Ballarina (2023) and The Old Woman With A Knife (2025)

I’ll be adding the odd (always favorable) reviews to my journal as I see things... films, books, comics, whatever. Just for Hell of it. Here’s the most recent example…

I saw a couple of interesting action movies over the weekend. Both were from South Korea. One, “The Woman With A Knife” (2025), was fun, although I doubt I’d watch it again.  It had great action and was a nice twist on the “old assassin who is aging/dying but has one last redemptive thing to do” trope. The actress playing the lead, Lee Hye-young is great. I just found the back story of this cabal of assassins a bit ill-defined and hard to believe. I also found the backstory within the main story, revealing certain characters motivations, a tad unbelievable too. I always try to do positive reviews, so I’d say it’s still a good flick to see. Great action finale.

The other film I saw, which I found looking for suggestions for something like “Mercy For None” (a fantastic albeit insanely violent South Korean TV show, that I’d heartily recommend). Anyway, the film I found was “Ballerina” (2023) which I thought was incredible. Great shot composition. Many beautiful establishing shots in contrast to the action that followed. Acting that ran the spectrum from subtle and underplayed to arch and insanely overdone (in a good way). The relationship between the main heroine and the friend she seeks to avenge is super sweet, sad, and romantic (if you choose to go with the implication that the main character is gay, which I certainly did). The film starts a bit slow but revs up quickly. The mass fight scene towards the end is superb. And there’s a flamethrower. I’m keeping my eye on the director, Lee Chung-hyun as well as the lead Jeon Jong-seo.