Jeon Wick: South Korea takes on assassin action with Kill Boksoon

MOVE over, Keanu Reeves – Gil Bok-soon has arrived.

South Korean filmmaker Byun Sung-hyun’s Kill Boksoon makes its Netflix debut weeks after its world premiere at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival. Given the film’s hitwoman premise and bloody action sequences, comparisons with the successful US series John Wick quickly spread like wildfire – but measuring the former against the latter proves both a compliment and disservice to Kill Boksoon.

The film kicks off with a thrilling action scene between Gil Bok-soon (Jeon Do-yeon), a renowned assassin – who also happens to be a single mother – and her latest target. But in a sudden maternal urge to be “fair”, she lets the target choose his own weapon: a 400-year-old Japanese sword.