The Villainess (Ak-Nyeo) [Sub: Eng]

"The Villainess" is little more than an action showcase, with way more scenes of turgid espionage than thrilling set pieces. It's for genre die-hards, not a general audience.

'The Long Kiss Goodnight', 'La Femme Nikita', 'Kill Bill'... this South Korean thriller owes a debt to many a great female-assassin thriller, and it's a fun ride for fans of the genre.

As the carnage mercilessly piles up, we begin to feel nothing. Perhaps that's the point, but it's hard not to want more.

There's a lot of cool knives on display here, but the people doing the stabbing don't really matter.

What is entirely new about The Villainess is that it marries its revenge scenario to a melodrama of maternal sacrifice, with the film's terrific star, Kim Ok-bin, suffering more than Joan Crawford ever did.

Jung shreds a simple story and then weaves the pieces into an intricate tapestry of flashbacks and pure-action scenes, with the individual strands often sewn together by pictorial rhymes.

Whatever its narrative faults, there is quite simply nothing like The Villainess.

A solid, tenacious and spectacular film. [Full review in Spanish]

This is an action film that knows its character, has clear objectives and carries them out. [Full review in Spanish]

... an exciting piece of action that refers us to the seminal Nikita (Besson, 1990)... [Full review in Spanish]

Too bad that, after a strong start, the plot is taken in a different direction from the violence, then a different direction, and then a different direction, before a stunning finish.

[The Villainness] is 2017's most breathtakingly unhinged action film.