colorful shots that he revised his original decision, respectively finished the movie for the theatrical screening completely in color. This also became the internationally used version. Nevertheless, the half in black and white version was also shown in korean theatres and was also released for the domestic DVD market. Occasionally it was also called the "Director's Cut", but in the end this is more appropriate for the more popular theatrical version. Park Chan-wook makes an introduction statement, which is also included on the UK Blu-ray, that he wanted to underline the development process of the leading actress with this color editing. Driven by revenge she has to realize at the end that this isn't the right way after all - respectively according to subtitles from the intro statement: "she gradually becomes purified and refined".

For us, it was of course still exciting to see if there are any other deviations. As is well known, such technical methods are also used for other "adjustments", for example in the animation sector, for example, the highly modified 2.0 version of Ghost in the Shell. But here you can stop right away: No, the versions are frame-exactly identical and there were no other specific differences. Occasionally, elements were highlighted in color, but not to the same extent as in (all versions of) Sin City.

By the way, Capelight Pictures has also announced a new Blu-ray edition for this part of the Vengeance trilogy. This might be the first time that the Fade to White version in HD comes to Germany. More details have not yet been announced for this release.

Already at the opening credits you can see the slightly different coloring of the two versions. The normal version offers more colour gradations, especially into the greyish. Or to put it another way: the Fade to White (= FTW) version is a little bit outshined by white.

Fade to White Version	Original Version

Now for an overall-view, a comparison of the scenes in 10-minute intervals. As you can easily see, basically nothing essential changes for half of the film. Only with the emotional key scene between Geum-ja and Jenny in the minute 68 a really clear change into colorlessness can be seen.

Fade to White Version	Original Version

A few scenes can be emphasized separately:

In the 41st minute the sky in the FTW version on the left side of the picture is different respectively has also stronger white nuances. In the end, it's probably simply due to the master (see the tendency to outshined white, mentioned in the opening credits) or rather no deliberate deviation.

Fade to White Version	Original Version

When only a minute later the text is read out in English, only the FDW version has fixed subtitles in Korean.

Fade to White Version	Original Version

...and that's how it was handled when we looked at the photo in the 44th minute. Further deviations of this kind (among other things immediately afterwards) were no longer listed.

Fade to White Version	Original Version

Comments: The original version also has the same subtitles of the year dates but otherwise the fixed subtitles that are creatively built into the picture. Here as an example the scene from the 53rd minute.

Fade to White Version	Original Version

At 50:32 a single shot with lots of green branches is missing much more color than most others. Here some pictures, including the still relatively similar shot directly from before.

Fade to White Version	Original Version

The shooting on the street in the 62nd minute already looks quite pale in the original version, as FDW then even more clearly black and white.

Fade to White Version	Original Version

When in the 74th minute, the camera zooms in on the amulet, this still shines red (in contrast to the mouth) also in the FDW version. The violet background is only slightly visible at the beginning.

Fade to White Version	Original Version

Same in the 104th minute. The picture here is already completely black and white, as the second screenshot, which was added for orientation, demonstrates.

Fade to White Version	Original Version