A taciturn professional killer seeks to avenge her best friend's suicide in 2023's Ballerina. No, this isn't a movie about a killer who trained as a ballerina--that's next year's John Wick spin-off movie. But 2023's Ballerina shows plenty of John Wick influence, along with healthy doses of Nicolas Winding Refn, Quentin Tarantino, and Atomic Blonde. It never rises to the quality of any of its influences but it's not a bad film. Certainly the cinematography is lovely.
Ok-ju (Jeon Jong-seo) is a preternaturally skilled bodyguard and occasional vigilante who finds herself feeling a bit blue on her birthday. She goes to buy herself a cake and the girl working the counter, Min-hee (Park Yu-rim), turns out to be an old classmate.
Min-hee's bubbly, affectionate personality causes Ok-ju's cold exterior to thaw a bit. So you can imagine Ok-ju is later upset to find Min-hee in a bathtub with slit wrists and a note, left in a box with Min-hee's ballet slippers (Min-hee is the eponymous ballerina), asking Ok-ju to exact bloody revenge on her behalf. So Ok-ju sets out on the grim journey through neon-lit backrooms and shiny nighttime streets.
Eventually she tracks down the gangster and murderous BDSM fetishist, Choi Pro (Kim Ji-hoon). It turns out Choi Pro had been extorting young women with footage he'd secretly taken of them having kinky sex with him.
Fight scenes happen. Despite a plot revolving around sexual exploitation, the movie has no nudity or explicit sex, so I guess it's safe to watch for the kiddies who just like ultraviolence.
The fight scenes aren't especially well choreographed and rely heavily on editing and rapid cuts through closeup shots. The odds are artificially stacked in Ok-ju's favour several times, like in one absurd scene where she has a whole room full of gangsters at her mercy because . . . she points a gun at them! Still, the cinematography, even if it is a shameless Nicolas Windig Refn imitation, is always pretty, as are the actresses. Bombay Sapphire obviously provided some funding, but the famous blue bottles are well incorporated into shot compositions.
Ok-ju's passion for the famous brand of gin reminded me of Charlize Theron's love for vodka in Atomic Blonde. As with that movie's vodka, Ballerina left me with a yen for that certain liquor. Fortunately, I happen to have a bottle of Bombay Sapphire . . .
Ballerina is available on Netflix.
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