The Old Woman with the Knife

Story: Hornclaw (Lee Hye-young) is a killer who enjoys legendary status in her profession. She is now quite old, but in the company she built, which is run by Ryoo (Kim Mu-yeol), she still gets the difficult jobs because she does her work extremely well and without ever making a mess. She is not interested in money, but sees herself as a pest exterminator. Her company therefore follows a certain code of conduct, only accepting jobs where the victims' absence makes the world a better place. However, Ryoo is increasingly taking control and repeatedly rejecting such jobs if they do not bring in enough money. He also wants to strengthen the team with the ruthless killer Bullfight (Kim Sung-cheol), who likes to torture his victims first. Hornclaw is against this, but when she has to kill a former colleague who messed up during a job, Bullfight shows up to support her. The aging assassin refuses help, completes her mission, but is seriously injured in the process. She barely makes it to a veterinary clinic, where veterinarian Kang (Yeon Woo-jin) patches her up. According to company rules, Kang must be killed as he is a witness, but Hornclaw makes an exception. The company is not happy about this and wants to send Bullfight to make Kang disappear. Apart from that, Bullfight seems to have a personal interest in seeing Hornclaw suffer, though...

Review: The premise of this assassin flick is likely to have piqued the interest of quite a few action lovers, because if Liam Neeson can fight his way through action movies at over 60 (thanks to an outstanding cuts-per-second ratio), why not Lee Hye-young (“The Anchor”) as well? An older lady as a professional killer also raises hopes that the film has something to offer on a dramatic level and has come up with some clever choreography to give Hornclaw a chance against her male and, above all, much younger opponents. Sadly, I can already spoil that “The Old Woman with the Knife”, based on a novel by Gu Byeong-mo, doesn't dare to be too innovative and prefers to tread familiar paths. At any given moment, you get the feeling that the story, and especially the drama, could go deeper, but then the director changes his mind and prefers to bring a “new” development to the screen to grab our attention. Unfortunately, this leaves you feeling rather cold emotionally.

The story starts off quite promisingly with a flashback showing us how Hornclaw became a cold-blooded contract killer. The man who took pity on her and took her in is a professional killer and ends up training her after she kills an American G.I. in self-defense when that man tries to rape her. Her mentor is the first person to show her that she is worth something, and naturally she develops romantic feelings for the married man. Now, one might expect this storyline to be revisited, revealing more about Hornclaw and her inner emotional world. However, the subsequent flashbacks are scattered throughout the film in a way that is sometimes difficult to follow and offer little added value. This is particularly annoying because Bullfight also has an unusual interest in Hornclaw, so one can imagine that there may be some event in the past that will be presented to us later at a dramatic climax. And that's how it turns out. Nevertheless, here too, it doesn't really move us.

Kim Sung-cheol ("Troll Factory") takes on the role of the villain, a man shown to be such an unpredictable sadist that we wonder why anyone would want to accept him into an association that tries to adhere to something like a code of honor. Hornclaw has handed over the administrative tasks to Ryoo, who is pursuing his own goals for a takeover, but she is still ultimately in charge. It all seems rather clumsy, especially since it takes a very long time for Hornclaw to decide to do something about Bullfight. First, he has to threaten the veterinarian who saved the killer's life. She should really get rid of the vet herself, but as is often the case in stories of this kind, our “heroine” develops a conscience, if there was ever any doubt about that she has one, after taking in a stray dog. There is simply too little that deviates from the norm and could arouse enthusiasm. Instead, one hopes that the chemistry between Hornclaw and Bullfight will carry us through to the end, where an action-packed finale is awaiting us.

Unfortunately, the relationship between the two killers reveals the film's greatest weakness, as this should have been its greatest strength. There are occasional hints that Bullfight could be a tragic character, and the finale follows this path, as is usual for a Korean production, but it only skims the surface and leaves us disappointed. This is one of those rare films that makes you wish for a remake that focuses more on this aspect of the story. It would also give the action scenes more significance. Hornclaw has no conscience until she does, Bullfight is a sadist with no good qualities, until you're supposed to feel sorry for him? It's all rather poorly executed, even though the idea itself had a lot of potential. Nor can it be said that the scenes between the two killers are particularly exciting. The element of subtle menace, of unpredictability, is missing — precisely the things that the director fundamentally wants to be at the center of his story.

Min Gyoo-dong (“In my End is my Beginning”) is by no means a novice in his field, as can be seen from the polished, sometimes atmospheric images. Thankfully, he doesn't overdo it with the cuts in the action scenes, but every now and then a stunt double can be made out. You have to make compromises somewhere, even if actress Lee is physically quite capable for her age. The showdown does indeed deliver some great action, especially the shootout. The finale will probably leave most viewers feeling conciliatory, but the film fails to achieve its actual goal, which is to use the action to pick up on and deepen the drama. “The Old Woman with the Knife” is a solid film, but only that. The drama deserved much more development to really draw us in, and the characters could have used more depth, as a few flashbacks towards the end are simply not enough. It's certainly not a waste of time, but sadly the director was unable to turn the promising premise into something extraordinary.

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