It wouldn’t be wrong to describe the new K-action thriller Kill Boksoon as a kind of Kill Bill meets John Wick, although the South Korean production has its own unique twist. With this story of a single mother trying to leave behind her profession as a contract killer only to find herself hunted down by an assassin organisation, director Byun Sung-hyun fuses East and West in a stylised and fast-paced action film.
The premise centres on Gil Boksoon — played by veteran Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon, winner of the best actress award at Cannes in 2007 — who leads a double life as she’s both mother of a teenage daughter and a legendary assassin at top-tier killing agency MK Ent. Despite the fierce nature of her profession, she struggles at keeping her troublesome daughter Jae-young (Kim Si-a) in line, who knows nothing of her mother’s work. So when it’s time to renew her employment agreement with the agency, Boksoon refuses to accept her next mission. A bloody battle ensues.
Unlike Byun Sung-hyun’s previous directorial efforts for The Merciless (2016) and Kingmaker (2021), Kill Boksoon features a female character as the sole protagonist throughout the story. Along with her character’s heroic domestic struggles, it’s also been revealed that Jeon did most of her own stunts despite this being her first lead role in an action film. The part required vigorous physical training in addition to instruction on hand-to-hand combat methods as well as using various kinds of weapons.
Kill Boksoon was previously invited to screen at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival’s Berlinale Special section, and has now dropped on the streaming platform Netflix. Life joined Netflix for a roundtable interview session for Kill Boksoon in Seoul recently, where the director Byun, Jeon and other main cast members were there to discuss the new project with international media.
First of all, congrats for Kill Boksoon being invited to the Berlin International Film Festival. I understand that both of you attended the festival?
Byun Sung-hyun: When I first heard the news, I thought of The Merciless, which I went to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival with. And at the time I thought I was just lucky. And now I feel the same way too, very lucky. I thought that our film wasn’t the type that would be invited to Berlin, because it was pretty much of a genre show, but I was very happy and honoured that they invited us.
Jeon Do-yeon: Yes, it was my first time at the Berlin Festival. I was very moved when it was screened over there. And thinking of it now, I can’t believe that I was there watching the screening of the film. So it was a big dream come true for me.
How did the project and the cast first come about?
Byun: There is a movie called Birthday which has Sol Kyung-gu and Jeon Do-yeon working together, and I was there because I was a big fan of Do-yeon. So they called me to come to the set and meet with her. And that’s how I was introduced to Do-yeon. And later on we were talking about the possibility of working together. So ultimately, I thought deep into what kind of movie I can do with her. And I thought she was in so many great films, but most of them are pretty deep and dark dramas. So I wanted to go sideways and do a genre show. I thought that an action movie was something that she lacked in her career. So we fixed on the genre, an action movie, and then I began writing the scripts.
Jeon: I said yes to the project even before looking at the scenario. So while I was happy to be a part of it, I was kind of nervous too. And when I was reading the scenario, there was actually much more action than I thought. So I was a little worried about whether I could pull this off or not.
Do-yeon, your character is a very skilled assassin, who uses swords, daggers, axes, guns and even pens to kill. Which weapon did you find the hardest to use while filming, and why did you decide to do most of the stunt scenes by yourself?
Jeon: Each action scene was difficult, but the biggest burden to me was using the sword. It’s very long and hard to fathom how far it’ll reach, so I was really scared to hurt someone. It was the most threatening weapon to work with. The overall training took about four months. Personally, I didn’t want to use a stunt double. I wanted to do all of the action scenes myself, but it was physically not feasible. I had lengthy conversations with the director on making those kinds of decisions.
Byun: Just to add to that a little more. I like shooting with continuity and in this sequence, the continuity actually made it really hard to work with stunt doubles. The scenes mostly consisted of the actors’ faces and actions. Most action movies cut the action scenes for shock and awe, but I wanted to show precise actions so there were a lot of scenes where Do-yeon had to do the action herself.
Do-yeon, do you think you’ll be filming any more action movies in the future?
Jeon: After we wrapped Kill Boksoon, I thought to myself, ‘I’m never doing action again’ [laughs]. I don’t know if I’ll change my mind later, but I did think that that was enough action for me. I had an action scene with Young-ji. I practised with her, but I think she practised and trained more thoroughly than I did. In the movie, her character wants to be like Boksoon. She was great with those action scenes and I think she will grow as an action star. She was really impressive.
So I was curious about this organisation in the film, which you refer to as an event company, but it’s actually a hitman company. How did you come about the idea, as well as the relationship between people within the organisation?
Byun: Well, this killer company is something that’s not anything new since there’s the Hollywood movies like John Wick. It’s been used quite often as subject matter in different movies so it wasn’t anything fresh. So I wanted to bring in something new to these typical killer action movies. And to go into a little bit more detail, I also wanted to bring in my personal admiration and respect for the two very best of actors Do-yeon and Kyung-gu.
And, you know, as it’s a story about killers, I tried to draw a parallel from that to how actors go into certain works. There’s a line where this character Min-hee says to the character Min-kyu, ‘All knives become dull and useless’. And she uses that to compare with the Boksoon character. And to that, Min-kyu replies, ‘Dull knives hurt the most’. And that line is actually my own poetry and homage to the two actors that I admire the most.
