Kill Bok Soon (2023)

Motherhood and Assassin Clash in This Great Romp!

I find it interesting that so many viewers are complaining about the ending, and why it feels incomplete. I guess you have to have been around for 45+ years, watching movies and shows to understand that an ending that feels incomplete is because there’s another part on the way. Another episode or another movie. It really isn’t that hard to figure out.

Kill Bok Soon is a very good film about a Gil Bok Soon, one of the best assassins of the MK guild. They call them companies, but I think a guild is more accurate. She’s deadly and she brings light humor to her personality. She smirks and lightly banters with her victims in a way that tells them, “This is business. It’s not personal.” What makes this story compelling is that she also has a teenage daughter. And it becomes obvious, very quickly, that her daughter has no idea what she does for a living, and she aims to keep it that way. And there is, of course, some compelling reasons why Bok Soon shields her daughter from her life.

Bok Soon is nearing the end of her contract, and the guild wants her to renew with them. She’s seriously considering retiring. However, can a rogue assassin who is as good as Bok Soon be allowed to simply retire?

Cha Min Kyu is the top assassin of the MK guild. And make no mistake, his skills outrival even Bok Soon’s as we see him take down 30+ Russians in a massacre. His sister, Cha Min Hee is the director of the MK guild, and she views Bok Soon as more of a liability than an asset since her announcement. It’s also obvious that she doesn’t care much for Bok Soon, which makes you also wonder if she knows the secret between Bok Soon and Cha Min Kyu.

Bodies pile up rapidly as it becomes apparent that it’s a fatal mistake to underestimate or even to target Bok Soon. She’s also not stupid. She knows what’s going to happen before it does, even running through probable scenarios in her mind—which play out on the screen in expert fashion. She will also use any item as a weapon. There’s no such thing as fighting fair in a fight, and Bok Soon is a master of this realization. It’s kill or be killed. There’s no room for apologies.

Jason Bourne is still one of my all-time favorite assassins because he’s just as smart as he is deadly. He’s like a grandmaster chess player who is always several moves ahead of his opponents, as well as being able to adapt to his situation with mere seconds of contemplation. Bok Soon is similar in this regard.

That cast is all top-notch, especially Jeon Do Yeon, who is very believable as the assassin Bok Soon. She’s also masterful at giving us a mom who is trying very hard to understand her teenage daughter, and why being a parent is even harder than being an assassin.

As I stated from the beginning, they certainly left the door open for another film, and I would be very surprised if another one isn’t made. Especially given how Bok Soon’s daughter reacts after finding out the truth about her mother. We were left to wonder how she would react to her mother upon finding out who she really is and what she really does. And what is intriguing is that we some elements of a young Bok Soon in her own daughter.

This was a fun film to watch. It’s well-written and well-performed. The fight scenes were all exceedingly well choreographed. Thank God these actors and actresses do their own stunt work, as it makes the scenes all the more believable and intriguing. Looking forward to the next one!

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Keeps you entertained

Not much to say about this movie, it wasn’t the most amazing or out of this world, it reminded me a lot of korean revenge plots which is why i liked it a lot. i loved the acting as well, all good actors but i think some scenes were a little confusing and at times i wasn’t really sure what was happening.

also…director cha is his sister ?! and she tried to kiss him ?!…okay that was just nasty…

i really thought she was his wife at first or something but i guess not.

also i really liked the plot that cha liked boksoon since they met. sets the tone of their relationship a lot more, i think i would’ve lowkey enjoyed this story more if it was about them in their younger years. also i kept speculating if they would show who the father is…but i have my suspicions that it might’ve been cha…don’t know though.

overall a good enough movie. i would love another sequel with the daughter or a movie about cha and boksoon when they were younger, their story intrigued me a lot!!!

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Action-packed movie that strongly relies on the mother-daughter relationship

Just like the synopsis reads, the movie basically only focuses on Boksoon, a top assasin, in her role as a mother.
There is nothing wrong with that and it is a really good concept. The acting is superb from the star-studded cast and the action, stunts and visual effects are crazy good. But at the end of the movie, you're left with the feeling of having watched an unfinished movie. The story, whilst trying to juggle her workplace and her identity as a famous assasin, strays to far away from the core story of her being a mother.

When her relationship with her daughter becomes strained due to some events, there is a lack of the affection and honesty that is, in my opinion the key aspect of Boksoons life. Her struggling as an single mother. Her profession also puts a strain on her relationship with her daughter which is something that is emphasized alot in the movie.

Running parallel with the story of her daughter, we are thrown into a political, greed-driven plotline involving her workplace. This is the element that throws of the core storyline of the mother-daughter bond and forces us to try to understand the various characters operating in the assasins field. Finishing the movie, I had a hard time grasping what the backstory of some of the characters in the first place. I do think the movie lacks context in some key characters and relies instead solely on the action. It gives enough hints to kinda get by but i would have loved to have some more flesh to the bones on the questions of why some characters acted the way they did.

It is still an amazing action movie that is super cool if you are up to see jampacked bloody action scenes in between the communcation of the mother-daughter-duo!

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Great Movie, if you like John Wick

I mean it was really really good, it's like a korean take of John Wick, but they had the ranking system of One Punch Man or maybe even My Hero Academia, but mostly close to One Punch Man. And the mc was a women, so that was kinda breath of fresh Air. Though it's kinda ironic that this came out around the same time as John Wick 4

Storytelling was good, i think in the beginning it's kindly slow because they need time to build it up, I even almost fell off, but good thing i stucked with it as i'll slowly pick up as is goes on.

The sub plot of the daughter being a LGBT was fine, it wasn't distracting or ruining you're experience with the Movie, as they weren't really focusing on in that much.

The Cinematography was really confusing at times, cuz it was like a merge of old style asian and modern cinematography. I really the visualization when Boksoon is thinking on how to kill her opponents, that was really amazing, I think that really adds to her character.

Also, just a nitpick opinion, that sex scene of boksoon and heesung wasn't really necessary imo. I think the story would still be fine if it wasn't there, but i kinda get it why they had to add it, just to show how deep boksoon and heesung's relationship go, but again still unnnecessary.

Overall, I was really invested in the world, cuz it was interesting. It would've been great if this was a TV series, cuz the movie runtime didn't do it justice as it was to short for me, but it doesn't feel like it's rushed either. Still it would've been great if the world would be explored more because it's interesting, i think there's still lots to talk about. Hope they would make a sequel or spin off TV series of this.

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Not a great deal but not a bad deal as well

A good action movie with a little mixture of thrills The killing scenes and the blood splattering scenes were we-portrayed. The cinematography was great. I liked the way the movie was shown from many characters perspectives. Bok Soon's character was very well cast. This movie shows how Bok Soon is trying to balance her professional assassin life with her personal motherhood life. I adored the mother-daughter relationship; it was not sugar-coated, but rather more convincing as in real life. Bok Soon's hesitancy to reveal her jobs true nature and her daughter's struggle to come out as lesbian were well portrait but that's it, the only positive things about the movie. Other characters I don't know what they were even trying to show but the characters lacked DEPTH. 
The thing I first remembered while watching this series was John Wick's world. I won't say they copied John Wick, but I could definitely say they got their inspiration for making this movie from Wick. It was like I was watching 2 John Wick movies crumpled up into 1.
But the action and cinematography saved the movie for me.
I loved that Boo Soon's daughter was able to accept herself the way she is.

Let's live, Let's Love and hope you enjoy your time by doing what you love ?

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An entertaining movie

Jeon Do-Yeon is really the gem of Korean industry and back with an all-action role! The special effects and swift fighting ??
The storyline is abit far fetched but the cinematography is interesting, the CGI are done nicely and they tried to mimic western Kill Bill environment with the office building, lifts etc. Quite refreshing to find the similarities.

The mother and daughter relationship is suppressed, as a Netflix film there's no hesitation in displaying LGBT topics in K scene nowadays and it's definitely forward-thinking as the world evolves. If you are looking for cool dark action movie, Kill Bok Soon is for you.

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Its stylishly good but its not great

This movie tried to be a lot of things. Tarantino meeting John Wick but falling off somewhere is how I can describe this.

The story is gripping and can keep you in for the duration of the movie but I personally found the first hour and a half ridiculously slow and boring which I cannot forgive at all. Furthermore, the story resolved into unneeded sappy territory which was disappointing too.

However, the cinephile in me recognizes the artistic winning aspect of this film which is stylishly delivered and that aspect is the only that save this movie from being a non watchable entity.

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I didn't think it would be a good movie because of the bad comments

I didn't think it would be a good movie because of the bad comments my friends made about the movie, but it wasn't like this at all.
First of all, the greatest strength of the movie was the excellent acting of the actors, all of whom did a really good job, especially Jeon Doyon, who played the lead role.
The director and stage design were also good and had a new and interesting script (the main character staying between being a mother and being a murderer was very interesting)
The movie could have been really good in its genre, but it's like a bunch of friends were looking for special valuable concepts in this movie, but they couldn't find it, and some of them got too immersed in a certain side.
I don't recommend it to those who don't like crime and action movies. The movie is full of action and bloodshed scenes, not too much, but I don't think it's tolerable for those who don't like it.
But those who like this genre will probably like it. I'm not saying the movie was great, but it will be acceptable and attractive to them.It also had a good ending.
I liked it and I don't regret seeing it

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Could've easily become Jeon Wick, but ultimately ended up being Just Weak

When a well-known, brutal, 100% target- rate female assassin does not eliminate her target due to personal circumstances, she becomes the target herself.

Kill Boksoon (길복순) is a movie that is very much the love child between the action, dark comedy, and a little bit of art-house genres of cinema. The opening confrontation was just pure art, as with the other action scenes. The cinematography was not just top-notch, but its spontaneity and fluid flow was really able to capture the essence of what the action scenes were all about. Added with spanish background music element, the production team was really able to infuse moments that I would never forget for the rest of my "watching movies as a hobby" time.

Furthermore, Jeon Do-yeon was, as expected, exquisite in her role as the titular Gil Bok-soon. The wordplay of her last name to be incorporated with the english word "kill" was very witty context-wise. Fresh from watching her play as a single mom on CCiR, and another in this movie, I am glad that she picked this project despite playing very similarly at her last role. For this movie, she was able to show another, yet secretive side of motherhood that will do anything for her child. But her also being secretive here resulted to another problem, a quite common one in the parent-child relationship dynamic - often miscommunication.

As mentioned earlier, this movie has some art house film elements. There were 2 specifically. One was underexplored (LGBT subplot), while one was unneccesary (incest subplot). The former might be understandable given the nature of youth and it is progressive actually in Korean standards, but the latter did not gave substance to the story. It was questionable at best, cringe at worst.

Outside the captivating action scenes and great cinematography, the movie was dull. It's quite interesting to see a fast-paced action scene, followed by a slow-paced dialogue that takes too much screentime. This movie's quality could've been improved had it focused more on the action rather than the "mind games".

Morality was also tackled here, albeit grey. The concept of an "agency" handling "shows" for these trained assassins was unique. But the case that was the catalyst for the main lead to rethink about her chosen profession was rather forgettable. It would've been more impactful for her had the case itself be closer to her child's situation, rather just because the target was just close to her daughter age-wise.

It is already expected that Korean movies also explore the human side of a story, or the point of view of a character/s. In this case, it is about Bok-soon's duality as an apathetic killer and an overempathetic mother. But I was just disappointed that it wasn't executed properly here. One might think that was subtle and had to be given a deeper meaning, but given this movie's long screentime, it just ended up as incoherent, if not messy.

The ending was quite sufficient, but it was lacking of a climax. How was I to know whether this part of the movie is to be its most exciting part, when there was little indication to it. And the littlest of clue was already predictable story-wise. Good thing, it was filled-up with nice action scenes. The action itself could've been more appreciated if there was better lighting. A shocking plot twist could've added more flavor in this story. There was an attempt though, and the answer to said twist was even vague.

Nevertheless, the trailer with that spontaneous and seemingly effortless (but actually was done with utmost effort, production-wise) action scene made me excited about this, but the outcome turned out to be the opposite. Still, there were some positive aspects that deserves to be praised.

It has the similarities as John Wick, and this movie could've easily become Jeon Wick, but ultimately ended up being Just Weak.

P.S. It still funny to think that the flashback and current Nam Haeng-seons were together in this movie. Their action scene was just art, and the camerawork there was chef's kiss.

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Good Enough

Korean Movie " Kill Bok Soon " is an action drama about an assassin who wants to protect her daughter.

The movie has nice premises, with the story taking some dark alleys when it came to Bo Soon's story and her whole personality. However, her dark, sinister world came at odds with her relationship with her daughter, which was, more or less, a normal mother-teenage-daughter relationship, with its ups and downs, frictions, rebellions, and secrets.

However, the overall result is just okay. The action scenes were nicely handled, the political drama was interesting but predictable more or less, and the pace was messy. The story in general was half baked.

The performances, at least, were all great, especially by the leading lady that nailed her fighting scenes.

So, overall, five out of ten.

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it's just okayy

It's a good movie, but it lacks some stuff.
First, it is unclear what kind of relationship boksoon and Min-hyuk have. We will never know who Jae-young’s father is. May be its Min-hyuk but at the end, sending that iPad isn't something a father does.

And boksoon sure loves her daughter, but when Jae-young reveal she is homosexual and tells her about issues, boksoon leaves her alone and doesn't pick up the phone at all. and before that, when boksoon went to kill that student Jae-young calls her saying she was sorry and her voice was shaking. If it were me, I would run to Jae-young thinking she was gonna do something like suicide assuming the issues she had been facing recently. and who wouldncall that much just to say her GF broke up with her. It just doesn't make sense. It's true she is facing some issues, but in my opinion, it doesn't make sense.

Despite flaws like this, and if you are looking for a good action movie the film is enjoyable to watch.

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