Film

The Villainess

Name: The Villainess
Genre: Action, Thriller
Released: 2017
Cast: Kim Ok-vin, Shin Ha-kyun, Sung Joon, Kim Seo-hyung, Cho Eun-ji

An opening long-take slaughter shot from inside the killer's own eyes tells you exactly what kind of film this is: relentless, gorgeous, and a little deranged. Byung-gil Jung's revenge thriller follows Sook-hee, a lifelong assassin promised a normal life who discovers her handlers never intended to let her have one. It's for people who want their action operatic, brutal, and emotionally unhinged rather than cool and detached.

TMDb rating

6.9

If you liked this

Oldboy2003

Park Chan-wook's revenge masterpiece shares the same appetite for brutal set-pieces married to genuine heartbreak, and the same willingness to let vengeance curdle into something tragic rather than triumphant.

But The violence is punishing and the twists are engineered to wound, not thrill — go in braced.

Kill Bill: Vol. 12003

Tarantino's Bride is Sook-hee's spiritual sister: a woman built by men who then has to unmake them with a sword, told with the same stylistic bravado and gleeful commitment to spectacle.

But It's referential, blood-soaked pastiche rather than sincere drama — the tone is knowingly cartoonish where The Villainess plays it straight.

Atomic Blonde2017

Same year, same neon-soaked commitment to making female-led action look genuinely dangerous, with a corridor fight sequence that rivals anything here for sustained, punishing choreography.

But Cooler and more detached — you admire Lorraine rather than bleed for her the way you do Sook-hee.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Lady Snowblood1973

Both films are built around a woman engineered from birth into an instrument of revenge; Lady Snowblood is the direct ancestor this whole subgenre, including The Villainess, keeps quoting.

The Japanese film that essentially invented this entire template decades earlier — a woman conceived and trained purely for vengeance, told with painterly, almost theatrical violence.

But Pulpy 1970s pacing and effects will feel quaint next to modern choreography — this is the source, not the spectacle.

The Man from Nowhere2010

Korean action-revenge at its most stylish and mournful, with a former operative dragged back into violence and fight choreography that set the bar this film is clearly reaching for.

But Slower to ignite than The Villainess — patience required before the action arrives in full force.

Nikita1990

Luc Besson's original assassin-with-a-past template, and the clearest ancestor of Sook-hee's story: a woman remade into a weapon who keeps reaching, hopelessly, for an ordinary life.

But Dated pacing and a much smaller scale of action by modern standards — this is where the genre started, not where it peaked.

John Wick2014

For pure choreography obsession: gun-fu built like dance, stunt work treated as the main event, and a plot that exists mostly to get you from one bravura sequence to the next.

But Emotionally much thinner — it's grief as a premise, not something the film keeps returning to.

Hardcore Henry2015no page yet

An entire feature shot in first-person POV, taking that opening gimmick of The Villainess and running with it for ninety relentless minutes of practical mayhem.

But The gimmick is exhausting rather than immersive for a lot of viewers, and the story is thin scaffolding at best.

I Saw the Devil2010

Korean revenge cinema pushed to its most extreme and morally uncomfortable, asking what obsessive vengeance actually does to the person carrying it out.

But Genuinely upsetting in ways that go beyond action-movie violence — this one lingers unpleasantly.

The Chaser2008

A tense, propulsive Korean thriller with the same unglamorous brutality and breathless pacing, following a pimp-turned-hunter racing against the clock.

But Less stylised and slower to reveal its hand — this is grim procedural tension rather than stylised spectacle.

Killing Eve2018

Same engine — a woman shaped and controlled by an organisation she can't escape — but stretched into serialised TV, trading the film's breathless momentum for a longer, stranger game of manipulation.

A British-American series that takes the deadly-woman-with-a-handler premise and stretches it into slow-burn obsession, letting the cat-and-mouse relationship breathe across hours instead of minutes.

But Talky and character-driven where you might be craving action — the violence here is sparing and the pleasure is psychological, not kinetic.

Peppermint Candy2000no page yet

Where The Villainess asks what a lifetime of manufactured violence does to someone through spectacle, Peppermint Candy asks the identical question in total stillness — the same national cinema's darker, more serious register.

A quiet, devastating Korean drama told backwards from a man's suicide to his innocent youth, tracing exactly how institutions and violence hollow a person out over time.

But There's no action at all — this is somber, unhurried, and built to make you sad rather than exhilarated.