The Night of the Assassin (2023) was intended as a bagatelle, a generic martial arts movie for me to watch while Ms. Spenser worked. It was exactly that and a darn good one.
It stars Shin Hyun-Joon, as the greatest assassin in the Joseon kingdom. But after a big fight, he becomes weak. His doctor tells him he has heart problems, and advises him to limit his martial arts activity, and maybe also his bedroom activities. But when a beautiful waitress in a gauzy dress serves him a private meal, he breaks the second piece of advice. When she turns out to be an assassin sent to kill him, he breaks the first. But it becomes known that he is weakened, and now everyone is after him.
He flees incognito, and is resting outside a village when a gang of kids swipe his bindle - including all his money. He finds a teahouse run by a widow with a young son (probably one of the guys who stole his stuff). She feeds him, and when he doesn't have any money, gives him a tray of noodles to deliver to a table. He keeps trying to leave (promising to pay later), and she keeps giving him tasks. She even gives him a place to stay at the end of the day. And so he becomes a waiter and scullery boy.
But the village has problems with bandits. Shin tries to keep out of it until...
Semi-spoiler: Around the end of the second act, the kid gets killed by the bandits. Like in The King's Man, this is a more-or-less welcome development, because the kid was kind of annoying. It also shifts the story away from family drama to straight action.
It turns out that we have seen Shin Hyun-Joon before, in Shadowless Sword. I think I liked that one better, but this was perfectly servicable.
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