Good not great
It's a good movie to pass the time and you certainly won't be bored watching it but the ending leaves more to be desired. It doesn't quite feel complete. There were certain aspects that I thought would be explored but weren't. It only explores the relationship between a mother, Kill Bok Soon and her daughter.The action sequences were enjoyable but it's not the best female action sequences I've seen. It's good. There's plenty of action in fact. Just nothing mindblowing.
The movie has some comedy and lots of blood.
One thing to note is there is a sex scene. Nothing is shown.
There were a few characters and appearances that I really enjoyed.
Esom as Cha Min Hee, the company CEO's annoying sister. I last saw her in Taxi Driver and loved the contrast in the characters. I was quite amused.
Lee Jae Wook as the young CEO. It's a short role but put a bright smile on my face. This is the first other project I'm seeing of his after Alchemy Of Souls.
EXTRA SCENE
Just after the credits first start, there is a small extra scene so don't forget to catch that.
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Extremely brilliant storytelling
First screened at the Berlinale 2023, this has one of the most complex plotlines ever seen in a Korean movie and yet it was executed perfectly due to its brilliant storytelling. It's sort of an assassin story driven in classical melodrama styling and vintage visuals. The story centers around a killer agency that runs like a hotshot entertainment company where they define contract killing as putting on a show, while Boksoon has the highest rank in the agency, she's also a mom of an adolescent daughter which plays another bigger part of the story. There's a lot of social commentary within its storyline and every bit of it hits the mark sarcastically with black humor. The cinematography and transitions were handled with some spectacular camera movements, every scene was shot beautifully and the action sequences were really breathtaking, and how they treated the ending with love is just impressive.Was this review helpful to you?
Gil Bok Soon is a woman of focus, commitment, and sheer will
Gil Boksoon brought one thing to mind when I saw her "John Wick is a man of focus, commitment, and sheer will".This movie reminded me so much of what I love about the John Wick franchise: the assassins, the organizations, and the rules that govern their anarchy. I'm a massive fan of seeing groups that work so far outside the law being acquiescent to their own rules that combine their obscure forms of morality with their own back alley justice. The movie was undoubtedly an 8/10 for me and here's why.
Pros:
I live for action and the action scenes and sequences were immaculate. Slowing down the scenes to give you a better view of the fight added to the intensity of the moment where you clearly saw the characters fight for survival.
Her struggle with being a mother while living this life made you relate to the character more. She wasn't just some impossibly amazing assassin, she was a single mother who had to struggle with raising a teen (a task no parent would ever say is easy). But, the mother-daughter relationship was truly the heart of this film. Every choice Boksoon made and everything she did always seem to come back to her daughter. You could see how she struggled with balancing a career she loves and her daughter that she loves.
Each character played their role very well. I felt that I liked who I was meant to like based on their portrayal and I hated the characters I was meant to hate as well. Boksoon's daughter was also an interesting character. I couldn't say I was ever really sure what she was thinking nor was I certain at the end of the movie exactly what kind of person she is but she made me curious. At this point, I want to know what becomes of her character and what choices she would make moving forward, especially given what she now knows.
I thoroughly enjoyed Lee Jae Wok's cameo.
Cons:
I felt like some of the characters' stories could have been fleshed out more. I understand that it would have made the movie much longer, maybe even needed a second movie, but much of the stories felt too short. A backstory for Han Hee Sung or even Kim Yeong Ji would have added to the story. Side characters felt trivialised in the story, they had moments where they could have opened a dialogue to learn more about these individuals but they were just ignored. Fingers crossed this is to build momentum for a second movie...
Overall, I think it's a great watch if you enjoy action with a bit of real-life mixed in. I know it just came out today but I could see this easily becoming a franchise similar to John Wick. While it's reminiscent of John Wick, it still maintains its own identity. I'm definitely rewatching it!
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Just skip this lol
As much as you may think this movie will deliver especially with such an amazing cast it just.. doesn’t. So much unnecessary things thrown in whilst we also barely get a story. This movie was empty and somehow managed to also have such a snail like pace. Shown a bunch of characters only to have them thrown out in a fight scene. Even with boksoon’s family we don’t know a thing … even though this movie literally surrounds her. We don’t know who her child’s father is even though cha guy keeps mentioning him, we don’t know anything about the kid, whether she saw that vid or not, we don’t know why her father was praying for her or what kinda guy he was, we know nothing about her mom either. Ofc we don’t have to be told everything but if you’re going to mention it you cant allow us to settle with bits and pieces. It also goes without saying but we could’ve done without the incest plotline.. overall just an amazing cast let down by horrible writing.Was this review helpful to you?
The Struggles of a Single Mother Done Right
This was just such a pretty drama, a lovely depiction of the struggles of the typical single mother trying to survive in the workplace type of movie..The story is not really new, but it does have a few nice touches twists and turns involving backstabbing colleges who literally will stop at nothing to get a head.
The core of this drama is the mother-daughter relationship where the two seem to care a whole lot for each-other but also struggle with honesty as both mother and daughter have a whole lot of secrets and insecurities in their relationship. Pretty much like most teens who are trying to find themselves as well as their sexuality. Finding a way to come out to ones parent is not always easy. Especially if that parent keeps pulled back to work at the most inconvenient times creating a whole lot of misunderstandings. As one could expect in a movie about this type of relationship. It does also make way for some pretty decent lines questioning the whole idea of coming out, done really smoothly and did not feel forced at all.
There are also some back and front stabbing teens as well, as well as some guy who really should learn a whole lot about consent.
There is also some slight romance, lust and even a show of true friendship hidden somewhere in there between all the stabbing, shooting and other ways to kill/die. As this is pretty much all covered in a lot of gorgeously filmed slow mo blood-splatter, shining shreds of glass and legs kicking in beautiful surroundings and to the sound of perfectly mismatched music. Just the way I like it.
Did we get to see anything new?
No not really, but it was well made, pretty and definitely one of the better mother-daughter movies out there. Also if you do watch it make sure not to miss the epilog it was like a perfect little stab in the heart.
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Cliched budget John Wick remake
This movie is essentially a Korean John wick Remake replaced with a female protagonist. Many salient plot points were literally copy and pasted from John Wick: assassins having their own secret gatherings with their own rules, assassins' meeting place is similar to the continental hotel in John Wick, other assassins' turning on Bok Soon/John Wick due to a bounty on their head etc. Makes you wonder if they were trying to time it together with John Wick 4's release date. Aside from the similarities with the John Wick series, the rest of the film's plot was just the same old washed up cliches. Assassin/contract killer suddenly having a guilty conscience for some reason throwing everything in jeopardy blah blah blah. I literally rolled my eyes at that point. Bok Soon has been in this trade for at least 2 decades and yet she gets a crisis of faith trying to kill some politician's son? Why? Oh, it's because she is a MOTHER! But wait a minute, she has been a mother for 15 years and NEVER felt this way until now? This makes no sense AT ALL. You want me to believe that out of all the people she has killed in her career she has never killed someone as "innocent" as this random politician's son? Did she not consider that the other people she has killed before were also someone's child/parent as well?Other fun tropes in this film also include pairing up the experienced veteran (Bok Soon) with the scrappy intern, Bok Soon's mentor/boss letting her kill him and all the single mother with rebellious teenage children scenarios that you can think of. Speaking of this whole "single mother who is also an assassin" plot point, I really want to say that Bok Soon's daughter is the most poorly written character in the whole show. She is a typical teenage girl going through puberty and coming to grips about being a lesbian but some of her actions are so illogical it just made me annoyed. She oscillated so often between being cold and aloof towards her mother to conveniently blowing up her mother's phone during her "shows" it made me think she was bipolar instead. Also, the whole coming out scene was so strangely written I'm not sure if the LGBT representation should even be appreciated by the community. At least the saving grace was that the acting was decent... though the cinematography and editing were soo choppy it was obvious stunt doubles were used. Oh, and the ending was extremely abrupt and pointless. There was a random mid credit scene about Bok Soon's daughter "confronting" her ex girlfriend and threatening to kill her, to which the ex simply smiled creepily in response while teeny bopper music played in the back. Then the film cut to the rest of the credits. WTF was that about??
With all my various complaints out of the way, I'd say that this is still a fairly entertaining film that you should watch if you're a fan of the thriller/assassin genre. The acting is decent as well, so if you're willing to look past the weak ass storyline, it should still make for an enjoyable watch. I would however, strongly recommend the John Wick series if you have not watched that before instead.
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Wannabe John Wick, but failed disastrously
Kill Boksoon is an action packed movie, with good action but the storyline is weak, illogical and didn't have a depth to the overall plot of the story.A group of killers trivializing murders, yet taking the moral ground of accepting it as a justice. A messed up combination of action with comedy and some gangster organization plot, Kill Boksoon looks like a wannabe John Wick in a parallel world, but fails miserably both in direction and storywise.
Coming to the casting and the characters, all of them were misplaced. Jeon Do Yeon is necessarily not a miscast I would say, but there were a lot better options to pick as a assasin. The rest of the characters were all over the place and nobody left an impressive impact whatsoever.
My Rating : 3.5/10
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Love the blood splatter
The casting was great! Actors did a very good job and the executions of the action scenes were spot on. I enjoyed the fight scenes, especially the blood splatter is very convincing. As I was watching the movie, I was just going with the movie, it's just me watching a movie, no connection at all with the characters. I feel like there's something lacking about the entire movie, though I couldn't identify what was it.Also, there's a lot of things that weren't given enough attention, so I feel disconnected with the movie and the characters.
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Violence is all you get
If one is looking for a complete action filled, adrenaline rush without much story, then this is it. I personally prefer a story along with an emotional core in action movies like the "Kill Bill". Hence I was not impressed by this one. I found it to be unnecessarily violent and the action sequences too long. I could not sympathise with the central character and it's struggles. Because, it seemed to me that, the character itself was not fully committed to overcome those. The movie is an exhibition of how good and unbeatable of a fighter, Bok Soon is without much else. This will not be on my re-watch list.Was this review helpful to you?
A must watch for Action-Drama Fans
Definitely has that John wick 1 vibes with the world building and OP Hitman legend. But in a completely different direction of a single mother.The dynamics were insane, for all the characters. Just when you think it'll succumb to cliches and stereotypes, it pulls a punch from your blindspot.
I can only talk so much without going into spoilers, but every single main character, the boss, his sister, our protag, her daughter, and a few side characters, are utilised very well. Every action they take, no matter how comical, surprising, confusing or deranged meshes well with their established personality.
This movie made me care a bit about almost every character, so when someone dies, you feel the pinch.
Sure, its not feature length shootout fest like john wick, or a family drama, but its a happy mix in between.
The action is coordinated very well, the BGM is seamless enough and the few CGI shots are really well done.
I'm rating this a 10, but this should be 8+ overall at the minimum.
I am seeing a lot of low ratings and i just cant understand why. Maybe its for a small subset of viewers, like the entire John Wick franchise is.
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This review may contain spoilers
The movie was good but not great.
The movie was good but not great. **SPOILER ALERT**1. The actions scenes I love it & they look realistic. I love the coldness of the female lead but also her warm side of being a mother at the same time. Both Boksoon and her daughter demonstrate a common thing is they both afraid will the other side accept the secret. That's like the main wall between them.
2. The actors are great but the plot isn't. The ending is an open ending and abruptly.
3. The ending could have been better if the fight between Boksoon & Cha guy is longer. It's like before the fight, the movie shows the tension between the two so I thought the fight would be mind blowing but it's not. I really don't know whether Cha guy is really love Boksoon or not. It seems like he didn't fight at his best, maybe because he loves her but at the same time, why did he let Boksoon's daughter see the fight between them. It's like love and hatred at the same time. Their relationship is confusing that make me wanna find out more.
Therefore, in terms of actions 8.5/10 ; plot 7/10; actors 9/10. Overall is 8/10.
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I will defend this movie with my WHOLE HEART... and with my credible degree in Literature.
I just finished it and came here to look through the reviews, expecting more people to understand how brilliant Kill Bok Soon is but alas, not many have interpreted the intricate plot and characters as positively. Now, let's look at what this movie was actually aiming to portray.The characters are quite well-written. They have justifiable motives that drive their actions. Their interactions with Boksoon are not only complex and multidimensional but also reflect the realistic strained relationships one would encounter in professional and personal life. The dialogues very much support their respective obligations or responsibilities or values and function to corroborate their further actions. You could say, it was all so carefully crafted because each plot point, character, and dialogue served its intended purpose.
A major portion of this movie revolves around a mother-daughter relationship and while people would say that it depicts the struggles of a single mother, I think it goes way beyond that. It shows the juxtaposition of the mother's struggles as opposed to her daughter's, indirectly expressing how they both can only partially fathom where the other comes from. At the same time, over the course of the movie, you would see them communicating yet, also delivering so much more nuance by just being there, waiting for the other to open up, and eventually, hearing each other out. They both make space for each other and also respect as well as encourage what the other values. This movie is very much about the unspoken secrets and truths that linger in familial relationships. It is also about staying true to yourself despite what a harsh world's norms expect out of you.
Beyond that, it minimally shows the boundaries and expectations drawn out for women but nothing we don't already know of. I am glad it does not spare too much time for it because there was so much to show rather than simply recounting the ever-existing and glaring sexism. A more specific example would be the fact that Boksoon kills some very unlikeable characters for very clear reasons. She severed toxic professional relationships for positive and valuable ones which shows her development as a character who kills not only for a purpose but also to uphold her principles and morals.
I don't want to spoil anything beyond this but please look out for the underlying messages that the movie delivers.
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