South Korea’s ‘The Villainess’ Opens Today

If you’re looking for an action film to check out this weekend, look no further than The Villainess (also known as Ak-Nyeo). Well Go USA is responsible for introducing the United States to this South Korean adventure drama, which was directed by Confession Of Murder‘s Jung Byung-Gil. The film first opens tonight at the AMC Sunset 5 in Los Angeles and at the IFC Center in New York, with a wider release to follow. Check out the trailer below to see what it’s all about:

In what the The Daily Beast called the “most kickass action movie of the year,” Kim Ok-vin plays a woman who was brought up from when she was a little girl to become a skilled assassin. Her fortunes change, however, when Chief Kwon (Kim Seo-hyeong) offers her the chance to turn into a sleeper cell for South Korea’s Intelligence Agency. She obtains a new identity, Chae Yeon-soo, who is meant to be 27 year old theater actress. Sook-hee thus enters into a contract to serve her country for ten years before being rewarded with a new lease on life and the complete freedom to live it as she chooses. But living as a normal woman after a lifetime of bloodshed and violence is no walk in the park – especially not once two strangers with the key to unlocking the secrets of the past appear on the scene.

The Villainess also stars Shin Ha-kyun and Bang Sun-jun. It premiered as an Official Selection at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, and has been hailed for its epic action sequences first and foremost. If you do not live in New York or Los Angeles, the film will be available throughout the rest of the nation later this year. Perhaps the wait for the roll-out will allow you to gauge if you have the iron-cast stomach needed to withstand the violence of the movie in order to obtain its emotional payoff.