We discuss the ending of the 2023 Korean Netflix film Kill Boksoon, which will contain spoilers.
Kill Boksoon is a Korean action thriller on Netflix. It stars the incredible Jeon Do-yeon as a professional assassin who struggles to balance her work life with her personal life. Specifically, she can’t connect with her teenage daughter, Jae-young.
When Bok-soon is at work, she’s a ruthless and famed killer. But when she comes home to Jae-young, she pretends she’s an event planner. Jae-young also has a secret she can’t share with her mother. She is dating a girl at school named So-ra and gets bullied by the boys because of it.
Bok-soon finds out that Jae-young has been expelled for stabbing a student, Cheol-woo, in the neck with a pair of scissors. Chairman Cha Min-kyu of her company jokes that her daughter takes after her.
This upsets Bok-soon because she first killed someone when she was 17. Jae-young reminds her of her younger self. She wanted to raise her in a world opposite to the violent one she grew up in.
Bok-soon promised Chairman Cha that having her daughter would not affect her work, but it is more challenging than expected. She’s afraid of coming home to her daughter after committing such violent acts because of how she feels her daughter will look at her. She worries if she’s a qualified mother.
Meanwhile, Director Cha Min-hee, the Chairman’s sister, adamantly dislikes Bok-soon. She knows that the Chairman is biased towards her and picks her for the A-ranked missions because of their past. Chairman Cha first met Bok-soon when she walked in on him about to kill her father. Instead of Bok-soon being afraid, she helped him kill him.
READ: Will there be a sequel to Kill Boksoon?
For Bok-soon’s new assignment, Chairman Cha wants her to kill the senator’s son and make it look like a suicide. The senator, who became infamous for fraudulently getting his son into college, actually paid her company to kill his son. Because Bok-soon has a child (and morals), she refuses to complete the mission.
Bok-soon meets Young-ji, a talented intern that Director Cha is training. Bok-soon believes in her potential and wants to work together. However, Chairman Cha murders her when he frames a man for Bok-soon’s murders and must remove any witnesses.
This is the final straw for Bok-soon, who kills Director Cha and challenges the Chairman to a final battle.
Kill Boksoon Ending Explained
Did Jae-Young watch Bok-soon kill Chairman Cha?
Bok-soon shows up at Chairman Cha’s office, and they fight. She eventually gets the upper hand. As he dies, he reveals to her that he sent an iPad to her house. The camera in his office had broadcasted the entire fight to Jae-young. After he dies, Bok-soon is terrified that her daughter watched her kill someone.
She rushes home and is relieved to find Jae-young asleep in bed. At this point, it’s safe to believe Jae-young didn’t see anything. However, the post-credits scene shows her with an entirely new attitude.
Jae-young shows up to school, which she no longer attends, to say goodbye to So-ra. She whispers to her that she was considering killing her. She also passes Cheol-woo, who has a bandage on his neck, and subtly mocks him.
Based on these events, it makes sense if Jae-young saw the footage of her mother killing the Chairman and has become inspired to be like her. Further, the fact that she stabbed a student earlier in the film hints that she always had a violent bone in her body.
From being bullied for her gay relationship, Jae-young is already angry enough to hurt another person. Seeing the video of her mother killing someone validated her anger and convinced her to share her murderous intent with So-ra and be unapologetic toward Cheol-woo.
Do Bok-soon and Jae-young mend their relationship?
Bok-soon and Jae-young’s relationship gets stronger by the end of Kill Boksoon but on dishonest terms. Jae-young reveals her relationship with So-ra, and Bok-soon tells her she doesn’t have to hide who she is.
However, Bok-soon isn’t able, to tell the truth. When Jae-young suspects that her mother is in the CIA after finding her gun and fake passport in her bag, Bok-Soon doesn’t deny this. As Jae-young is excited about this news, Bok-soon cries privately because she will never be able, to be honest with her daughter.
Further, Jae-young becoming violent at the end of Kill Boksoon implies that she has become inspired by her mother’s violence. This will hurt their relationship later on, as Bok-soon never wanted Jae-young to be like her.
What did you think of the ending of the 2023 Korean Netflix film Kill Boksoon? Comment below.
