Vengeance

Watching Lady Vengeance got me to reflect on the place of violence in human nature and the world.  I believe to pass it off as something to suppress or ignore is foolish.  Violence is very real and something just like all parts of being human we must master and learn to handle.  I believe that the actions of the families and Geum-ja were justifiable.  Not because of the wrongs done to the kids and families necessarily, but simply to eliminate the threat to future children in the community.  I do not think that Mr. Baek was curable.  This is something I tried to observe through out the movie to see if maybe he did not need to die, but he was very far gone and very twisted.  He showed no remorse for what he had done.  Some argue that we only have the right to give life but not to take it, and that is not a statement that makes sense to me.  It seems to ignore the idea of balance, something I think is very important to the betterment of human existence.  We clearly have the right to give, and at the same time to level that out, we have the right to take.  Of course this idea of taking life only should be applied to correct circumstances.  We cannot just go out and kill someone we do not like, that is not what I am saying at all.  Just like giving life should be contemplated on, so should taking it.  I am simply saying violence has its place.  One could almost look at it as we already play god in our own way, simply by being able to create life.  This does not mean I take violence and death lightly.  It is only something that should be brought to the table as a last resort, and only be dealt with the most technical and delicate calculation.  If technical is a good word when it comes to the matters of human emotion.  It comes down to specific situations and how they should be handled, nothing is fully black and white.  Everything has its place.