The Assassin

No pun intended - depending on where you are, you may get a title for this reading "Night of the Assassin". It makes sense that an Assassin is going on about his business at night. Still that does not mean, we only get to see him then. Or for "one night only" - there are more than one night(s) here. Just saying and clarifying for those interested.

Also for those interested, the movie from South Korea ... while I may be leniant at times, I sometimes do compare movies to other stuff and have to say that this is at the same level I am used to. That said, it does not mean that this is a bad movie. Far from it - I am just used to a different quality when it comes to movies from South Korea.

Video quality is one of those things that immediately catches your eye! Same applies here - it is not bad, but you feel that it is not .... well perfect! Again I may be nitpicking, but if I didn't explain, I reckon you may feel "cheated". The story is quite simple or easy to follow - and that I don't mean as a negative. Action is more than decent too - so if that is the main focus you have ... have at it as they say!

Night of the Assassin is a lot deeper than surface-level action or a story of vengeance.

This movie is really about being stuck in a mindset or lifestyle, having something life-threatening happening that forces you to change. Gaining new perspectives and reasons to live and how that can change your trajectory and how going through that journey can benefit you.

The Assassin is forced to change his lifestyle, slowdown and gets a taste of the simple life. He even kind of gets family life. He takes on the role of 'uncle' for the young man in the movie and grows to genuinely care for him and want the best for him. He has a simple but honest job and is well-liked in his new community.

The tomfoolery and then tragedy ensues and it is taken away.

It's not simple violence or a typical revenge film. I really liked that part.

It also shows that sometimes in life, things that you do not believe are inter-related, actually are. The good deeds that you do--big or small, may come back and benefit you, when you had no idea that it could. The twist at the end really made me happy and contemplate how these things happen in life.

If you like action, you will get that in this film, if you like good story-telling, you will get that in this film. If you like the bad guys getting their comeuppance, you'll get this as well.

Will we ever know who is after the Assassin? We need a part 2. I'd watch it, easily and readily. 10/10 for me!!!

I watched this on Youtube and IMO thought it was well done with brief moments of funny (Moldy Peas) but an easy plot to digest, sort of like an American Western.. Good acting and story I liked it and so did my wife.. Good guy vs corrupt government,sound familiar? Thank goodness we weren't bombarded with Weightless nonsense Theatrical Wushu, that has been much overused in modern marshal arts films since Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon!! As far as the soundtrack, It's not like they played Boots Randolph "Yakety Sax" through the whole movie get over it.🤣 Hoping for a sequel soon..I watched this on Youtube and IMO thought it was well done with brief moments of funny (Moldy Peas) but an easy plot to digest, sort of like an American Western.. Good acting and story I liked it and so did my wife.. Good guy vs corrupt government,sound familiar? Thank goodness we weren't bombarded with Weightless nonsense Theatrical Wushu, that has been much overused in modern marshal arts films since Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon!! As far as the soundtrack, It's not like they played Boots Randolph "Yakety Sax" through the whole movie get over it.🤣 Hoping for a sequel soon.

This movie is maybe one of the best samples to be singled out for the movie viewers how a movie was completely ruined by the choice of soundtrack. I really don't know if hiring a guy to do the supporting sound effects music is the job of the producers or the director. But the music that syncs with every scene with such ridiculous cartoon-like comic music in this movie is such unbearable torture, making the movie very difficult to take seriously and pulling me into it. There are so many times when the leading actor deals with some situations that he encounters, the tip-toes-like annoying childish soundtrack would goof up; the situations may be intense and suspenseful, but the music simply turns them into a comic-like crap.

In order to show that the leading role has a terminal disease, the actor also tries to act like a sick man, but his acting is simply overdone with deadbeat facial expressions all the time, making his face so unbearably ugly to watch.

The third problem of this movie is the dialogue. It often comes out like the characters are making jokes, even those scenes are supposedly deadly. This is a very inferior screenplay, written by a halfwit.

The director is also not a good and appropriate choice for this movie. How a serious "Assassin" movie to be directed by this moronic non-talent guy is too, a rare case in nowadays Korean movie industries.

This movie also reminded me of those childish Kun-Fu martial arts movies churned out one after another in the 70s' by the Hong Kong SHAW Brothers. But even by comparison, this Korean movie is much much worse. Bad acting, bad actors, bad screenplay, bad directing, worst soundtrack...it's just so bad, I can't believe that a Korean movie could be so bad.