As of the writing of this comment, the comment section contains only two: one that says it's awesome and another that says it's a "load of rubbish." What a strange film where both can be true.
This movie is complicated and I'm not sure what I think of it. The action is pretty cool, but plotwise it left me a bit mixed. In some ways I appreciate that some characters are neither all good nor all bad, but that also leaves me ambiguous as to how the main character is supposed to feel about them. One character in particular is "redeemed" narratively but it feels unearned.
It shares a lot of blood with Besson's Nikita and Black's The Long Kiss Goodnight, as well as some John Wick moments, although it employs CG in fights a little more than any of those.
It also tends to employ smaller cameras with more fisheyed lenses to really get up close to the action, but it obscures the action at times as the wide FOV makes smaller things hard to see.
Overall I would say it is worth watching, but don't expect to finish it and feel satisfied in any sense other than the action sense.
I'm not entirely sure how the cameras work in The Villainess, but the action choreography is more than a little insane when you factor that its POV must also be included in there. No doubt there's a lot of trickery involved, digital joins and so on, perhaps responsible for that juddery look, but it's all about creating a visceral feeling that hits hard and puts you inside the action. Is it too much? Maybe, but as an action fan, I still enjoyed its guts. The story has a lot of complications too, as we follow an assassin who doesn't know her love interest is secretly her handler, nor that her ex-husband is still alive and her prey. Fate seems to have decreed that everyone she loves die. Flashbacks reveal the backstory, so the audience is often playing catch-up, but it's worth it. I do feel the loss of certain elements when the third act turn comes, but it's in keeping with the themes and mood of the film, which is certainly John Wick-adjacent (the motorcycle chase allegedly inspired a similar scene in JW 3).
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TheOtherTyler
As of the writing of this comment, the comment section contains only two: one that says it's awesome and another that says it's a "load of rubbish." What a strange film where both can be true.senorroboto
This movie is complicated and I'm not sure what I think of it. The action is pretty cool, but plotwise it left me a bit mixed. In some ways I appreciate that some characters are neither all good nor all bad, but that also leaves me ambiguous as to how the main character is supposed to feel about them. One character in particular is "redeemed" narratively but it feels unearned.It shares a lot of blood with Besson's Nikita and Black's The Long Kiss Goodnight, as well as some John Wick moments, although it employs CG in fights a little more than any of those.
It also tends to employ smaller cameras with more fisheyed lenses to really get up close to the action, but it obscures the action at times as the wide FOV makes smaller things hard to see.
Overall I would say it is worth watching, but don't expect to finish it and feel satisfied in any sense other than the action sense.
samoan
This movie blew me away, great movie, with some amazing action scenes and cinematography. Highly recommend it if you like revenge films.Camille Deadpan
So incredibly awesome! The last 15 minutes of the movie are surreal.Siskoid
I'm not entirely sure how the cameras work in The Villainess, but the action choreography is more than a little insane when you factor that its POV must also be included in there. No doubt there's a lot of trickery involved, digital joins and so on, perhaps responsible for that juddery look, but it's all about creating a visceral feeling that hits hard and puts you inside the action. Is it too much? Maybe, but as an action fan, I still enjoyed its guts. The story has a lot of complications too, as we follow an assassin who doesn't know her love interest is secretly her handler, nor that her ex-husband is still alive and her prey. Fate seems to have decreed that everyone she loves die. Flashbacks reveal the backstory, so the audience is often playing catch-up, but it's worth it. I do feel the loss of certain elements when the third act turn comes, but it's in keeping with the themes and mood of the film, which is certainly John Wick-adjacent (the motorcycle chase allegedly inspired a similar scene in JW 3).Flops
The fight scenes were kind of interesting but I don't think I liked them. The story was dumb. Would not recommend.MMDan
tubimonty
There are lots of great Korean films - this, however, ain't one of them. Awful, just plain awful!Adamov10
load of rubbish