Kill Boksoon

Billed as one of Netflix's tentpole films on its Korean slate for the year, 'Kill Boksoon' will premiere on the platform on March 31.

“I thought about the action [scenes] as more of a choreography than a sequence,” Koo said. “We were talking and she later proposed a show to me but I wanted to work on an original, so I proposed this show to her,” Byun said. “I think my past roles as a mom were ideal versions of a mom. “Director Byun likes long takes for action scenes and I felt a sense of catharsis whenever I finished,” Jeon added. While she is juggling negotiations about contract renewal with her company, she receives an assignment that abruptly stops her in her tracks and she soon becomes the target of her own agency. “There was much more action than I thought there would be, so I was worried about whether I could pull it off.”

Set in a John Wick-esque world where assassins work for companies and there are rules to abide by, the movie follows elite assassin Gil Boksoon as she nears the ...

He didn't count on Boksoon discovering that he killed Young-ji, thanks to Director Cha's gloating. Chairman Cha has a plan though to frame Hee-sung for it all, and he kills Young-ji to remove any witnesses. For her final assignment, Boksoon takes on a grade-A assassination to stage the suicide of a student who, crucially, isn't a minor. The senator is the new candidate for prime minister and he's facing a scandal after being accused of getting his son fraudulently admitted to college. Unfortunately for Boksoon, it means that the other companies will be coming after her when they learn she killed their assassins. In fact, Boksoon was even the one to kick the chair out from under her father's feet.

Kill Boksoon (길복순) is a South Korean action thriller film directed and written by Byun Sung-hyun, and produced by Yi Jin-hee. The film stars Jeon Do-yeon ...

The film almost resembles a female John Wick vibe and leads Bok-soon into a self-contained mess. I believe the best kind of movies are those where you root for the grey characters more than the black and white ones. Furthermore, Bok-soon also has a teenage daughter, who remains quiet and aloof from her mother and carries her own set of secrets. The entire film manages to pull off a mother-and-daughter relationship, an aching love story, and a full-throttle assassination saga. This action-packed Korean adventure-thriller starts with a full-blazing sword and axe fight between a top-notch Samurai warrior and the legendary contract killer Bok-soon. Kill Boksoon (길복순) is a South Korean action thriller film directed and written by Byun Sung-hyun, and produced by Yi Jin-hee.

You'll probably be disappointed with Kill Boksoon if you're hoping it's more concerned with propulsive action violence and less with hit-people who don't ...

The key difference is that in “Kill Boksoon,” Bok-soon tries to connect with her loved ones, which can be a little tricky since Jae-young would rather not talk about whatever’s going on at school. There’s consequently a professional (and social) hierarchy separating Bok-soon from her peers, who gather at a bar in an early scene and mostly grumble to each other about MK’s rules and power rankings. And in the opening scene, Bok-soon tries to set a good example for Jae-young, who will never know about this fight nor appreciate that her mother tried to be “fair” when she let a Japanese gangster attack her with his weapon of choice (a 400-year-old wakizashi sword). MK exercises a monopoly on the hit person industry, and their leader, Chairman Cha (Sol Kyung-gu), tends to exclude anybody who doesn’t follow three rules: 1) No kids, 2) No “events” that aren’t sanctioned by MK, and 3) If you’re asked to facilitate an event, you must try to do the job. She’s a figurehead at MK and a hero to its employees, who are either ranked with a letter grade or are in training. The movie’s title also serves as a nickname for the venerated hitwoman Gil Bok-soon (

"Kill Boksoon" is a play on the name of its protagonist, Gil Bok-soon because she's a killer and since there are some characters who want to kill her.

Then we will get actresses in their 50s doing all kinds of action-heavy set-pieces while delivering a nuanced dramatic performance, thereby giving us a break from the stereotypical and banal male protagonists created with the sole purpose of boosting male ego. I’ll go as far as to say that it’s even better than the ones in the “Sherlock Holmes” movies. Although Sol Kyung-gu and Esom keep vying for the position of the #1 villain in “Kill Boksoon,” I think Esom takes the lead by a few inches due to her gleeful wickedness. And while the exploration of all these interconnected lives is intricate, the mother-daughter drama is the one that hits home. Written and directed by Byun Sung-hyun, “Kill Boksoon” is a play on the name of its protagonist, Gil Bok-soon (Jeon Do-yeon), because she’s a killer and since there are some characters who want to kill Gil Bok-soon. Other than that, Byun Sung-hyun’s film is a must-watch, especially since it’s coming out during a time when the market is oversaturated with steroid-injected male bodies and nonsensical fight sequences. And we’ve got a third candidate in the form of “Kill Boksoon.” However, the truth of the matter is that although it takes a long time to break the glass ceiling, it only takes a few seconds to put it back together and prevent women from being the stars of their respective movies. The best way to describe the writing of “Kill Boksoon” is by saying that it’s well-balanced. In addition to all that, the movie makes the best use of the “planning one’s fight moves before actually making a move” that was popularized by Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” movies. They’ve a strict set of rules, and if these companies follow them and only kill the people that are assigned to them, they’ll get paid handsomely. Gil finds herself at a crossroads as, on the personal front, she’s facing issues connecting with her daughter Gil Jae-yeong (Kim Si-a), and on the professional front, she’s skeptical about renewing her contract with MK.

Netflix's new South Korean action thriller film "Kill Boksoon" is the tale of a masterful assassin who struggles to find a balance between her professional.

It is also not that the girl was completely unaware of the kind of work her mother did; Jae-yeong did actually tell Bok-soon that she had found suspicious things in her bag and therefore believed that Bok-soon worked for the CIA. In this case, though, she finds out that the man is the son of a high-profile politician and a candidate to be the next prime minister. Lastly, it is very much possible that Jae-yeong had actually watched the video of her mother fighting and killing a man, but she had decided to support her no matter what. However, it is the most basic weapon, or advantage, that ultimately comes to the aid of Bok-soon, i.e., Min-kyu’s love and attraction for her. Every assassination attempt is referred to as a “show,” and the more public attention a case gets or the number of cameras that a “show” can attract, the more praise the killer gets. Her suspicions rise immediately when the man looks quite young to be a target, but Min-kyu clarifies that he is indeed not a minor but a young adult. The daughter, Jae-young, had recently taught her mother about what is right and wrong in the world and how the unfair conditions of the world need to be questioned. With a daughter of almost the same age, Bok-soon obviously does not go through with this assassination and therefore flounders on the third rule of her profession. Probably because of his profession in the police, somebody had put out a hit on the father, and the assassin who took the job happened to be a young Cha Min-kyu. Gil Bok-soon is a woman living two starkly different lives in her hometown of Seoul: working as a professional assassin on the one hand and constantly keeping that a secret in her personal life on the other. Bok-soon works for one such organization, named MK Ent, and is considered the best “knife” or assassin in the company and perhaps even in the field. Although “Kill Boksoon” is mostly focused on high-paced action, there are also some elements that give a respite from this usual pace and make the film all the more interesting.

Comments. Stream It Or Skip It: 'Kill Boksoon' on Netflix, a Korean Action-Comedy About a Mother Who's Also a Nasty Assassin.

No, the film raises the age-old question as whether one wants to sit through a lot of plot and character stuff to get to the good stuff – you know, the chases and shootouts in action movies, the punching and leaping and kicking in martial arts movies, the Hulk-smash in Hulk movies, and the porn in porn movies. Performance Worth Watching: Jeon is pretty good at keeping her character’s inner conflict under wraps as she knifes the life out of a bro or grins and bears it at lunch with the PTA moms. In the other, Boksoon is a superstar of the assassin class, a top-level killer for a corporate org, MK Enterprises, which recruits and trains people in the art of ruthless death-dealing. Meanwhile, Boksoon gets a call from the school principal and learns that Jae-yeong stabbed a kid in the neck with scissors, and when she asks why, Jae-yeong flatly says she was trying to kill him. Min-kyu oversees an assassin’s guild, where everyone agrees to a code of conduct, and pretty much looks up to “Kill” Boksoon as the cream of the hitperson crop – but is she past her prime? Korean filmmaker Byun Sung-hyun uses the premise as a means to contrast domestic drama with over-the-top action, which is a bit of a high-wire act; now let’s see if he delivers on its promise with zest and originality.

Here's your guide to the full cast and characters in Kill Boksoon, the new Korean action thriller from The Merciless director Byun Sung-hyun.

Sul Kyung-gu plays Cha Min-kyu, “the CEO of MK Ent. Now she becomes the target of her agency and the entire hitman industry.” Boksoon loves her work but decides to quit so that she no longer needs to hide things from her daughter.” That’s everything we know about Kill Boksoon. The movie revolves around Gil Boksoon, an expert assassin hired by the killing agency MK Ent. Despite her impeccable talent at her job, raising a 15-year-old daughter is a whole different story.

Netflix's "Kill Boksoon" slays with a sharp, stylish take on an assassin balancing work & parenting · John Wick who? Add this hired killer with a 100% success ...

Sul Kyung-gu as Cha Min-kyu and Esom as Cha Min-hee in "Kill Boksoon" (No Ju-han/Netflix)Then there's Chairman Cha Min-kyu, who runs the world of assassins with an iron fist that only seems to unclench for Bok-soon herself. Jeon Do-yeon as Gil Boksoon in "Kill Boksoon" (No Ju-han/Netflix)"Kill Boksoon" brings in deft social commentary in realizing the elaborate world of MK Ent. The intricate world-building is another level of care that sucks viewers into the film, while also fleshing out Bok-soon as a woman with extremely high stakes in all aspects of her life. It's a film that both delivers immediate thrills and will prompt multiple re-watches, allowing viewers to really soak in the intricate narrative and world-building that Byun accomplishes in its tightly paced two-hour-plus runtime. The agencies include several references to the South Korean entertainment industry, with the most tongue-in-cheek inclusion the designation of hit jobs as "shows" and the introduction of Kim Young-ji (Lee Yeom), an ace trainee set to make her "debut." Jeon's intimate connection to the work shines through, as she infuses Bok-soon with an underlying layer of vulnerability, where film assassins are typically limited to cockiness and rage. While Jeon plays the overzealous, chipper mom devoted to her loved ones in "Crash Course," here she completely transforms into a powerful, measured career woman unwilling to make sacrifices for her home life. [rom-com](https://www.salon.com/2023/02/11/netflix-rom-com-your-place-or-mine/) series "Crash Course in Romance") is a legend among the hitman industry, where assassins are contracted to hierarchical killing agencies and assigned jobs based on their letter grades. The rest of the movie follows the beats that are essential to crime thrillers: We meet Bok-soon's formidable boss, MK Entertainment CEO Cha Min-kyu ("Memoir of a Murderer's" Sul Kyung-gu), as well as her allies and frenemies, notably her C-ranked co-worker Han Hee-sung ("D.P.'s" Koo Kyo-hwan) and MK's Director Cha Min-hee ("Taxi Driver's" Esom). Jeon balances the quiet confidence and bravado of Bok-soon at work with private moments of uncertainty and exasperation, only allowed when she's alone or Jae-young's head is turned. We first meet Gil – dubbed "Kill Bok-soon" based on her 100 percent success rate – during a hit job, where she's skilled enough to impress her [yakuza-linked](https://www.salon.com/2014/11/07/why_dont_you_play_in_hell_a_delirious_hilarious_work_of_japanese_pop_genius/) adversary and even envision the outcomes of her possible moves, which we see through a trippy, gorgeous reflective shot. "Kingmaker" writer and director Byun Sung-hyun's first entry into the action genre, "Kill Boksoon," is a crime thriller centered on a mother raising her teenage daughter while continuing her work as a skilled hitwoman.

Over steaming hot plates of tteokbokki (simmered rice cakes), Gil Boksoon (Jeon Do-yeon) vents to her boss about her daughter.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that you have to lead a life where you are unashamed of yourself,” Byun says. But I at least feel that, to herself, she is leading a life that she is unashamed of.” “And at times, because of that, I would be at a loss for words.” Byun personified this dichotomy by focusing on the right side of Jeon’s face when Boksoon acted as a mother and the left side when she killed. After a successful mission, Boksoon returns to MK, walking in on a class of trainees re-creating one of her iconic fights (this one set in a Yeosu urinal). “This is my first time being a mother,” Jeon continues. The commonalities slip into the movie’s terminology: an assassination is called a “show,” the location where it happens is a “set,” “cameras are rolling” once the job starts, trainees are called “interns,” and interns “debut” with their first kill. “At times, I could see her struggle as a mother,” Byun says. Two turning points of the film, dramatic and emotional, land like a one-two punch: First, Boksoon intentionally throws a job she was working with Young-ji—going against strict company policy—after learning of the parent-child relationship between the client and the target. He found himself especially intrigued by the discrepancy between her career as one of Korea’s top actors and her day-to-day role as a mother to a teenage daughter. Promising young intern Kim Young-ji (Lee Yeon) is at the top of her class in a field dominated by men, evoking a young Boksoon. Gil Boksoon—known to her colleagues as Kill Boksoon due to her skill—is an assassin with a 100% success rate.

The first reviews for Netflix's new South Korean action-thriller Kill Boksoon are in – and it's been compared to John Wick.

[Paste Magazine](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/kill-boksoon-review) [John Wick 4](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a43425878/john-wick-4-killa-fat-suit-asthma/) [ is almost perfect – except for one big mistake](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a43425878/john-wick-4-killa-fat-suit-asthma/) [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/kill-boksoon-review-netflix-1235328752/) [Screen International](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/kill-boksoon-berlin-review/5179302.article) [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/30/kill-boksoon-review-intense-korean-assassin-thriller-with-satisfying-complexity) and a lethal assassin by night. [Netflix](https://www.digitalspy.com/netflix/)'s new South Korean action-thriller [Kill Boksoon](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a43464368/kill-boksoon-ending-explained-netflix/) are in, with one reviewer comparing it to [John Wick](https://www.digitalspy.com/john-wick/).

Chairman Cha, or Cha Min Kyu, should have never met Gil Boksoon. Boksoon was supposed to be in school when he came to kill Boksoon's father.

Killing Jae Young would have destroyed Boksoon, but telling her the truth would have destroyed their relationship, and that was Cha Min Kyu’s final revenge. Leaving Boksoon alive was Cha Min Kyu’s final declaration of love for her, but everything else he did was fueled by his anger and disappointment at not being loved back. Cha Min Kyu’s weakness was Boksoon, but her weakness was her daughter, and he hit her where it would hurt her the most. But we know that the person Cha Min Kyu was thinking about was Boksoon. Cha Min Kyu knew this when the job came to them, and he did not think anything of it. We believe that Cha Min Kyu was obsessed enough with love that he forgot to think about what Boksoon might want to begin with.

Jeon Do-yeon stars as the star assassin in Kill Boksoon. Read our review of the new Korean film on Netflix.

The dramatic treatment of the action-thriller is interesting. However, there are times when you feel the director struggling to balance the emotional and action aspects of the film. While the camerawork really adds to the entire watching experience, it is the BGM which is let down. One of the rules is not to throw away any assignment. Her dilemma and growing distance with her daughter makes her reassess a deadly assignment, which further adds to her woes. Kill Boksoon is written and directed by Byun Sung-hyun of The Merciless, Whatcha Wearin', Kingmaker fame.