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Title: The Old Woman with the Knife (2025) Director: Kyu-dong Min Writer: Kyu-dong Min Studio: Soo Film // Well Go USA Entertainment IMDb Plot: Aging assassin Hornclaw has seen it all, but she never expected to mentor a reckless rookie like Bullfight. As their unlikely bond deepens, cracks form in the underworld they navigate together. When Hornclaw discovers someone wants her dead, she’s thrust into a deadly game of deception. With enemies closing in and trust in short supply, survival means staying sharp—both blade and mind. Joe Says: The action sizzles, and the premise hums with potential, but The Old Woman with the Knife ultimately pulls its punches.

Korean director Kyu-dong Min sharpens a familiar blade and swings it from an unexpected angle. In a cinematic world lined with silver-templed specters — John Wick, Nobody, and even an in-his-early-sixties Ethan Hunt — The Old Woman with the Knife cuts a fresh path through familiar shadows. Based on Gu Byeong-mo’s bestselling novel, this tale slashes through the assassin archetype with deliberate grace. The killer in question is a woman. In her sixties. And Lee Hye-yeong plays her like she’s been holding the knife her whole life.

The film is slick, full-throttle, and steeped in cool shadows. But once you get past the novelty of its premise, the body count piles up in a familiar rhythm: slice, stab, repeat. And not a sharpening stone in sight.

Hornclaw (Lee) has been eliminating “pests” for four decades under the employ of the Shinseong Agency, a covert outfit that cleans up society’s messes with ruthless efficiency. Once hailed as the “Godmother,” Hornclaw now finds herself pushed to the sidelines by younger blood, despite a skill set honed to deadly perfection.

After a particularly nasty job leaves her bruised and bloodied, Hornclaw receives unexpected aid from a kind-hearted veterinarian, Dr. Kang (Yeon Woo-jin). He’s a rare note of compassion in her cold, clinical existence but his welfare soon becomes a liability in her life as a younger assassin known as Bullfight (Kim Sung-cheol), a feral young killer with a personal vendetta and death in his eye, comes to Shinseong.

Kyu-dong cuts between the present-day bloodletting and glimpses of Hornclaw’s brutal rise. These flashbacks map out a life lived in the margins, while building the skill and acumen required for the profession. Lee’s Hornclaw becomes a straight-moving force. She rarely rests and minimally contemplates, because stopping means dying. Kyu-dong slowly enhances the character by adding human elements into her life — Dr Kang, his jubilant daughter, a fun pup named Braveheart — then playing with the loss on the character by removing each of them. The addition of the psychotic Bullfight does not properly balance the scales. 

The movie’s action hits fast, loud, and often without warning. Lee, at sixty-three, moves with a grace that sneers at the idea of age-appropriate roles. And while the film occasionally winks at its own absurdity, that self-awareness comes at the price of narrative weight. The story never settles into something fully believable. Entertaining? Absolutely. But grounded? Not quite.

The Old Woman with the Knife slices through the genre with style and swagger, offering a fresh face to a familiar role. Lee Hye-yeong is magnetic, the action sizzles, and the premise hums with potential. But the film ultimately pulls its punches, falling back into the patterns it initially set out to disrupt. The Old Woman with the Knife is a stylish hit but one that doesn’t slice deep enough to leave a scar.

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A version of this review is published on Cinefied. Go check us out. Now.