Very satisfying! So much better than 'Don't Cry Mommy'

Let me start off by saying that Azooma is a phenomenal movie! Heartbreaking, infuriating, and very very satisfying in the ending. The acting was great, the story was well-paced and interesting, and it was overall very very enjoyable. However, it brought back to my mind another movie I saw, also South Korean, which addressed this same subject: namely a mother's reaction to the rape of her daughter. Although they present a similar theme, these two movies do so in a very different way, and I think it is this difference that makes Azooma the more poignant piece.

A few months ago, I saw the movie "Don't Cry Mommy", another South Korean crime thriller about a mother whose teenage daughter is gang raped by some boys at her school. The movie played out in the typical "revenge movie" style, but while I was disgusted by the issue of rape itself, I was even more disgusted with how it was presented. The mother in that film cried and flailed her way through everything, and only killed one of the rapist by mere chance after getting the $hit beat out of her first. This happened repeatedly throughout the film, the mother sobbing and grabbing at the rapists and getting severely assaulted by them in return, and it really presented us with a weak image of women as victims who cannot protect themselves or those they love with anything more than blind luck.

Conversely, Azooma's protagonist is anything but a luck dependent femme fatal. Although we see her heart-wrenching pain and guilt as the result of her daughter's attack, and the emotional strain she feels as those who SHOULD be her helpers (the police, her ex-husband, etc) are the ones most hindering justice against the rapist (in this case, a serial child molester). And while that emotion overflowed into tears in several scenes, they were tears of rage against the situation, not tears of helpless depression.

Throughout the film, we see how her frustration with the authorities lead her to track down the rapist on her own, and she does a DAMN fine job of it! No, she is not Batman, able to manhandle her quarry to the ground by sheer strength of force, but she uses her brain and her resources to take care of the problem, and I think that presents a more realistic picture. As an average woman myself, (not a body builder or karate expert) I know that it is very unlikely I could take down anyone with my bare hands male or female alike. But I sure as hell could call a hitman! The ability to think rationally, through her pain and emotion, was what made this film 100x more impressive than the other.

On a separate note, it's interesting to see both films reflect such a blatant disregard for the victims of rape, and women in general, in South Korean society. I can only hope that they can encourage people to make a push for change and work harder to protect children who cannot protect themselves.

Just my $7.50 (it's a little too long for $0.02) ^_-