Korean filmmaker Jung Byunggil doesn’t waste time. In the first few minutes of The Villainess, his protagonist, Sookhee, does away with dozens of heavies in a kamikaze-like frenzy. It looks like a video game: we see the action through her eyes, see her hands pick up one weapon after another to carry out the bloodbath.
Sookhee is forced to join a secret team of hired killers in spite of just having given birth. In flashbacks, we see how she witnessed her father being murdered; since then, she has been out for revenge. It is the action scenes that particularly stand out in this story, thanks to dizzying camerawork and very clever editing. Fights and chase sequences never seem to be interrupted. Shots zoom through open windows, make deep plunging dives and pass beneath moving motorcycles. Marvelously intense.
Film details
- Country of production
- South Korea
- Year
- 2017
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2018
- Length
- 129"
- Medium/Format
- DCP
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