The Old Woman with the Knife

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The Old Woman with the Knife

2025

2h 11m

Action

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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Popcornmeter

93%

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27 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

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.

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Critics Consensus

Visually slick, thrillingly bloody, and provocatively intense, The Old Woman with the Knife is elevated by Lee Hye-Young's ferociously compelling performance.

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Siddhant Adlakha

Variety

Mar 23

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

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Wendy Ide

Screen International

Mar 17

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.

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Douglas Davidson

Elements of Madness

Jan 12

3.5/5

... 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.

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Rich Cline

Shadows on the Wall

Dec 2

3/5

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

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Karina Adelgaard

Heaven of Horror

Nov 25

4/5

...a gorgeous genre-mix that I initially liked, but the ending was much better than I ever expected.

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Katie Smith-Wong

Flick Feast

Jun 9

4/5

A compelling, bloody and intense thriller that shows heroines come in all ages with Lee Hye-young shining as a badass.

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Paul

May 17

Riveting and very suspenseful

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Depechemark

@depechemark Nov 30

Great movie! She's so good! But there's no reason this movie had to be 2 hours and 5 minutes. This easily could have been 90 minutes. AND the ending made absolutely no sense. So he wanted to kill her but then as he's dying it's revealed that he actually wanted to go with her when he was a kid like to be his new mom or something, and she says later when he's older? So if that's all he wanted, why want to kill her, threaten the vet's family, kidnap the girl, and then beat her up and almost kill her? Whaaaaat? Then she realizes it and goes over to him and holds him in her lap as he's dying and basically says why didn't you tell me and he said because he was scared? So because he was scared to tell her he instead tries to kill her? Again, whaaaaat? Storyline would have been better If he was a little angry and midway through they had a fight or something, then that realization happened, then they joined forces or something. It's almost like, did anyone really read the script and realize the ending made no sense? It's like, "I'm an adult now and I'm angry because you left me when I was a kid, I'm going to try to kill you, intimidated a family, kidnap a girl, hire 25 men to kill you with guns, fight you myself, punch and stab you and almost kill you, all because I was scared to tell you I was the kid from 25 years ago whose father beat me and you protected me by killing him and I wanted to go with you but you said find me later and I did but was afraid you wouldn't remember me." ???

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Victor A

May 29

The Old Woman with the Knife is a captivating thriller filled with intrigue, revenge, and some great fighting sequences! Lee Hye-young is incredible in this! The cinematography in some scenes is just beautiful. This is a terrific action movie with a few twists that might catch the audience off guard. The Old Woman with the Knife is destined to become a martial arts classic.

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Marc S

May 17

Finally an action movie that doesn’t insult one’s intelligence!

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The Old Woman with the Knife: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

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.

Director: Min Kyu-dong
Producer: Min Jin-soo
Screenwriter: Min Kyu-dong, Kim Dong-wan
Distributor: Well Go USA Entertainment
Production Co: SooFilm
Genre: Action, Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: Korean
Release Date (Theaters): May 16, 2025, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 25, 2025
Runtime: 2h 11m

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