As the name suggests, Kill Boksoon is a crime thriller movie brought to us by Byun Sung-Hyun. It is a gritty tale of an assassin-cum-mother, dripped in gore and blood. Netflix has been investing highly in thriller K-drama lately and all of them have established their positions rightfully. Kill Boksoon is one more ambitious project brought to us by the collaboration of Netflix and Sung-Hyun. Starring Jeon Do-Yeon as the main protagonist of the movie, Kill Boksoon portrays a heart-warming tale of Bok-Soon who lives a juxtaposed dual life and is now facing threats due to it.
Staying true to its genre, Kill Boksoon does a remarkable job highlighting the difficulties of motherhood and the risk of staying around backstabbing lizards. For such a remarkable movie, the ending was equally grand and a bit of a complex mess. In this Kill Boksoon review and ending explained, let us go through the nitty-gritty of this action-packed assassin flick!
Kill Boksoon Ending Explained
After romance and revenge, the South Korean industry is out to master assassin dramas as well now. This thriller is brimming with hidden secrets, dark pasts and a bittersweet mother-daughter relationship. The movie begins by highlighting the dual-life Gil Bok-Soon enjoys. For her daughter and the rest of the neighbourhood, she is a doting mother and for the rest, Bok-Soon is a deadly killer. Bok-Soon is as merciless as she is power-driven but to her, morals matter more than anything–of course, some of her morals are highly questionable.
Working at a killing agency entitled MK Ent, Bok-Soon is a highly respected assassin. The owner of the organization, Cha Min-Kyu, has honoured her as the best player in the killing game. While he highly admires her and has her best interests at heart for her, Min-Kyu’s sister, Min-Hee, is a different story altogether. Min-Hee is a jealous devil, known for her vicious sadism. But since Bok-Soon is the most precious treasure of MK Ent, Min-Hee has her hands tied up. When Bok-Soon receives her next project, things start to work in Min-Hee’s favour.
Motherhood Is Tougher Than Being An assassin
Bok-Soon is a tough nut but her daughter, Jae-Yeong is a ticking bomb nobody can detonate not even Bok-Soon at times. While Bok-Soon is a pro in the game, she is a noob when it comes to parenting and motherhood. Jae-Yeong stabs a classmate for taunting her and holding her romantic relationship with So-Ra over Jae-Yeong’s head. Feeling aggravated due to Jae-Yeong’s violent reactions and discovering her daughter’s sexuality, Bok-Soon finds herself involved in emotional turmoil.
Meanwhile, Bok-Soon’s assassin career is demanding her time–which she certainly doesn’t have spare on her hand. Min-Kyu has assigned a high-profile case to Bok-Soon and a fellow intern, Yeong-Ji. Both of them have to murder the Senator’s son without leaving a clue behind them. The Senator’s son has dragged unwanted attention and sparked controversy to the doorstep of the aspiring Prime Minister, Jeong-Sik. Now, Jeong-Sik wants his son out of the future so that he can win the sympathy votes and save himself from the negative publicity his son has garnered. Indeed, an immoral senator!
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A Failed Mission Drags Bok-Soon Deeper Into The Bog
After a heated clash with Jae-Yeong, Bok-Soon finally cooled off and embraced her daughter wholeheartedly. Jae-Yeong, however, still has reservations regarding her mother’s credibility. The thick tension lingering in the Bok-Soon household can be sliced with a knife at this point.
Back to the newly assigned mission, Bok-Soon isn’t able to carry out the ruthless killing job. Yeong-Ji is quite fond of Bok-Soon and doesn’t leave a single chance to admire her even when Bok-Soon, the A-rated killer fails to pull off a job. Min-Kyu, having known Bok-Soon for decades, gets suspicious of the poor excuse she is using to shield herself. Now that Bok-Soon has stomped over one of the major rules of the cult, she is the recipient of a cruel punishment and what a punishment for such a crime be if not death? According to Min-Hee, Bok-Soon needs to pay for her betrayal but when Bok-Soon throws a bone, Min-Kyu listens to no one but her.
Min-Hee Lays A Trap For Bok-Soon
When Bok-Soon offers to renew her contract and continue serving the organization, Min-Kyu agrees to forgive her wholly and let go of the Senator’s case. Of course, Min-Hee is strictly against her brother’s plan and gathers a team of MK assassins to take down Bok-Soon. One of the assassins here is Bok-Soon’s supposed boyfriend, Hae-Seong. Even though he is quite skilled with the weapons, he isn’t as artistic as Bok-Soon. Bubbling with jealousy and driven by greed, Hae-Seong agrees to betray his girlfriend and help Min-Hee.
Here, the screenplay takes us back to Bok-Soon’s past when she was merely 17 and had killed her abusive father. When she had nowhere to turn to and no motivation to live, she met Min-Kyu who took her under his wing and turned her into a killer for hire. Not the best career option but still something to go by. Ever since Bok-Soon has been blindly renewing her contract with MK Ent and has been killing whomever necessary. But now, with Jae-Yeong exhibiting violent tendencies and standing on the brink of teenage rebellion, Bok-Soon is reluctant to continue with MK.
With Min-Hee dealing with the contract renewal of Bok-Soon, things start to get spicier and bloodier. Min-Hee has effectively turned the entire MK assassin’s clan against Bok-Soon. When Min-Hee reveals her cruel actions with such admiration to Bok-Soon, she loses her cool and stabs Min-Hee to death but not before challenging the other Cha sibling for a death match.
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Bok-Soon Brutally Slaughters The Chains Holding Her Prison
As we all know, Bok-Soon is insanely talented with weapons. Now that she is driven by loss and is aggravated beyond control, Bok-Soon has transformed into a killing robot. She has murdered Min-Hee and is now standing against the man she once loved. With Hae-Seong out to betray her, Bok-Soon has no option but to sweep him out of her life. Even though the last moments between the duo are quite emotional with Hae-Seong asking Bok-Soon to take care of his sick father, it isn’t enough to deter Bok-Soon. In an epic action sequence, Bok-Soon slaughters the entire gang who stood against her,
The next one in line is Min-Kyu who purposefully let Min-Hee handle Bok-Soon’s renewal contract. He knew his sister had beef with Bok-Soon and he still let her on with such a crucial task. Still hungover at Yeong-Ji’s death, Bok-Soon gears up for the deadliest battle of her life–and probably the last one. But then, Jae-Yeong finds Bok-Soon’s gun and a fake passport and starts believing that her mother is an undercover agent. Bok-Soon lets Jae-Yeong believe that lie, wishing not to ruin their reconciliation and probably because she doesn’t know whether she will be alive for long.
Kill Boksoon Ending: Does Bok-Soon Agree To Continue Living As An Assassin?
I walk in your footsteps, embrace my tendencies like you, mumma.
Okay, so this is not a Kill Boksoon quote in any regard. Rather, it is an accurate one-line description of what Kill Boksoon’s ending portrays. It is also the feelings of Jae-Yeong as she watches her mother commit a violent task. After Bok-Soon has killed Min-Hee and Hae-Seong grizzly, Min-Kyu sets up a trap for her. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stand against a revenge-driven Bok-Soon.
When Bok-Soon slits Min-Kyu’s torso and watches him bleed out, he reveals that the office room is wired with CCTVs and Jae-Yeong is watching her live. Shockstruck and utterly flabbergasted, Bok-Soon walks into her home in a haze. Though she starts preparing herself for the worst kind of argument with her daughter, Jae-Yeong saves her the fight by pretending not to have seen her mother murder a man brutally. The mother-daughter relationship might have flourished but so have Jae-Yeong’s violent tendencies.
As Kill Boksoon climaxes, Jae-Yeong has embraced her killing abilities and chalked it up to her inheritance. Even though Bok-Soon appears to have left the assassin game, her life choices have left a deep imprint on her daughter’s life who has transformed from a hormonal teenager to a confident troublemaker.
Kill Boksoon Review: The Action-Filled K-Drama Hits Home With Its Emphasis On A Mother-Daughter Relationship
Sung-Hyun and the team have put in lots of effort while manifesting Kill Bookson, it shows up with complex characters and a compelling script. The cast members, especially Do-Yeon, deserve to be credited for her role as Bok-Soon. Each of the team members has contributed to making Kill Boksoon one of the best Korean crime thrillers. The movie hardly lets a moment go to waste.
Be it Bok-Soon’s action sequences or her cluelessness when it comes to motherhood, this Netflix thriller keeps us hooked on the screen. Initially, I felt that the makers are trying to stuff too much into a 2-hour long movie. But as Kill Boksoon progresses further, each of the plot arcs starts to blend with a finesse. Overall, Kill Boksoon has secured an 8.5 on 10 for being such an engrossing thriller.
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