Songs for Working

A prize, for those among you who (like me) are connoisseurs of background music. The entire soundtrack to Lady Vengeance is available in high-quality MP3s on the film's official website.
Lady Vengeance is film #3 of the Korean "Revenge Trilogy" that began with Oldboy, the revenge movie that I reviewed in January. Oldboy has a richly complex plot, shockingly cruel violence, and a lot of moral confusion. Yet its soundtrack is a mix of blandly mournful music, with Vivaldi, waltzes, and Minimalist tracks that remind me of Philip Glass. The film itself rates no better than "Good," but the score calls up pleasantly conflicting emotions thanks to the conflict between the feeling of the music and the feeling of the film.
The Lady Vengeance soundtrack is less varied than Oldboy; it seems to be all selections of classical and baroque music. So the music can be enjoyed simply as something nice to listen to. I won't listen to it all the way through until I have a chance to watch the film, and pick up some emotional baggage to enrich my experience of the soundtrack.

Also: A stirringly anti-jingoistic performance of the Star Spangled Banner can be dowloaded here. Those of you who appreciate politically aware indie music should pick it up before the link goes bad.