While it features an enticing premise, slotting a 65-year-old woman into the underground assassin genre (a position usually reserved for grizzled men and young vixens), its story has an inordinate amount of detail, which the film metes out in awkward ways

There’s plenty that is familiar in this extravagantly bloody action picture. But Lee is terrifyingly effective in the role, and the fight sequences are impressively visceral.

... that it seeks to go deeper, to demonstrate the ripples caused by violence and how that stunts one’s ability to see beyond the cruelty one causes and one can cause.

The action and drama are sharply directed by Min Kyu-dong and played with plenty of emotional spark.