‘The Killers’: Fantasia Review

Dirs. Kim Jong-kwan, Roh Deaok, Chang Hang-jun, Lee Myung-Se. South Korea. 2024. 119mins

Ernest Hemingway’s much-reprinted 1927 short story ‘The Killers’ begins with a pair of hitmen walking into a restaurant to kill an ex-boxer who is expected to arrive shortly. It’s a scenario that a quartet of South Korean directors seek to put individual stamps on in this patchy crime anthology. Of these filmmakers, the name that will stand out to long-time admirers of South Korean cinema is the veteran of the bunch, Lee Myung-Se, who has never quite recaptured the sheer brio of his trailblazing police procedural Nowhere to Hide (1999). If the others lack any similar credits, they nonetheless go for broke in a bid to revitalise the noir trope of murderers for hire.

This pulp concoction largely trades Hemingway’s trademark spareness for heightened stylistics

The Killers receives its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival, following its debut at New York Asian Film Festival, and its multi-director format should prompt post-screening debate about whose entry is the best. Further exposure may, however, be limited to genre-oriented events. Although upfront about its literary inspiration, this pulp concoction largely trades Hemingway’s trademark spareness for heightened stylistics, excessive bloodletting and wanton genre-splicing which make it yet another addition to the over-flowing pile of post-Tarantino crime pictures. This means that The Killers may struggle to hit the mark as a streaming title, regardless of its sharp presentation.

It starts in grisly fashion with Kim Jong-kwan’s ’Metamorphosis’, wherein a man with a knife in his back wakes up in a bar to be served increasingly strange cocktails by a seductive bartender. As her true motives are revealed, Kim launches into a visceral clash between underworld and supernatural forces.Next up is Roh Deok’s sardonic ‘Contractors’ which focuses on three small-time criminals tasked with murdering a morally reprehensible music professor. 

The milieu then goes back to the 1970s in Chang Hang-jun’s ’Everyone is Waiting for the Man’, with President Park Chung Hee in office and curfews in effect. It revolves around a usually quiet bar where the owner finds herself in the midst of a dangerous sting operation. Lee wraps things up with ‘Silent Cinema’, which is set in a retro-dystopian cityscape. Two hitmen enter a diner to take out a target who eats at the establishment at the same time every day, only for the eccentric staff to cause complications.

The Killers is a snazzily packaged anthology which plays like a self-reflexive South Korean take on pulp magazines. There are eye-catching variations in mise-en-scène, an ensemble cast who slip into their roles with ease and allusions to Edward Hopper’s iconic painting Nighthawks that ties everything together as a recurring motif. Unfortunately, the shared template means that a sense of repetition soon sets in despite the stories being perfectly distinctive in aesthetic terms. Aside from ‘Contractors’, each occurs in a contained space which enables the directors to balance tension and degrees of dark humour until graphic violence erupts. 

It arguably peaks with Chang’s appreciably slow burn third vignette, which not only boasts atmospheric period recreation but is the only one that leans into the ruthlessly pared down nature of the source material – albeit with some smutty gags thrown in. Chang confidently fuses the chamber piece dynamics of The Hateful Eight (2015) with the spaghetti western sensibility of Johnnie To circa Exiled (2006), while eliciting a terrifically assured performance from Oh Yeon-a as a bar owner who is more than capable of handling disruptive customers.

The others are less satisfying. ‘Metamorphosis’ has an off-kilter after hours vibe which is enhanced by some choice banter before Kim lets rip with the gore effects – although the gradual descent into horror territory won’t surprise anyone who has seen Vamp (1986) or From Dusk till Dawn (1996). Still, it’s a more entertaining mash-up than ‘Silent Cinema’ which sees Lee blending the cartoonish monochrome of Sin City (2005) with flights of fancy reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Jeunet at his most indulgent. It’s by far the most experimental entry, but Lee’s penchant for freeze frames and slow motion makes it less of a story than a painfully extended slapstick set piece.

The odd one out is ‘Contractors’, which is based on a real-life 2019 case. Roh takes satirical shots at the precarious nature of outsourcing in an amusing establishing sequence that illustrates the hit being contracted and subcontracted to the point that three criminals take it on for pocket change and key details get fudged as the job is passed down. A scruffy palette removes the depiction of violence from the realms of pastiche, yet conversational emphasis on the contradictory life goals of these hired goons (they want to become a police officer, a nun and an actor respectively) creates an uncomfortable deadpan disconnect.

Anthology features are usually conceived as showcases for directors, but The Killers also further demonstrate the talents of actress Shim Eun-kyung, who is best known for Miss Granny (2014) and The Journalist (2019). Playing markedly different roles in three of the stories (and glimpsed in a photograph in ’Everyone is Waiting for the Man’), the versatile Shim inhabits each of her characters (calculating bartender, distressed victim, kooky waitress) with a precision that her directors don’t always match.