In what must be a micro evolution for female action heroes, Kim Ok-bin’s deadly assassin in The Villainess hacks her way through South Korea’s criminal underworld while remaining fully-clothed and wearing a low heel appropriate for bringing down a wardrobe-sized goon.
Like the protagonist of Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita, Sook-hee (Ok-bin) is a street-tough young killer recruited by a government agency with an offer she can’t refuse: death or gainful employment as an assassin. After a spell at a finishing school for contract killers, she’s issued with a false identity and released as a sleeper cell.
With a body count in triple digits before the opening credits finish, the bloodily inventive fight sequences work better than the emotional scenes here – and sensible shoes aside, director Jung Byung-gil doesn’t bring much new to the genre.
