During the original J-horror boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, South Korea had its own spurt of ghostly genre fare at the time with the “Whispering Corridors” films leading the charge. When the first film arrived in 1998, it was concurrent with the Japanese wave being produced at the time and carried along nicely as a fine counterbalance as it eventually ended up spawning several non-related follow-ups that centered around ghostly happenings at an all-girls school. After a few years of inactivity, now first-time director Lee Mi-young resurrects the franchise with enjoyable results in this latest entry.
Arriving at Gwangju High School for girls, students Ha-yeon (Kim Hyun-soo), Ye-ji (Lee Ji-won), So-yeon (Choi Ri), Mi-seok (Seo Hye-won), and Jae-yun (Park Se-hyun) meet up with Noh Eun-hee (Kim Seo-hyeong) the new vice principal to the school. It doesn’t take long for the girls to discover that she has connections...
Arriving at Gwangju High School for girls, students Ha-yeon (Kim Hyun-soo), Ye-ji (Lee Ji-won), So-yeon (Choi Ri), Mi-seok (Seo Hye-won), and Jae-yun (Park Se-hyun) meet up with Noh Eun-hee (Kim Seo-hyeong) the new vice principal to the school. It doesn’t take long for the girls to discover that she has connections...
- 10/31/2021
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
Stars: Ok-bin Kim, Seo-hyung Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, Jun Sung Bang | Written and Directed by Byung-gil Jung
It’s been a while since a foreign language movie came out that truly blew me away, probably The Raid being the last one and we all know how much I gush over that movie. The Villainess brings us all the things I loved about The Raid and some intricate clever plot points that echo Infernal Affairs sprinkled with some Nikita… Add all this together and you get a damn good movie, that is in serious danger of being in my Top 5 movies of 2017!
The awesome folks at Arrow Video have brought us a shiny awesome Blu Ray and DVD release of this instant classic and its out today. Spoilers (I normally save this bit till the end): I absolutely recommend this movie to any fan of Korean Cinema, action fight sequences, stunning choreography,...
It’s been a while since a foreign language movie came out that truly blew me away, probably The Raid being the last one and we all know how much I gush over that movie. The Villainess brings us all the things I loved about The Raid and some intricate clever plot points that echo Infernal Affairs sprinkled with some Nikita… Add all this together and you get a damn good movie, that is in serious danger of being in my Top 5 movies of 2017!
The awesome folks at Arrow Video have brought us a shiny awesome Blu Ray and DVD release of this instant classic and its out today. Spoilers (I normally save this bit till the end): I absolutely recommend this movie to any fan of Korean Cinema, action fight sequences, stunning choreography,...
- 11/2/2017
- by Kevin Haldon
- Nerdly
The Villainess Review The Villainess (2017) Film Review from the 16th Annual New York Asian Film Festival, a movie directed by Byung-gil Jung, and starring Ok-bin Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, Seo-hyeong Kim, Jun Sung, and Eun-ji jo. The Villainess was, at its face, a tribute to Luc Besson‘s Le Femme Nikita, and the latest [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: The Villainess: You’ll Root for the Bad Girl & Like It [Nyaff 2017]...
Continue reading: Film Review: The Villainess: You’ll Root for the Bad Girl & Like It [Nyaff 2017]...
- 10/30/2017
- by Sam Joseph
- Film-Book
Stars: Ok-bin Kim, Seo-hyung Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, Jun Sung Bang | Written and Directed by Byung-gil Jung
Sook-Hee is a trained assassin who was born to kill. She was just a little girl when the training started in China. And after the death of her mentor, when the chance of starting a new life was given to her, she came to South Korea as a government agent. The National Intelligence Service promised her freedom after ten years of active assignments. So begins her new double life as a theatre actress-come-hit-woman until the dark secrets from her past start to reappear. Then she gets a new mission and it changes everything.
There’s been a lot of hype for The Villainess, ever since it first screened at Cannes; and as an action-movie fan and genre fan I was all ready to buy into that hype. But I should have known better! To...
Sook-Hee is a trained assassin who was born to kill. She was just a little girl when the training started in China. And after the death of her mentor, when the chance of starting a new life was given to her, she came to South Korea as a government agent. The National Intelligence Service promised her freedom after ten years of active assignments. So begins her new double life as a theatre actress-come-hit-woman until the dark secrets from her past start to reappear. Then she gets a new mission and it changes everything.
There’s been a lot of hype for The Villainess, ever since it first screened at Cannes; and as an action-movie fan and genre fan I was all ready to buy into that hype. But I should have known better! To...
- 8/27/2017
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
"When I receive orders, I assign them. And you kill." Well Go USA has unveiled another official trailer for the badass Korean action film The Villainess, which opens in select theaters (NY & La) this weekend. So if you think this looks good, you can see it now! We've written about this film before and featured a trailer a few months ago. Ok-bin Kim stars as Sook-hee, a trained assassin who tries to become a stage actress after giving 10 years of service as an assassin. But her dark past comes creeping back and she must take things into her own hands to finish her work and be free once and for all. The full cast includes Eun-ji Jo, Seo-hyung Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, and Jun Sung. This trailer is packed full of intense action and quotes from critics, and will leave you more than excited to see this. I'm looking forward to catching it sometime soon.
- 8/25/2017
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Warning: You are not prepared for what this movie delivers. I watched The Villainess about a week after I saw Atomic Blonde — which was also part of Fantasia 2017 — and the two have a lot of similarities. On the surface level alone, they’re both about awesome, extremely dangerous women who are working for a shadowy organization, and both movies contain lengthy, seemingly one-take action sequences which are the highlight of the film. In fact, The Villainess has three of those action sequences. But the similarities pretty much end there as Atomic Blonde’s Cold War espionage is more akin to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, whereas The Villainess shares a lot of DNA (including one identical scene) with La Femme Nikita. So while Luc Besson was off making a bloated, sci-fi epic, Byung-gil Jung (Confession of Murder) was reworking the flick that put him on the map in the first place.
- 8/9/2017
- by Mike Hassler
- Destroy the Brain
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