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Killer mum: Top S. Korean actress deadly but domestic in action flick
Jeon Do-yeon, one of South Korea's top actresses, is back with a new action movie, blending killer fight scenes with parental angst.
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This handout photo taken on March 21, 2023 shows South Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon posing during a press conference to promote the Tarantino-esque action thriller 'Kill Boksoon' in Seoul. (AFP/Handout/Netflix)
D
ispatching assassins is easy, but handling her moody teenage daughter is impossible: one of South Korea's top actresses is back with a new action movie, blending killer fight scenes with parental angst.
Revered in South Korea, Jeon Do-yeon, 50, has won the top acting prize at Cannes and worked with a veritable who's who of Korean directors over a three-decade career.
She's played everything from an HIV-positive prostitute to a Korean housewife wrongly accused of drug smuggling, but it was her personal experience as a mother that proved invaluable for her latest role -- and first action lead -- Kill Boksoon.
The Tarantino-esque action thriller, which launches Friday on Netflix, was written by filmmaker Byun Sung-hyun -- a confessed Jeon superfan -- with the actress specifically in mind.
"I'm not a killer by profession, but I'm also living a very dual life -- there is my life as an actress, and there's that life as a mother," said Jeon, who like her character Boksoon has a teenage daughter.
Set in the vicious world of corporate assassins and filled with kinetic fight scenes, Kill Boksoon is a major departure from Jeon's previous work, mostly serious dramas in which she plays marginalised, persecuted characters.
The actress had to learn the complex choreography required for an action thriller, including for a scene in which Boksoon uses a marker pen as her only weapon.
