Nextflix Reviews - The Villainess

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So I'm going to start reviewing any interesting films and/or TV series that I discover on Netflix as so many people are always asking, "Hey what shall I watch next on Netflix,?" and I normally forget what cool things I've watched. So if I make posts about it from now on I can remind myself can't I? 

So 1st up is the film The Villainess which is a high action, violent martial arts rampage of a movie. The opening protracted ultraviolent sequence plays a bit like Hardcore Henry meets Oldboy. In 1st person mode our heroine, (at least I think she's more of a heroine than a villainess to be honest, although she certainly is conflicted), plows her bloody way through a multitude of gangster looking types with guns and blades. We (or she) switch from this perspective after she gets her head smashed into a mirror. The rest of the bloodbath (and the film) then ensues in 3rd person mode. 

In the aftermath of this slaughter she is caught by a shadowy organisation, perhaps government sanctioned and trained by them as an undercover operative. A spy/assassin kind of akin to the film Nikita. She is found to be pregnant and has a baby daughter which she raises inside the organisations prison like training camp. She makes friends and enemies there and she eventually gets let out, the idea is she has to give the organisation 10 years of her life then she'll get her freedom. 

From then we see how she deals with life once she is released into the world and she tries to create a semblance of a normality for herself and her daughter whilst doing the agency's bidding and also being the focus of their machinations. Throughout we are shown flashbacks of her history and what led up to the initial bloodbath the movie started with and things from her past begin to catch up with her resulting in a clash between her new alliances and her old ones which doesn't leave very many survivors.

The action is fast and nasty and there were a couple of points that had me exclaim, "Ooh steady on there film, that was a bit much!"

All in all a very enjoyable, bloody, violent, action packed hit as far as I am concerned. It's a South Korean film, released in 2017 and has subtitles so if you're one of those people who don't like them it may not be for you. 

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Also starring Kim Ok-Bin

   

Also directed by Byung-gil Jung