The Villainess

It shows that this film was written and directed by novice Byung-gil Jung, and although most of the directing was decent (some was bad), he really failed in the writing department. There were too many convoluted flashbacks that were mainly out of place. The editing was also terrible, as this film needed to be mended much better. The fight scenes where choreographed really well, and the acting was on point, especially from the lead Ok-bin Kim. Had this film been screen-written properly and most of the flashbacks organized and edited correctly, and the 129 min length trimmed down to about 90 or 100 mins, this film would have been great. Still, an impressive production that deserves my 7/10

There's a lot of similarities that can be drawn with this movie and others. There is "Hardcore Henry" which was an experimental 1st Person action movie, and definitely "Le Femme Nikita". The version I saw had terrible amateur subtitles and seemed to run 5 min short of the official release running time. Still, the movie kept my attention through out, which is more than I can say for a lot of the movies I have seen lately. There is some excellent cinematography in regards to the action sequences and they come across fluid and realistic. There is a lot of fairly graphic violence to go along with it, which I kind of liked as anything with a budget from the USA these days seems to be tame on the gore front. Its a shame it seems to be getting such a limited release given the just over 500 + ratings its had on IMDb 3 full months on from its release. Hopefully this movie will find its audience in the future.

"The Villainess" is a movie with a bravura opening and ending sequence, and a middle which reveals its filmmaker has no idea how to do anything other than bravura sequences. The whole movie couldn't have been like that, apparently - especially not at the idiotic two-hour plus length that it goes on for.

The movie has flashbacks that really add nothing, plastic surgery makeovers that also add nothing except confusion, and a bad guy who changes for no reason I could discern.

It also doesn't evince any sympathy for its protagonist. You want to see her kick butt, sure - but she only does that at the beginning and end of the movie, really. Other than that, you don't care, and I was never really sure who the main bad guy was.

This is a movie that was basically made to be cut up into clips and watched on Youtube, saving everyone's time. Don't bother trying to sit through the whole thing.

'The Villainess (2017)' contains some of the craziest action-sequences in recent cinema, primarily because of the frenzied and ferocious nature of the camera itself. It is used as a tool to put you right in the centre of the violence, often literally putting you in the P.O.V. of our protagonist, and never strays further than a few feet away from any of the killing. As such, there is a claustrophobic and relentless feel to each and every such scene, which don't cut away until away until our lead has finished her dirty-work. Because of this, we don't get to rest until our hero does, instead being breathlessly whisked along from brutal but balletic beat to beat. All of the neck-slicing, blood-spilling, body-piling action feels guttural, given a visceral and grimy sense that only one person can survive. This runs counter to most high-concept pictures of the kind, where glossy, clean framing and shiny, pain-free choreography paint a picture of violence that doesn't really hurt and death that doesn't really matter. While death is depicted as similarly cold and callous here, each life that is taken feels painful and we're always on edge for the few people we care about. It's in both the tight and precise but scrappy and explicit fight-choreography, and subsequent blood-letting, and the down-and-dirty camera-work that the picture finds its footing as an 'in-the-trenches' and 'honest' depiction of despicable work, revenge in high-numbers shown from right up-close and watched with gritted teeth. The strongest of sequences are the opening first-person fight and a phenomenal sword-crossing motorbike chase. Both of these use impressive long-takes and hidden camera-cuts to appear as fluid as possible, with the former being an apparent 'one-shot' until its final moments. The use of small digital cameras allows the frame to go places it wouldn't normally be able, with the audience being transported into a one-on-god-knows-how-many battle or even through the wheels of a moving bike seamlessly, and it allows for a very intimate relationship with the lead and her struggle to survive. The only time a combat scene falls slightly short is in the feature's final movement, with some ever-so-slightly dodgy green-screen sky-replacement honestly looking pretty hokey and reducing the effect of the entire segment. Still, what was achieved on its relatively low budget is undeniably impressive and equally exciting. What isn't as exciting are its slower segments and convoluted, though completely understandable, plot. The contrast of its balls-to-the-wall action with its rather domestic, though still out-there and thematically appropriate, story is quite heavy and isn't always balanced too well. There are times where it feels as though the piece has switched gears entirely, with its initial intentions then coming crashing back down onto its new pace just as you're settling into it. This is conceptually appropriate but it does take you out of the film. As does the contrived plot-device used to inject tension and a proper antagonist in the latter half of the second act. This 'twist' feels as though it comes from nowhere, without the explanation afforded to other sequences of less importance, and is handled with confusion even within the narrative. Still, it doesn't ruin the plot and begins to inject some decent pacing back into the piece. It just feels like most of the picture is, or was trying to be, set-up for this moment but it happens too late for that to be the case, or for it to work successfully. On the whole, there isn't anything that isn't enjoyable about the picture. The eclectic, energetic and exciting action-sequences are a sight to behold and the flick plays with some intriguing themes, as well as having an appropriately 'strange', if slightly generic, story. It is always entertaining, even if it loses its drive and isn't quite as pacy as you'd expect. 6/10

There's no denying The Villainess has some amazingly inventive and filmed action scenes liberally sprinkling its lengthy running time. Whether they are enough to justify the film's reputed 4 minute standing ovation when presented at the Cannes Film Festival, I'm not sure. The Point Break remake had some exciting action scenes and stunts too and yet they're aren't too many disputing the contention, that it was very much a dud of a film.

Speaking of remakes I'm kind of amazed there doesn't seem to be any formal acknowledgement or credit that The Villainess, like John Badham's 1993 The Assassin (also known as Point of No Return), is a remake of Luc Besson's 1990 film La Femme Nikita. There's simply no repudiating it. Badham's movie gave credit to Besson's and said it was a remake. But strangely writer/director of The Villainess, Jung Byung-gil said he was inspired by La Femme Nikita, whilst giving no onscreen credit (that I could see). In my little corner of the world that's what we generally call "ripping people off".

Any way if you know the plots to the previous films, you'll know the basic storyline of The Villainess. Namely, that a young woman is taken and trained by a shadowy facility associated with South Korea's intelligence agency, into being a sanctioned assassin. The differentiating feature with The Villainess, is the almost infuriatingly complicated back story we are given about Sook-hee, the woman concerned. It is made unnecessarily complex in the long first act, by excessive flash-backing, where we are even given flashbacks, within flashbacks. At times things become nearly incoherent. I actually breathed a sigh of relief during the second act, when Sook-hee goes outside the training school on her first mission and the narrative becomes for a time, more traditionally linear in style, with far less flash backs. Complicating matters further is that the 20 year old Sook-hee we see onscreen almost appears more dangerous than the older trained up Sook-hee we see later. In the somewhat absurd, but dazzlingly choreographed opening , she eliminates a whole rival gang on different storeys of a building, a la The Raid. Yet later, both her and an associate female assassin have trouble with a couple of dudes they're supposed to terminate. There are head-scratching inconsistencies like this right through The Villainess.

Kim Ok-vin in the lead role as Sook-hee is very good, as is her onscreen daughter, Eun-hye, played by Kim Yeon-woo, who is very appealing, as a cute 3-year old. Kim Seo-hyung as Kwon-sook, the head of the training school, also succeeds in a finely tuned ambiguous role, whereby we are never sure of where her loyalties ultimately lie.

The conclusion which follows another hideously kinetic, wholesale gang slaughter and freeway bike and bus chase, very reminiscent of that seen in The Matrix Reloaded, is both thrilling, yet still somewhat confusing, whilst leaving the door ajar for a possible sequel no doubt. To be honest I don't think I'd be interested in it, unless I could be guaranteed that Jung Byung-gil had improved upon his story-telling abilities.