I don't know whether to consider this a spoiler or not, because it does not spoil any part of the plot really for you if you haven't seen it, and it takes place right smack dab in the middle of the movie, but just in case, I'm notifying you.
Listen, Lady Vengeance is incredibly well-made. It's brilliant, it's funny, it's exciting, it's fast- paced, it's in every way enjoyable, but there is one scene that exists that made me furious. If this scene were cut from the film, it would make no difference. It is completely gratuitous. In this scene, the heroine, if you want to call her that, holds a small dog by the fur up to her face, holds a double-barrel handgun point plank from its forehead, and after we see it whimpering with its eyes closed, she blows it away, stumbling backwards from the impact of the gun. You know the reason she's using this gun on this poor dog? For practice. Can you believe that? That's the reason she's killing this dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you're reading this thinking, "Oh so when the humans in the movie die, it's alright, huh?", I'm wondering why you're even comparing the film's human deaths, which are all factually fake, no questions asked, to a scene with a poor little dog, a puppy, which is cruel even if it isn't real. If it isn't, and I hope to God it isn't, it's still painful to think about the puppy as it's held by its fur in the air whimpering for as long as it takes to shoot that gratuitous, 100% needless scene with all of these intimidating, cold humans going about their business not even thinking of tending to its pain and fright. It's hard for me to think about Park Chanwook right now. I mean, Oldboy is one of my all-time favorite films, I love Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, and I was amazed at his segment in Three...Extremes, and I saw this knowing that I'd love it, and then this scene comes along and thoroughly betrays my trust in him as a filmmaker!!! Does it have to be such a risk to watch a movie?
Korea is the country that eats them, and apparently allows authentic deaths of animals in its movies, so I am really trying hard to believe that, because the dog being actually killed by the bullets is technically not shown, they didn't kill the dog because they didn't actually have to kill the dog. But why even have that scene! Like I said before, it's not needed!
That view towards animals in general is horrible. The fact that humans see themselves as so far above other animals, even such deep and emotionally receptive ones as dogs, makes them possibly one of the least noble types of animals. The fact that Koreans, no matter how great their movies are, see animals as things without feelings, things you can just shoot or torture or mistreat in any way without feeling for it, is pathetic. It's a disgrace to the human race.