Netflix’s most recent South Korean action assassination flick, Kill Boksoon, will inevitably be compared to the John Wick franchise. Indeed, it already has. To quote The Hollywood Reporter, who seem somewhat confused about the difference between then and than, “If John Wick were a middle-aged single mom whose teenage daughter was about to come out as a lesbian, than she would be something like Gil Boksoon.” That a Korean production would find inspiration in the American action franchise is no wonder either: the third John Wick, for reference, overperformed for an import by playing in 848 theaters in Korea. And, in the plot structure and the underpinnings of the world-building, there’s something to the comparison. 

In the grand scheme of things, both Netflix (Gunpowder Milkshake, Kate) and South Korea (The Villainess, Deliver Us From Evil, even Special Delivery) have been on the hunt for their own Wick for some time now, so the South Korean Netflix original makes perfect sense. The John Wick team is even remaking Lee Jeong-beom’s The Man From Nowhere, which shares many similarities with 87Eleven’s first megahit that would come four years later.

Like the world of the Continental in Wick, the Republic of Korea appears ruled by assassination companies. According to the production team, the idea was to create “a parallel Seoul in a parallel universe.” Gil “Kill” Boksoon (the master actor Jeon Do-yeon), in addition to being a mother to the coming-out lesbian Gil Jae-young (Kim Si-a), works as an “A” grade killer for MK Ent., the undisputed heavyweight and literal rule-setter in the industry. The other “event planning” companies, following the lead of MK’s Cha Min-kyu (Sul Kyung-gu, who ushered in the Korean New Wave with Peppermint Candy), abide by a code of three: 1) do not kill minors, 2) all “shows” must be company sanctioned, and 3) you must attempt all shows sanctioned by your company. To break any rule is guaranteed suicide.

Beyond those superficial decorations, however, the two films/franchises have less in common than one would expect. The action is spectacular, especially the restaurant fight piece and the contract killer training session, but it’s filmed with a bit more beauty than brutality. There’s also not that much of it, by comparison. There are probably four major fight scenes, which even the first Wick probably surpasses in the first forty minutes. 

Kill Boksoon is more interested in Boksoon’s relationship with her “walled-off” daughter, Jae-young. Estranged from Jae-young partly because of her career and partly because of her daughter’s adolescent struggle with sexuality, the two don’t seem to talk much—and even when they do, their conversations sound more patron-client than loving family. The desire to be with a (living) innocent family member assures that Boksoon is more likable than Keanu Reeves’ John Wick has been following the first film.

One bit I found ineffective was Boksoon’s imagined predictions, à la Sherlock Holmes, of how a fight could turn out. Director Byun Sung-hyun (Kingmaker, Whatcha Wearin’?) uses it more to maximize action possibilities than for any thematic or character driven purpose. If she’s hyper-intelligent, this is the only indication of it. In fact, she’s not the smartest of parents, contradicting this hypothesis a bit: when her daughter tells her she’s gay, she storms the room and leaves the house without affirming Jae-young…even though she has no problems with homosexuality and is only upset that she feels like a stranger to her own daughter.

Thematically, the film gets somewhat sloppy with its ending, which undermines the development between mom and daughter. I won’t say precisely what happens…but the screenplay puts the Gil family into a situation where the only satisfying way out comes through a lie.

Speed bumps and all, Kill Boksoon is a solid use of two hours.

Kill Boksoon
2023
dir. Byun Sung-hyun
137 min.

Streaming on Netflix starting Friday, 3/31