Min Kyu-dong’s latest, The Old Woman With The Knife, caught wind of the festival crowds from the top of the year, and I’d been eager to see it ever since. It especially makes me glad to know that the stewards at Well Go USA were able to nab this one for its pending release.
I’m especially fond of the story as it’s precisely the kind that would – and ultimately, should – exist, in the age of aging action adventure protagonists with studios itching to milk the most out of quinqua, sexa, and septuagenarian talents in the last fifteen years. To this, actress Lee Hye-young couldn’t have come at a better time for the kind of demanding role she plays, based Min’s script adapted from Ku Myung-bo’s 2018 novel, “Pagwa”.
The term itself, meaning “breakthrough” lends itself to the film’s deeper, symbolic meaning as explored in Min’s film as it follows the epic tale of Hornclaw, a woman whose decades-long and legendary rise in the ranks of a clandestine assassin firm charged with its own brand of “pest control” brings her face-to-face with an aspect of her past she never saw coming. That brings us to the blistering introduction to actor Kim Sung-cheol in the role of Bullfight, a young, sprightly and unhinged killer with aspirations of his own after being approached by its leadership.
I can’t speak to the film’s canonical adherence to the book, but I can talk up the film’s merits. Min’s focus on Hornclaw’s life is a compelling watch that takes us from her younger years of torment and through her time as a professional killer up to this point. Her measure of patience is ever thinning by this juncture due to her own killing instincts, and we get to see how this plays out when she befriends Dr. Kang (Yeon Woo-jin), a veterinarian who ends up treating an injured puppy she brings to him after finding it in her neighborhood.
Hornclaw’s sudden friendship with the doctor and his daughter becomes a catalystic for Bullfight and his incorrigible need to hold Hornclaw to the same standards and rules set within the organization. As the story progresses, it takes a while before Hornclaw truly learns of Bullfight’s intentions, putting the future of the organization at risk and setting up a series of explosive and bloody showdowns that leave in the air whether or not Hornclaw’s latest assignment will be her last.
The Old Woman With The Knife is keen to flashback to multiple moments of Hornclaw’s life with actress Lee’s younger portrayal of the character played by Shin Si-a, who broke out in 2022 for the lead role in Park Hoon-jung’s fantastic The Witch: Part 2 – The Other One. Shin shares the screen in these key sequences with actor Kim Moo-yul of The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil and The Roundup: Punishment fame, here in the role of the burgeoning assassin’s mentor after a fateful night in which she’s forced to fight for her life. That particular scene almost feels like it delivers something to Kim’s character that it might not have intended, which sort of speaks to the brilliance of Min’s overall treatment.
Essentially, the broader spectrum of The Old Woman With The Knife includes an additional look into the sublime connection between Hornclaw and Bullfight, paving the way for a deeper culmination of our lead protagonist as she battles to save her own humanity, even at what feels like the tail end of her violent life at times. That violence comes handy as well in Min’s movie with action sequences that speak rightly to the fandom, and actress Lee doing the most of what she can and delivering exponentially in accordance with what the team can safely and creatively deliver between the leads and doubles.
The same goes for the rest of the cast, especially Shin in only her second screen role since Park’s The Witch sequel. Ask anyone what the future of female-front action looks like in Korean film production and I’m almost certain it looks like Shin. For that matter, and more, you can definitely add Lee to the list, further complimenting Min in his latest directorial effort and bringing something to the table that can measure up to the works of other directors dabbling in the genre today.
