by Magdalena Nieświec
For the last few years, South Korean cinema has been dominated by action films, which frequently top the box office. It is still surprising that Min Kyu-dong, whose majority of the filmography consists of romances and dramas, decided to create an action thriller. Nonetheless, what isn’t surprising, and for those who know Min’s previous productions, even quite predictable, is that the main character is a woman, and on top of that, an old one.
The Old Woman with the Knife is sceening at Berlin International Film Festival
“The Old Woman with the Knife” can also be addressed by its Korean name “Pa-gwa”, which is a direct translation of “breakthrough”. The title refers to the groundbreaking events in the heroine’s life. The story starts in 1975, when a young 16-year-old girl is found, lying covered in snow in the middle of the street. Fortunately, she is saved by a lovely couple who let her stay at their house. One day she is being attacked by an American soldier who tries to rape her, yet in her defense, she manages to stop it by killing him. This event turns her life upside down, changing her from an innocent and shy girl into an emotionless assassin. That’s how the viewer meets her later under the nickname Hornclaw.
The titular woman, thanks to her almost fifty-years-long experience, gained the status of a legend in the field. However, being in her sixties, her age starts to more frequently interfere with her job. It’s getting harder for her to fight as flawlessly as before, and on top of all, she’s becoming more emotional, starting to repeatedly care about those she’s supposed to kill. Despite that, she doesn’t want to retire, as being a killer is not just the only thing she is good at, but also something that makes her feel like she’s finally useful. Bullfight, a new member who recently joined the association, not only disturbs her with his youthful abilities to kill, but also seems to hold some personal grudges towards her.
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The plot gradually moves forward, therefore the pace doesn’t seem off at all, yet numerous questions are asked and very few are answered. The main one is where exactly the story is supposed to lead. There are a lot of elements, which seem like they should play an important part in the character’s development, but eventually appear once and are never mentioned again. Instead of deepening the discourse of ageism, visible social inequalities that are the reason why the association exists in the first place, or the repercussions of being an assassin, Min decides to focus solely on the relationship between Hornclaw and Bullfight. In consequence, he changes the promising multi-layered narrative into a single-threaded story.
Lee Jae-woo, the cinematographer, pays a lot of attention to both the fight and chase scenes being done thoroughly. The camera movements not only convey the dynamics between the characters but also highlight the differences between them. What may catch the viewers’ attention are the emotions that are displayed on the actors’ faces. Lee Hye-young shows that she hasn’t forgotten her roots in action cinema, nevertheless she doesn’t shy away from showing more raw emotions. The same can be said about Kim Sung-cheol, who on the one hand plays an over-confident, mischievous know-it-all, but on the other, in the final scenes surprises with his dramatic seriousness.
Regardless of everything, the ending leaves the viewer with anti-climactic scenes where the plot, as if making a 360 degree rotation, returns to the beginning. Having plenty of potential to create multidimensional characters, who would be able to significantly develop and evolve throughout those 131 minutes, Min decides to make them killers first, and only human beings second. Consequently, he finalizes “The Old Woman with the Knife” as an average action film with no deeper meaning.
