Jeon Do-Yeon On Pushing Boundaries As A Veteran Actress

Billed as one of Netflix’s
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Korean tentpole originals for the year, Kill Boksoon premiered on the streaming platform on March 31. The film stars veteran cast members like Jeon Do-yeon and Sol Kyung-gu and it first screened at the Berlinale in February. Top Korean actor, Hwang Jung-min (Ode to My Father, Veteran, Deliver Us From Evil), also makes a special cameo in the film.

In her successful, three decades-long career, Jeon has not had many opportunities to play action roles. “I said yes before looking at the screenplay,” said Jeon, about her enthusiasm to play the titular character. “There was much more action than I thought there would be, so I was worried about whether I could pull it off.”

Jeon won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 for her role in Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine, which made her the first Korean person to win any acting prize at the festival. “Director Byun likes long takes for action scenes and I felt a sense of catharsis whenever I finished,” Jeon added.

Directed by Byun Sung-hyun, the film tells the story of Kill Boksoon, who is both a seasoned assassin and a mother of a teenage daughter. While she is juggling negotiations about contract renewal with her company, she receives an assignment that abruptly stops her in her tracks and she soon becomes the target of her own agency. Other co-stars include Esom (Taxi Driver), Koo Kyo-hwan (Peninsula, Netflix’s D.P.), Lee Yeon (Netflix’s Juvenile Justice) and Kim Si-a (Netflix’s Kingdom: Ashin of the North, The Silent Sea).

There are strong John Wick influences in this film and Byun shared that he is a great admirer of both early-2000s Korean cinema and Martin Scorsese’s work. Yet, Byun made sure to bring his own twist to the hitman storyline in Kill Boksoon. “I really focused on character development and how the film is also a coming-of-age story and melodrama,” Byun said. “The child educates the mother. It is sometimes comic book-like [in style] to connect to more universal things.” Reflecting on her character, Jeon said, “As an actor and mother, I also feel like I lead a double life.”

Byun shared that he was a big fan of Jeon’s work and was introduced to her through Sol Kyung-gu. Sol and Jeon were acting in the same film at that time, titled Birthday (2019). “We were talking and she later proposed a show to me but I wanted to work on an original, so I proposed this show to her,” Byun said. “I really thought long and hard about what kind of movie I can work on together with Do-yeon. She’s been in so many great movies, most of them being quite dark and deep. But I thought that she hasn’t done many action movies, so I wanted to do one for her.”

“When I first started to prepare for the role of Boksoon, I thought it wouldn’t be that hard since I have a lot of similarities with her. We are both moms who have jobs. The only difference was the nature of our work. I felt somewhat comfortable immersing myself in my character,” Jeon shared. “I think my past roles as a mom were ideal versions of a mom. However, this time, Boksoon is more of a realistic mom.”

Another co-star is Koo Kyo-hwan, best known for his work in D.P. and Train to Busan’s sequel, Peninsula. “I thought about the action [scenes] as more of a choreography than a sequence,” Koo said. “It is not about your own dance but a team dance. We had to have team chemistry and work together.”