"The Villainess"

Foreign films have a unique fascination to them. They're different in styles in the way of storytelling, camera angles and views even with lighting and sound at times. Yet its a way to dive into a culture you're not too familiar with without having to spend hours researching it and you get a sense of their beliefs, culture and society even if the story is a work of fiction.

Sook-hee (Ok-bin Kim) has spent her life surrounded by violence and death. Trained at a young age to kill, when she finally finds some escape from that world and a chance at happiness, she's quickly pulled back in when she takes out an entire building of drug lords and their men single-handed. Seeing this skill, she's taken in by a South Korean government agency where she learns she is pregnant. Offered the chance to serve for ten years and gain a life of freedom, she begins her new training to be a government assassin.
With her first mission complete, she is able to take on a new life with her daughter under a new name as a theater actress. It isn't long though when she develops a relationship with her male neighbor Joong-sang (Ha-kyun Shin). Just as it all seems as though Sook-hee will finally have some happiness, a botched assassination attempt brings a part of her past back to haunt her that will have catastrophic consequences for her and those closest to her.

Intense. This film makes "Kill Bill" look like a marital spat. In a culture where women are often seen as weak or just overlooked, this was a standout film showing that a woman's wrath is nothing to trifle with and dangerous to be in the path of. The action scenes shot at close range with well choreographed fight scenes both in hand to hand and with blades looked to be straight out of Hollywood that it was easy to forget this wasn't an American film. A five G.M.Star masterpiece that any martial arts or fan of films from the Far East will love.

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"The Villainess" is available at Redbox and available on DVD.