Netflix’s Kill Boksoon star Jeon Do-yeon on ‘huge pressure’ of carrying the action-thriller, in which she plays a mother who’s an asssassin

Kill Boksoon, about an assassin trying to connect with her daughter, contains fight scenes that the Korean actress found ‘challenging’ and even left her injured

She opened up at the Berlin film festival about how protagonist Boksoon’s life isn’t ‘that different’ from her own, what it means to be ‘a good parent’ and more

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Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon, star of Netflix’s new action thriller Kill Boksoon, opens up about her first time playing a killer and what it means to be a good parent. Photo: Netflix.

Published: 6:15pm, 28 Mar 2023

In the Netflix movie Kill Boksoon, Jeon Do-yeon, who plays Gil Boksoon, a top assassin for the shadowy MK organisation, struggles to connect with her teenaged daughter, Jae. It turns out Boksoon is a better killer than parent.

“Well, what is a good parent?” Jeon ponders during an interview at the recent Berlin International Film Festival, where the world premiere of her film took place.

“Sometimes we can’t really judge what’s good or bad. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m right. Being a mother is not an easy task.”

Jeon was a friendly presence in Berlin, waving to crowds and joking through a televised press conference. But her steely resolve is never far from the surface. Publicists tried to rush her along the red carpet, but she insisted on taking selfies with fans.

She is all smiles for her interview, alongside writer and director Byun Sung-hyun, in a conference room at Berlin’s Hotel de Rome. A fixture in Korean cinema and TV since the 1990s, Jeon won the best actress award at Cannes for Secret Sunshine in 2007. She has played a wide range of roles, but never a cold-blooded killer.