‘Kill Boksoon’: Berlin Review

Dir/scr: Byun Sung-hyun. South Korea. 2023. 137mins

For Boksoon (Jeon Do-yeon), the Seoul-based single mum of a sullen and secretive 15-year-old, hitting that sweet spot in the work-life balance is becoming increasingly challenging. Particularly as Boksoon finds it easier to talk to her impressive collection of houseplants than she does to her daughter, Jae-young (Kim Si-A). Then there’s the fact that Boksoon is one of South Korea’s most notorious hired killers: an average day at the office might involve dispatching a Samurai sword-wielding Japanese gangster. Or it might be the day that she doesn’t make it home at all. Aside from the mother-daughter relationship angle, this splashy, showy assassin picture doesn’t really cover any new ground. But the lack of imagination elsewhere is offset by some impressively slick tailoring – Boksoon really does dress to kill – and extravagantly athletic fight sequences.

Knows how to land a punch

This Netflix picture comes with a solid pedigree: Jeon is a Cannes Best Actress-winner, for Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine in 2007. More recently, she delivered an eye-catching performance in Kim Yong-hoon’s Beasts Clawing At Straws. Writer-director Byun’s previous projects include the 2022 period political drama Kingmaker and the 2017 crime movie The Merciless, both of which enjoyed healthy festival interest. Kill Boksoon will launch on Netflix at the end of March, where it should connect with the Squid Game end of the audience spectrum for Korean content rather than the more arthouse-aligned Parasite fans. 

We are introduced to Boksoon as she prepares to do battle against her latest target, a Yakuza who is naked apart from his tattoos, his underpants and his sword. Boksoon is equipped with a 30,000-won axe she bought in Walmart and an impractically skimpy hotel maid’s uniform. It’s a weirdly tacky and out-of-character costume choice for a woman who spends the rest of the film either trying to blend in with the monied parents of her daughter’s classmates or in chic plum velvet trouser suits which are destined to be drenched in blood. One can only imagine her monthly dry-cleaning bill.

Boksoon’s skill as a killer has bought her a certain standard of living: she drives a Mercedes SUV, she lives in a marble-lined apartment in a gated community, and her daughter attends an elite and expensive school. But Boksoon’s social life, such that it is, revolves around a dive bar frequented by other killers, her kid has been suspended from school and Boksoon is thinking about retiring from her lucrative career. Then she takes what should be a routine assignment. And something about the job finally crosses a line. For the first time in her life, Boksoon fails. Her manager at the assassin agency, Min-hee (a smirking, scene-stealing turn from Esom), spots an opportunity to oust her from the payroll. Soon Boksoon finds herself targeted by the ruthless killers she had formerly counted as colleagues and friends.

The hunter-turned-hunted narrative is familiar stuff – there is notable overlap with the John Wick series, among many others. And while the picture is handsomely and inventively shot (action is shown through reflections in puddles, glasses and blood), the sound and score are rather less sophisticated. The ironic use of Herb Alpert’s smoochy brass ballad ’This Guy’s In Love With You’ gets a laugh, but the overuse of knife-slash and body-blow sound effects to punctuate key edits does grow a little wearing. Overall, it’s serviceable stuff that, like Boksoon herself, struggles with the emotional connections in life, but sure knows how to land a punch.