The title says it all doesn’t it? While some old people choose to live out their lives in peace, Lee Hye-young is shanking people on the street, the ageless wonder. The Old Woman with the Knife gets by on its premise and a couple solid performances, giving us the visceral hand to hand Raid experience…with a 63 year old grandma.
After a mini prologue, we see why Hornclaw (Lee Hye-young) is hesitant to give up her life. This “pest control” organization, previously helmed by Ryu (Kim Mu-yeol) has given her purpose, and she’s excellent at it. However, old age is starting to catch up to her: she fights repeatedly with new org leader Pagwa (Kim Kang-woo), who wants to modernize the company, and bring in fresh talent, like the enigmatic, cruel assassin Bullfight (Kim Sung-cheol). And, after she’s “cleaned up loose ends” veterinarian Dr. Kang (Yeon Woo-jin) fixes her up no questions asked. Bullfight spots the “error,” in hopes to get closer to this legend famous for keeping everyone at arms length.
For a movie about impersonal nonemotional people, The Old Woman with the Knife sure makes you feel a lot. Being a South Korean action film, I expected dazzling martial arts fight sequences from an aging ballerina like killer. That’s not the case here: this is a ground level, dirty, visceral world (with one exception), where even legends like Hornclaw get punched, gashed, bludgeoned, in the most violent looking ways possible. Underneath all that physical pain though is a movie’s worth of emotional weight, as our leading madame sees the end is near, and she might have to start preparing to give up her life’s work. In this murky state she opens her heart just a smidgeon, allowing Dr. Kang in, as well as her taking jobs that might be too personal for her to execute properly. It’s in this state Bullfight enters the picture: the uncaring unhinged male mirror of Hornclaw when she was younger. Hornclaw and Bullfight keep winding up in each other’s waters, further complicating Hornclaw’s headspace as she tries to figure out the right path forward for herself. The plot gets too convoluted with side characters that don’t work and twists anyone paying attention can figure out. But when the story is focused on Bullfight/Hornclaw trying to figure each other out, The Old Lady with the Knife is exciting and propulsive.
The movie works because of those two main performances. Lee Hye-young has been acting since the 80s, steadily herself becoming a legend, winning a bunch of awards in 2022 for In Front of Your Face. She carries much of this film silently on her shoulders. She’s got the perfect face for Hornclaw: worn and aged by life experience, but hiding an inner determination that makes her the still daunting adversary today. She’s also excellent selling the action she has to do, taking punches and knives like a champ while also delivering more acrobatic work, especially for age 63. Kim Sung-cheol is a nicely matched adversary for her. There’s an enigmatic deadness he carries for a long time, making him really hard to read, necessary for The Old Woman with the Knife’s mystery and thrills. But when he has to, emotionally, he summons enough there to make the third act deliver, especially the big final battle you know is coming. Those fight sequences are fun, but the non-fighting is the movie’s magic sauce, as the two of them try to figure out what type of puzzle the assassin standing across from them is without getting themselves in mortal danger.
This isn’t Parasite or Burning level Korean filmmaking. But The Old Woman with the Knife is with Kill Boksoon right on that tier below: their version of the Liam Neeson action movie. I could watch more than a few of these a year. Let’s go older! Did you like Youn Yuh-jung in Minari? Well, you’ll like her more when she’s ripping out throats and hearts in Grandma’s Pain, out in theaters in 2026! Tell me you aren’t gonna pay some won to see that?