The Old Woman with the Knife (2025) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: for every impalement
Take a Drink: for every death
Take a Drink: for every mention of ‘bug’s or ‘vermin’
Take a Drink: whenever the young guy enjoys a killing a little too much
Do a Shot: for every melding of past and present
By: Henry J. Fromage (Three Beers) –
Korean action cinema has been at the pinnacle of the industry for years now, but one interesting theme as of late is providing action vehicles for less traditional leads.
The Old Woman with the Knife is about a female assassin in her 60s (Lee Hye-young) who’s feeling a younger, hungrier killer nipping at her heels. Perhaps it’s time for retirement, but she’s known nothing else practically her entire life.
A Toast
Lee is absolutely believable as a taught old killer who thrums with the potential for violence at every turn, and she’s absolutely the reason to watch this film. Director Min Kyu-dong delivers bone-crunching hand-to-hand action, and the choreography (and her commitment to it) is absolutely believable despite the wide gulf in size, age, and sex between her and many of her opponents.
Kim Sung-cheol is an appropriately creepy foil as the young killer who joins her agency and seems to take an uncharacteristic interest in her in particular. He ain’t right, and his psychopathy is mirrored in details like a potential mark who’s gotten the best of her throwing tubs full of mealworms on her before burying her. That’s just one gnarly touch among many.
Beer Two
The setup for the plot requires a lot of logical leaps. She works for an assassin agency that’s remained in the shadows for half a century but clearly lots of regular folks know about it? And it only does righteous kills, of course. If they’re such an institution, why’s their office security so lax? Just a mom ‘n pop assassin agency, I guess.
Beer Three
This is packed with lots of recognizable tropes from this kind of geri-ass-kick thriller. Of course she’s losing her memory, and everybody wants to put her out to pasture, and there’s a young gun coming for her crown who she’s forced to partner with, and she flashes back to formative memories of sexual violence and bloody loss. What would kind of film be without each one of those things?
Verdict
The Old Woman with the Knife is an excellent action calling card for star Lee Hye-young, if a bit run of the mill in plot-wise. Here’s hoping it kicks off a productive Liam Neeson-esque action side-hustle for her- she’s up to it!
