Two freelance assassins are staked out on a job, bitching about how hard it is to make a living. An organization called MK keeps tight control over all the companies that are competing for clients who want someone dead. But MK seems to be falling apart, and the two have only contempt for the rules that MK enforces to keep the competing companies focused: don’t kill minors, accept only company-approved hits (in the movie they’re called “shows”), and once you’ve accepted a show, follow through.
Wouldn’t you know it, the two goons pull off their show, which violates all three principles. An MK enforcer, Mantis, shows up to exact deadly punishment.
Mantis is Lee Han-ul (Im Si-wan), the best of the best among MK’s dwindling network of assassins. But he wants a break – permanently, actually, a termination of his contract. MK boss Cha Min-kyu agrees only to a vacation; they’ll talk about his request later, including Han-ul’s additional appeal to add colleague Shin Jae-yi (Park Gyu-young) to MK’s coterie.
But MK is cratering when he returns. Min-kyu has been killed and there’s a power vacuum. Jae-yi reluctantly joins a new company run by Han-ul, but she chafes under his heavy-handed leadership. And a former MK assassin with even more masterful skills, Dok-go (Jo Woo-jin), is stepping back in to vie for leadership of MK.
Through a maze of plot turns, Han-ul, Jae-yi, and Dok-go wind up on a three-way collision course, complete with a nod to the famous Good/Bad/Ugly camera shot.
See It
Halfway through I was ready to write off Mantis as just another excuse for stylish martial arts throwdowns. And, yes, the action choreography is well designed and well executed by the three protagonists (and of course their doubles). But I also began to feel that, for an action flick, there sure was a lot of talking. Turns out Mantis has more on its mind. It’s also a tale about what happens when an evil-doers quixotic notions of “honor” collide with naked ambition and the overpowering desire to be – and to be recognized as – the best. In this case, the best sword-wielding murderer.
Im Si-wan is just OK as the central figure who tries desperately to return his fraternity of assassins to something like a status quo, under his leadership. Jo Woo-jin turns in an even more riveting performance as the steely and ultracapable fighter who wants to rule the MK roost. But it is Park Gyu-young who snags your attention. It takes a while, but slowly you begin to appreciate that this is really her story: her struggle to pay back the guys for slighting her capabilities and to prove herself not just their equal but their superior.
Mantis is a spin-off of Kill Boksoon, a popular 2023 movie that set up this unsavory, alternate universe of professional assassins. Might there be more movies in the same universe? Mantis is watchable, but it’s questionable whether it’s an interesting enough foundation upon which to construct more tales of carnage. But the ending leaves open the possibility.