A violent action, snappy and trashy fun with the lovely Kim Ok-bin as
a Korean Nikita, a brain-washed assassin for the South Korean
government. With lots of CGI bloodletting and nowadays traditional many-a-fast-cuts-action
scenes , and supposedly this film received
a standing ovation when shown in Cannes in 2017 !?
OK, i don't get the hype. It's a trashy re-make of Nikita
(or the more obscure Black Cat with Jade Leung) with lots of fun action
but really
BAD looking blood CGI, awful, but i guess the more youthful target audiences
(than I) this film is aimed at lap it up used to computer
gaming shootouts. Squibs, ever heard about it? No, much too pricey and
hard to film today i'm sure, ever heard about Sam Peckinpah ?
OK, Kim Ok-bin is a favourite of mine as i fell in love with her in
2006 after watching the bizarre Dasepo Naughty Girls, where she played
Poor Girl, she was just ... exquisite, but probably she's most famous
for her role in Park Chan-wook's Thirst. (Kim Ok-bin or Kim Ok-vin)
Booklet with the blu-ray of Villainess - and at
right, Kim Ok-bin (at right) in the amazing 2006 Dasepo Naughty Girls
The film starts with a bang, the much talked about corridor
scene shot with a subjective POV camera, where an unknown, for the viewing
audience and also probably for the gangsters in the film, assailant,
slaughter them metodically á la the Oldboy mixed with computer
game
Doom way. For some reason the gangster underlings just can't hit her
with a bullet, hmmm, some target practise with their guns would be
advisable before enlisting in the dangerous job as an underling.
The same question as always with a gangster movie arises, "OK!
i've just seen 57 of my underling colleagues being killed by some ferocious
demon killer, should i take my chances too ... or run, looking for some
escape door ? Yeah, yeah, don't yell at me Mr. Director, i know i'm
supposed to be just another underling cannon fodder, so i will go for
option number one, surely i will do better than my many dead friends.
The Story .... hmm, well ...
Sook-hee (Ok-bin) has been raised and trained (and seduced)
by a hitman killer (Shin Ha-kyun) who's working for some organization,
and
then she's picked out for secret agent training. Obviously the South
Korean government has a secret training facility where they train an
All-Female Murder Machine Hit Squad, sounds like serious stuff doesn't
it?
OK, it's B-movie nonsense, for some reason taken seriously by western
geeks, but it's trashy fast-paced fun though. Stupid but enjoyable.
Presented in a widescreen 2.35:1 ratio with an korean
5.1 DTS-HD audio and with english subs. Extras - a trailer, a booklet
and an audio
commentary with some Arrow Video guys
