The relentless vengeance of PRINCESS AURORA (2005 - Korea - Crime/Thriller/Drama) is a thing to behold

 Jung Soon-jung (Uhm Jung-hwa, DANCING QUEEN, OKAY! MADAM) is a grieving mother, having lost her six-year old daughter to a vicious rape/murder, who is now cutting a bloody swath through a series of irredeemably horrible people, in a series a vicious and clever ways.
Her ex-husband, Oh Sung-ho (Moon Sung-keun, GREEN FISH, BURNING) is a Bible-toting detective studying for the priesthood, and one of the leads on the mysterious case of murders, in which a sticker of an anime heroin, PRINCESS AURORA is left behind. Soon, Oh has tied things together, and realizes he is far closer to this case than he could have ever imagined.

Actress Uhm Jung-hwa takes a brutal turn here, and surprised me, as I work my way through her filmography. No wide eyed comedy, or sexy Jekyll and Hyde turn, no ending dance number with an uplifting song. PRINCESS AURORA, released the same year as SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE, shares a lot of that films tonality, and unflinching eye for ultra-violence.

This first time directorial effort from actress Bang Eun-jin (ADDRESS UNKNOWN, BIRDCAGE INN) shows some serious chops as grasp of character here and creating intensely heavy situations on-screen that hit the viewer right in the soul. No wonder, since the films I mentioned regarding her acting career were both directed by Kim Ki-duk, who didn't exactly make feel good musical comedies.
Eun-jin has since helmed a nice handful of other films, none of which I seem to have seen yet, which makes me excited about what is ahead for my viewing schedule.

PRINCESS AURORA deserves a lot more attention and respect from the Korean cinema loving film nuts among us, and I only got to it due to being on a total Uhm Jung-hwa run, at the moment. Steel yourself though, this film does not play around, and the final act, when we see how all the murders Jung has committed tie together, could well break your heart.

Connective cinematic tissue to PRINCESS AURORA would include, beyond SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE, Francois Truffaut's THE BRIDE WORE BLACK, Jeong Byeong-Gil's THE VILLAINESS, Abel Ferrara's MS. 45, Lamont Johnson's LIPSTICK, and Neil Jordan's THE BRAVE ONE.

I went in completely blind to PRINCESS AURORA, and was left with my ass kicked and my stomach in my mouth.

- 8.5/10