Special Lady, A (2017) Review

"A Special Lady" Korean Theatrical Poster

“A Special Lady” Korean Theatrical Poster

Director: Lee An-Gyu
Producer: Kim Mi-Hwa
Cast: Kim Hye-Soo, Lee Sun-Kyun, Lee Hee-Joon, Choi Moo-Sung, Kim Min-Suk, Oh Ha-Nee, Ahn So-Young, Kwon Yool, Cha Soon-Bae, Sun Wook-Hyun
Running Time: 90 min.

By Z Ravas

Any way you slice it, 2017 was a great year for women in action cinema. Guided by one-half of John Wick’s directing duo, Atomic Blonde saw Charlize Theron once again in full-contact combat mode; even if the film’s poe-faced attitude and unnecessarily confusing espionage plot kept it from reaching the heights it could have, it was still a pleasure to watch every time Theron let out a guttural yell and beat a musclebound henchman to death with her high heels. On the other side of the globe, last summer’s The Villainess brought outrageous first-person action sequences to the Korean revenge thriller, and minted Kim Ok-bin as a La Femme Nikita-style icon in the process. The victory lap for this year of lethal women should have easily been A Special Lady, a film whose stylish trailer grabbed the Internet’s attention as soon as it dropped, and which arrived in Korean theaters just five months after The Villainess. Sadly, that’s not the case.

In theory, A Special Lady is headlined by Kim Hye-soo (Coin Locker Girl), a talented actress who first caught my eye as the femme fatale in 2006’s Tazza: The High Rollers – something about the actress’ smoldering looks and elegant demeanor feels born for the noir genre, and some 11 years later I was excited to see her step in front of the camera for her very first action role. I say Hye-soo headlines A Special Lady “in theory,” however, because most of the film’s runtime is spent following Lee Sun-kyun’s character. Sun-kyun is a talented actor in his own right, as evidenced by A Hard Day (easily one of the best films I saw in 2015), but I still couldn’t help but feel that A Special Lady had pulled something of a bait and switch: promising its leading lady Kim Hye-soo in action but seldom delivering it.

The movie opens with a jaw-droppingly salacious sequence as Mr. Kim’s (played by Choi Moo-sung of I Saw the Devil) criminal organization lures several high-profile CEOs, doctors, and even the local District Attorney to a love motel for the sole purpose of filming their sexual proclivities and using said footage as blackmail. Watching from the monitor room is Kim Hye-soo as Mr. Kim’s right hand woman, always cool and collected but nevertheless searching for a way to retire from this underhanded business. Meanwhile, Mr. Kim’s top henchman Lee Sun-kyun pines for Kim Hye-soo’s unreturned affection while doing Mr. Kim’s dirty work; he’s the one who must resort to violence when anyone rebuffs Mr. Kim’s attempts at blackmail, and – as an early flashback shows – he’s the first to take a steak knife in the gut any time a gang war erupts in a parking lot a la New World. After a decade in the business, he’s tired of serving as a glorified lap dog; and when the vengeful District Attorney plants visions of usurping Mr. Kim in Lee Sun-kyun’s head, the stage is set for a bloody confrontation – so just as Kim Hye-soo hopes to walk away from a life of crime, she instead finds herself caught between her boss and the co-worker she’s known since their days together in the orphanage.

The stage is set for a bloody confrontation, sure, but it does take a long time to get there; A Special Lady is one of the more plot-driven revenge thrillers out there, and it feels like a solid hour of scheming and dealing goes by before we see much in the way of action. The increased emphasis on characters and storytelling isn’t exactly a problem, except that the star of the film – Kim Hye-soo – proves conspicuously absent for much of the runtime, as we follow Lee Sun-kyun’s eventual psychological breakdown. A veteran actor of both commercial fare (R Point) and arthouse fodder (Night and Day), Lee Sun-kyun knows how to command the screen, but his character isn’t particularly likable and his arc from faithful henchman to spited employee feels more than a little familiar for the genre.

When the action does finally erupt, we get a scene of Kim Hye-soo wielding off her captors with a hacksaw in a scene that seems to deliberately recall Lee Byung-Hun’s similarly desperate escape in 2005’s A Bittersweet Life. Unfortunately, channeling that modern classic does no help for A Special Lady, as we are only reminded of a far superior film. It must also be said that Kim Hye-soo’s lack of traditional martial arts training certainly shows, so it’s wise that the filmmakers armed her with a massive shotgun and an array of knives for the conclusion. Her ending battle against a room full of guards is easily the highlight of the movie, and possesses the kind of kinetic thrills one wishes had been present throughout the entire production; this climactic bout is less of an intricately choreographed dance than it is a desperate fight for survival, and fans of Korean cinema will likely find themselves satisfied by the blood-letting as Kim Hye-soo stabs back (and stabs again) at her attackers.

In the hands of a more skilled filmmaker, A Special Lady could have had a satisfying character-driven drama peppered with action, along the lines of 2014’s excellent Man in High Heels or the needs-no-introduction The Man From Nowhere; but A Special Lady serves as Lee An-gyu’s directorial debut after assistant director duties on widely seen movies such as The Good, The Bad, the Weird and Blades of Blood. While Lee An-gyu’s future as a filmmaker is not without potential, A Special Lady needed to make a stronger impression to stand out in a genre populated by so many stunners. As such, it’s difficult to recommend that Asian film buffs make their way here before they’ve watched those other, more essential titles. Here’s hoping that Kim Hye-soo’s most ass-kicking role is still ahead of her.

Z Ravas’ Rating: 6/10



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6 Responses to Special Lady, A (2017) Review

  1. It’s unfortunate to hear that this is more miss than hit. Kim Hye-soo is one of my favorite Korean actresses (that voice!), and the star of one of my top 5 Korean movies, with 2004’s ‘Hypnotized’ (sometimes known as ‘Faceless Beauty’). Have you seen her in the gangster flick ‘Coin Locker Girl’ from 2014? A very different role than what she usually plays, as a ruthless gang leader (none of this right hand woman nonsense!) in Incheon’s Chinatown.

    • Z Ravas says:

      Both of these movies are now high on my watch list, Paul! Especially anything that’s in your top 5 Korean movies ever. ‘Faceless Beauty’ may be harder for me to track down but, fortunately, ‘Coin Locker Girl’ is available in the States via Amazon Prime (fingers crossed it’s in HD, otherwise I’m not sure I can force myself to watch it in Standard Def).

  2. Andrew Hernandez says:

    Wow. I would’ve been pissed if I watched this movie expecting to see Kim carry the film only to be about some other asshole instead. Even if there is some good action it almost seems like a case of “too little too late.”

    Oddly enough, people forgive Legacy of Rage for being a boring and dull film because of its one action highlight. I wonder if A Special Lady will have that effect.

    • Z Ravas says:

      In the hazy, nostalgic glow of my memory, Legacy of Rage does have one rip-roaring, over-the-top, heroic bloodshed ending – in other words, it was worth the wait to get there. ‘A Special Lady’s’ action sequences don’t quite operate at that level, they’re more like an oasis of action in the middle of the rest of the movie’s desert. I don’t think many people will be let down by the ending, but it’s not really worth watching the entire film just for that reason.

      • Andrew Hernandez says:

        The Woo inspired finale to Legacy was great. I just wish it was in a better film. I’m sure the same goes for Lady.

  3. I finally got around to watching this one recently, and was hoping to find an overlooked gem now that the context of it being the next female driven action flick has worn off. I can honestly say that the fact that this isn’t an action vehicle for Kim Hye-soo is the least of ‘A Special Lady’s’ problems. I thought this was horrendous, and it frequently became so absurd that it bordered that special netherworld of so bad it’s good cinema.

    Where to start? Director and writer Lee An-gyoo hasn’t done anything since, and it’s hardly surprising considering the writing appears to have been penned by an overly emotional amateur who was perhaps in the middle of going through a bad break-up, and decided to channel their love of gangster flicks and drinking into a script. Several lines made me laugh our loud, such as in one scene Sun-kyun is shot and recalls how Hye-soo helped him after he was stabbed for the first time, saying “when you stitched me up I didn’t feel any pain, but now, it hurts all over!”

    Hye-soo herself seems to be acting in a different movie all together, playing it straight compared to the ridiculousness of everything going on around her, despite sporting a shock of blonde hair and having to strut around in some truly audacious wardrobe choices. Some of Hye-soo’s outfits could almost warrant their own feature, which would probably be more entertaining to read than ‘A Special Lady’ is to watch.

    It’s a 3/10 for me.

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