Director: Min Kyu-dong
Starring: Lee Hye-young, Kim Sung-cheol, Yeon Woo-jin, Kim Mu-yeol, Shin Si-ah.
Country of Origin: South Korea
Running time: 2hrs 2min
When a feared female exterminator begins to slow down a cold-blooded young upstart targets her position.
Hornclaw (Lee Hye-young) has a formidable reputation as an assassin who specialises in pest control, not of the insect variety but in eliminating drug dealers, cheaters and abusers of all kinds.
After four decades wiping vermin from the streets, the Godmother of the Sinseong company starts to feel the effects of her precarious occupation.
Now in her 60s she develops shaky hands and refuses to change her old-fashioned methods in a new age of modern technology.
Brazen new hitman Bullfight (Kim Sung-cheol) believes that her time is up and belligerently questions her legendary status.
Hornclaw strictly adheres to the Sinseong company code: no questions, no witnesses and not a single trace of evidence must be left after any contract killing.
Yet when she sustains a brutal laceration to her back when snuffing out a lackadaisical colleague the assassin makes a costly mistake.
She passes out behind the wheel and is taken in by a nearby vet (Yeon Woo-jin) who treats her wounds without judgement.
It’s a fatal error as Bullfight observes the previously impacable Hornclaw displaying compassion to the kind stranger that saved her life.
In the background there’s an unknown connection between the pair which ultimately leads to an epic showdown.
To say that The Old Woman with the Knife is gut-wrenching would be doing a huge disservice to a film that sets an unsparingly explicit tone from the beginning.
The squeamish should steer clear of a story that’s not so much blood soaked as absolutely drenched in the red stuff.
Rapidly paced, unflinchingly graphic set-piece action scenes feature buckets of claret.
It’s expertly choreographed, notably in a terrific nightclub sequence and in a slightly creepy abandoned amusement park finale.
Fingers are chopped off, eyes gouged and flesh stabbed and sliced as heinous villains are viciously disposed of in quickly cut bursts of blood-letting.
The past and present merge as the story develops.
A flashback shows a young woman brutally slam a spike through an American GI’s head in desperate self-defence.
She’s christened nails by one of the founding members of Sinseong, the master killer Ryu (Kim Mu-yeol), who also rescued the abandoned girl when he found her unconscious on a wintry road.
Nails (Shin Si-ah) transforms into Hornclaw and has her own agenda of making society a safer place.
There’s not an inch of her body that hasn’t been beaten, bruised or scarred as she coldly takes out a host of undesirables.
From a hairpin that doubles as a deadly weapon to the trusty blade that’s permanently fastened to her hand she’s poised and ready for anything.
This is a character that staples a gaping wound back together as she bleeds profusely all while driving a car at breakneck speed.
Beyond her unflappable, grim exterior exists hidden layers that emerge despite her staunch refusal to give up her incredibly risky job.
It is to the immense credit of celebrated actor Lee Hye-young that she is able to persuasively convey both the empathy and callousness of the world weary assassin.
Her performance is all the more remarkable considering the physical demands of prolonged fight segments – the stunt performers also deserve a special mention for some absolutely stellar work.
A lot hinges on the plausibility of the youthful killer who goes all out to confront the aging legend and Kim Sung-cheol (Troll Factory) plays the role with utter conviction. His star is clearly on the rise after a stunning performance filled with truculence and malice.
Shin Si-ah also makes a striking impression as the young Hornclaw, displaying both vulnerability and courage in an extremely testing role.
Director Min Kyu-dong leads us through the shadows and margins towards a breathtaking head to head which hallmarks all the best aspects of an uncompromising, hard-hitting tale of bloodthirsty retribution.
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Stephen Kasiewicz 