Age meets action in 'The Old Woman with the Knife,' a Korean thriller that made an unexpected splash at Berlinale
"I got the role because I haven't had Botox," said Lee Hye-young, sending the room into laughter at Thursday's press conference for "The Old Woman with the Knife" at Lotte Cinema Konkuk University.
The 61-year-old actor, whose illustrious career spans four decades of Korean cinema, stars as a legendary assassin thrust into one last deadly chase in director Min Kyu-dong's action thriller.
"There are plenty of good actresses my age in Korea," she added. "I kept wondering why they picked me. Now that we've wrapped, I'm finally getting those injections."
Based on Gu Byeong-mo's bestseller, the film follows Hornclaw (Lee Hye-young), a veteran killer who's spent nearly 50 years taking out "society's worst" for a clandestine outfit. Her carefully ordered existence unravels when she crosses paths with Bullfight (Kim Sung-cheol), a young hitman who dogs her steps with a fixation that goes well beyond personal vendetta.
The film's inclusion at last month's Berlin International Film Festival drummed up buzz. Getting picked for Berlinale's Special — one of the festival’s most eclectic sections — was unexpected for a Korean action flick. Min reflected on how the festival's embrace of boundary-pushing cinema created the perfect launching pad for the film.
"Screening at a festival that values deep perspective and artistic experiment before our Korean release was both thrilling and an honor," Min said. "When foreign viewers called it 'brutal yet poetic' and 'violent yet beautiful,' I felt they really got what we were going for."
For Lee, whose relationship with Berlinale spans decades, the premiere was a homecoming of sorts. She first appeared at the festival with "The Blazing Sun" (1985), where she played the female lead in what would become a Korean cinema classic.
She returned with "Passage to Buddha" (1993) and more recently in arthouse icon Hong Sang-soo's "The Novelist’s Film" (2022) and "A Traveler’s Needs" (2024), both of which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize.
"I read the book first and thought, 'How the heck are they going to turn this into a movie?'" Lee said. "The action scared me — you see, I'm not exactly in my prime anymore."
She credited the stunt team for helping her through multiple injuries. "This isn't the kind of action where you bulk up and flex for the camera," she said. "It's just regular-looking people who snap into violence out of nowhere. That made it tough."
Kim Sung-cheol recalled the director's exacting standards with a grimace. "I figured my first scene would take maybe five takes. The director wouldn't give me the OK, and we shot the thing 17 times," he said.
The cast and director spoke at length about how the film upends expectations for the action thriller genre. Min said he aimed for something deeper than action alone.
"The characters don’t just fight with their bodies — they’re grappling with their lives," he said. "Hornclaw has lived in isolation for nearly 50 years. Her work is clinical. It’s almost a form of art."
Bullfight, on the other hand, is "flashy, cocky, a showboat," Min said. "He wants to kill her, but he also needs her. It’s like they’re seeing versions of themselves in each other."
When asked what audiences should expect, Lee didn't mince words: "It's Min's best film, honestly. I don't care much for his other stuff, like 'Antique,'" she said, referring to Min's 2008 Berlinale entry. "But this one's definitely Min's triumph."
Min responded instantly, saying, "No, this film is Lee Hye-young's triumph."
"The Old Woman with the Knife" will hit Korean theaters on May 1.
moonkihoon@heraldcorp.com
![[Exclusive] NIS tried to lobby to regain investigative powers after Yoon's martial law](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2025/04/25/news-p.v1.20250425.4ddebbc93c3e4072956f1a74dab7d764_R.jpg?type=h&h=120)
