Synopsis:
After a deadly, long-dormant health condition surfaces during a mission, Joseon’s most lethal assassin goes into hiding to seek a cure without revealing his identity. But upon witnessing a ruthless campaign of terror against local villagers, the region’s deadliest killer comes out of retirement in order to exact his own brutal brand of vigilante justice.
What We Thought:
Night of the Assassin is a lot more comedic than I expected. It won’t be confused for a Stephen Chow film, but it isn’t the straight forward historical martial-arts drama I’m used to. If you like Asian period pieces with fighting you will enjoy it, but it has some jokes and comedy I wasn’t expecting.
It’s about an assassin who has a health condition and steps away from his job. Of course while in hiding he gets involved with a woman and her son who run a sort of restaurant. His old ways catch up with him and soon he finds himself back in action because of his past.
The lead actor is very good and handles the action well. There isn’t a ton of action sequences, but I liked what they did have. It opens strong with fighting and slows down at points to explain his health, why he’s in hiding, the backstory of the woman and her son and more. They don’t fully explain who wants the assassin killed, but instead it’s left open to a possible sequel which the ending hints at.
The costuming and set design are as good as the fighting. Smaller areas look shoddy and run down. The more lavish areas are wide open with lots of extras fighting and more. The film is from South Korea, but the sets and costuming look like any other Asian period drama. That’s not a negative, it’s what I want/expect from these films.
Night of the Assassin is written and directed by first-time auteur Kwak Jeong-deok and I can see him making many more films like it. I’m a fan of martial arts period dramas and with the addition of the comedic elements, I was entertained by this one. It’s only 101 minutes long which helps too because sometimes these films drag on over two hours and run out of steam. I’m not sure how this did overseas, but if it did well and gets a sequel I will watch it.
The Nerds Templar 