The opening sequence of “Kill Boksoon,” a stunning, though anti-climactic, fight to the death, should set the tone for this Korean mother/daughter assassin thriller.
As we all know, the modern hitwoman is under enormous pressure to have it all: a prestigious assassin firm’s head-of-the-table position, a hunky younger lover, a rogues’ gallery of colorful assassin friends to slurp noodles with, a home greenhouse, a snappy wardrobe, and a healthy relationship with a teenage daughter who is hesitantly coming out as gay.
Byun Sung-Hyun, the writer-director, explores these extremely familiar concerns with joyful vigor if not precisely originality. Netflix’s “Kill Boksoon,” which may be the Korean little sister to the “John Wick” trilogy crossed with “The Long Kiss Goodnight,” is ridiculous, splashy, CG-assisted drivel — and much too lengthy at 2 hours 17 minutes. Yet it has a surprising amount of appeal for a film whose concept is as simple as “You should have lived a better life if you wanted to die of natural causes.”
Gil Boksoon (Jeon Do-yeon, terrific in a totally different character from Lee Chang-“Secret Dong’s Sunshine,” which earned her a Cannes best actress prize) says this as she prepares to murder a tattooed yakuza thug. Boksoon (Kim Si-A) is the forty-something mother of sullen Jae-young (Kim Si-A) and a super-assassin, the star employee of MK Enterprises, a contract killing firm managed by the ruthless, enamored Cha (Sul Kyung-gu) and his seductive, perverted, incestuously inclined sister Min-kyu (Esom).
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Who put the hit on the yakuza guy is less significant than the baroque, ceremonial manner in which Boksoon would dispose of him, first providing the defenseless man a sword to defend himself with, then picking a cheap DIY store axe for herself. Throughout the subsequent mill, she’ll frequently smile at a particularly clever play, either her own or her opponent’s. She’s a lady who enjoys her work.
The finest and worst films are already available. Cho Hyung-gimbaled, rae’s deft camerawork makes the tacky action fluid and enjoyable, occasionally playing it out in a puddle’s reflection or via the shutter motion of a passing train. We witness several endings of the battle, only to find they were just Boksoon going through the possible situations in her thoughts — therefore, Byun can portray Boksoon dying multiple times in principle without having to murder her.
But, it also makes the fighting seem light. CG’s blood streaks neatly through the air, with a stray stripe settling beautifully over Boksoon’s high cheekbone at worst. Action music by the numbers plays, creating tension that never seems entirely right. Yet the backgrounds may be quite generic – the initial conflict takes place on a sealed-off portion of half completed motorway, a landscape so devoid of detail that it’s easy to question if it’s all a dream, a video game, or a dream inside a video game.
The fighting mechanics are unconvincing, with no one point of contact landing (Jeon Do-yeon is a smooth performer, but her fists lack strength). Yet it makes little difference when each duel has a few hundred such motions strung together. This is the quantity-over-quality school of fight choreography, and it extends to CG, which is employed indiscriminately, not just to increase blood splatter, but also in showy, impossible camera maneuvers, such as when the lens goes through locked doors numerous times just because it can.
All of this serves to further distance “Kill Boksoon” from reality. Despite a subplot involving a shady local politician, there is no evidence of Boksoon engaging with the civilian population.
Even the messy, inventive centerpiece fight, in which her fellow assassin buddies are inflicted on her by a jealous Min-kyu, takes place in a restaurant where, conveniently, no one else eats, so no bystanders are threatened by the whizzing skewers, careening cleavers, pans of sizzling hot oil, or lethally wielded chopsticks.
This is a shame since when the film examines the irony of Boksoon’s dual existence, it gets to revel in a tight line in black comedy. Boksoon was having lunch with the other school parents, wearing pink Chanel and hiding behind a polite smile and a plate of petit fours, reminiscing about her previous “holiday,” which she spent garrotting some guy on a balcony with a view of the pyramids.
Or another flashback in which freshly murderous schoolgirl-Boksoon is positioned beatifically against her abusive father’s dying, spasming figure as “This Guy’s in Love With You” surges on the soundtrack. Or Boksoon having a heart-to-heart with her boyfriend (Koo Kyo-hwan) while he crawls about with shoes on his feet attempting to doctor an assassination scene. Offbeat moments like this foreshadow more than the film ultimately intends to deliver: “Kill Boksoon,” like its protagonist, might benefit from learning that there’s more to life than being a master of execution.
