Someone once told me, the 2nd sentence to every story should be, “And then the murders began.” No matter what the first sentence is, you’re immediately hooked in. I’d like to add an addendum if “And then the murders began” gets vetoed. Put the word Kill and then a person’s name in the title, and you’ve already intrigued the audience. This is my long winded way of saying Kill Boksoon will hook you right away; all it has to do is stick the landing, which it does pretty well.
Gil Bok-soon (Jeon Do-yeon) is an “A” level assassin for a prestigious John Wick type South Korean assassins organization run by Cha Min-kyu (Sol Kyung-gu) and Cha Min-hee (Esom). Gil is also a single mother, raising closeted teenager Gil Jae-yeong (Kim Si-a), which she finds much more difficult than her day/night job. Like all great assassin movies, one particular hit doesn’t sit right with Gil, which draws the ire of the assassin’s organizations and financiers, but unlike all great assassin movies, at the same time, Gil Jae-yeong has a problem at school which threatens to get her daughter suspended. That’s a lot for one mommy assassin to deal with!
Mommy assassin was clearly Kill Boksoon’s pitch. Thankfully, mommy was cast well. Jeon Do-yeon has won many awards in South Korea for her work for over 2 decades. From the great opening sequence, it’s clear why she’s a star, completely sauntering her way through a job, on her terms, completely in control of the situation. She’s also very good in the scenes with Kim Si-a as her daughter, completely the opposite, struggling to stay afloat as someone she can’t control is beating her in the battle of wills like many teenagers do. And thirdly, Jeon is a pretty gifted physical performer, believably martial arting her way through the film’s big setpieces. Triple acting threats like that are rare (Charlize Theron? Michelle Yeoh? Maybe that’s it?), and Jeon Do-yeon proves why she was worthy of a bunch of people trying to kill her.
The domestic and work life stories is where Kill Boksoon threatens to come apart at the seems. The movie does a really great thing not putting the teenage daughter in any danger like a lazier film might have done, but that choice basically keeps Gil’s twin lives completely separated in every possible way. Domestic and work scenes each have different tones and stakes, which director Byun Sung-hyun really tries to balance as best he can. He smartly dials back and goes for mystery with a lot of the world building to keep the movie in Gil’s point of view, but that means less for the ancillary characters to play off of, resulting in subplots that don’t quite work as well as the movie wants them to. As a result, the audience will gravitate to either the domestic or work storyline, wishing one had more meat, and the other was excised completely.
In general, Kill Boksoon is still a great time. There’s enough stuff still there for Netflix to try to franchise and sequel this one. Who knows? Now that John Wick movies are featured on the streamer, maybe it’s time for mom and daughter to spend a night at the Continental? Or to ride the subway with the Bowery King?