The Killer
Director: Choi Jae-hoon
Year: 2022
Rating: 7.5
Country:
Korea
Aka:
The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves to Die
This is like Adventures in Babysitting Korean
style. Meaning a slightly higher body count. Yards of dead people. The funny
thing is that Korea has a murder rate about 1/10 that of the USA, but you
would never know by the movies. They have really taken up the action film
over the past few years and taken it to the extreme. There is really
nothing new here. but it has a homey atmosphere. Our killer Bang (Jang Hyuk)
is retired and very much in love with his wife. He lives comfortably on his
past earnings. Staying home is just fine for him. Then his wife (Lee Chae-young)
tells him that she is going off on a girlie vacation with a friend - but
that he needs to babysit the friend's daughter Yoon-ji (Lee Seo-young - a
member of the K-pop girl's group GWSN) while they are gone. In return, she
will be very nice to him when she gets back. Ok - what is a good husband
to do.
Yoon-ji is a high school girl who wants
to have fun. So, she convinces him to let her go out with a friend - and
the film goes into hyperdrive. He promised his wife that he would keep her
safe and a promise is a promise. Even if it means killing people by the metric
ton. A sex trafficking gang captures her - they should have probably run
a background check on him. He works his way up the ladder to the very top
and leaves enough bodies to fill a swimming pool in his wake. It is always
enjoyable watching scumsucking traffickers being killed by the dozen, but
it's much too easy as he walks down hallways killing them to the left and
right. With guns, axes, knives. Often with a cup of coffee in his hand. Or
maybe it is a latte. Even when he is captured with a gun to his head and
surrounded by eight men, you know it will be as easy as pie for him to kill
them all. The handheld camera following him on his rampage gives the
action a frantic frenetic look. This is directed by Choi Jae-hoon who had
directed The Swordsman in 2020 also starring Jang Hyuk. Jang Hyuk is pretty
versatile - I know him from two comedies - Please Teach Me English and Windstruck
- but I see he was also in Volcano High which I saw so long ago, I can't
recall him.
