In John Wick 3: Parabellum, John Wick’s (Keanu Reeves) backstory—his real name, Jardani Jovonovich—takes him into a theater that blends precise ballet training with tactical grapples. As a ballerina called Rooney, played by New York City Ballet principal dancer Unity Phelan, dances until she collapses on stage at the command of the Director (Anjelica Huston), director Chad Stahelski draws a clear parallel between the brutality of combat and the extremes of dance training. It echoes the many martial arts influences in the films as a center point of grace and defense. Len Wiseman’s Ballerina is an expansion on these elements. But ballerinas in action were becoming a trend prior to both of these. A notable influence on the third film’s motorcycle blade battle—2017’s female-led Korean revenge thriller The Villainess—presented ballet and theater performances as a front for the criminal underworld. And Netflix has another Korean action film that plays on the idea of ballerinas in a different way. Putting a feminine twist on revenge action has become more common, but in 2023’s Ballerina, that’s not the only change. Ok-ju (Jeon Jong-seo) is a stoic and skilled ex-security guard out to get revenge for the death of her friend, Min-hee (Park Yu-rim). Unlike John Wick—or Eve (Ana de Armas), the protagonist of the Wick spin-off—Ok-ju isn’t coerced into a criminal underworld. She is unapologetically choosing vengeance, which isn’t at odds with what her deceased loved one wanted for her. The film opens with ballerina Min-hee tragically taking her own life, leaving Ok-ju a handwritten request to avenge her. What unfolds is a tale of love, revenge, and systems of violence that resonate more deeply with women’s lived experiences—and in doing so, fuel more emotional action sequences.
Lee Chung Hyun’s ‘Ballerina’ Grounds Itself Where Len Wiseman’s ‘Ballerina’ Flounders

Where Len Wiseman’s Ballerina offers up fun pyrotechnics, it barely plies the landing enough to feel like a John Wick film. It glances at the established lore and symbolism of the franchise without ever really pushing those boundaries or using those tools to make Eve feel as dynamic as John. The women invented for the film, Lena (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and Tatiana (Juliet Doherty), are less developed than the entry’s sommelier, Frank (Abraham Popoola), and The Director suffers from continuity issues. It doesn’t make ballet any more consequential to the series and does less for women than the Keanu Reeves-led films. Lee Chung Hyun’s Ballerina pairs the soft imagery and presumed femininity of ballerinas with the ways men seek to brutalize women. Ok-ju follows the small lead Min-hee leaves behind for her—the name of a chef who uses his service as a cover for drugs and trafficking—to Pro (Kim Ji-hoon). In a wardrobe of BDSM gear, Ok-ju finds a large drawer filled with USB drives. The descriptions are chilling: half-Japanese high school student, pianist and fitness model, nurse with belly button piercing. Among these, she finds one simply labeled “ballerina.” Ok-ju’s heartbreak is visible before she even starts the video to confirm her worst fears.

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Ok-ju adapts to the corruption and violence the world’s traffickers create. Min-hee trusts Ok-ju to do this. Sadly, after being sexually assaulted and trapped in a cycle of trafficking fueled by blackmail, Min-hee didn’t believe that she could overcome her situation or adapt to that bleak reality. Where the film really shines is in its portrayal of Min-hee. Through the opening scene of Min-hee collapsing during a performance, the audience feels her devastation. The film flashes back to it in crucial moments, showing that the audience had changed for her. She couldn’t see theater patrons, but instead, potential voyeurs, a jury to judge her for being too vulnerable. Like many survivors of assault, Min-hee internalized her pain as shame. Pro’s collection of videos counts on that shame to continue trafficking women and girls. Where the singular vision we have from Min-hee’s perspective is cold and frightening, Ok-ju’s memories of her are anything but. Min-hee isn’t just a series of POV shots. She’s tactile and alive, as Min-hee drags Ok-ju into the world. Photobooths, beach days, late nights talking at a diner—all of these things expand not only their friendship and Ok-ju’s loss—they show the open, loving personality Pro took from Min-hee.
‘Ballerina’ Makes Vengeance Protective for Women and Girls

Image via Netflix

Similarly, Ok-ju has no overwrought monologuing about her loss. In a confrontation, Ok-ju tells one villain, “It’s me. The Ballerina.” She embraces Min-hee’s wish for revenge entirely, even placing her personal grief behind it. Through embodying Min-hee’s final request, Ok-ju saves the lives of those being trafficked at Pro’s eerily saturated and dollhouse-like hotel. And in the film’s final moments, she takes all the drives being used for blackmail as well as a diary of where the victims are coerced into returning to the hotel. Countless women who don’t get this moment of revenge are unknowingly freed by Min-hee’s request. Ballerina’s portrayal of vengeance is more than justifiable—it’s collectively healing, and it’s necessary. Ballerina makes even the tragic figure of Min-hee feel like a real person and grounds its drama in real-world misogyny that offers violent catharsis for viewers. Mirroring real-life scandals of abuse and trafficking, Lee uses sequences as frenzied as they are stunning to pilot Ok-ju’s grief, making for an emotional, brutal piece of action cinema that doesn’t need to say, “Fight like a girl.”

Ballerina

Release Date

October 6, 2023

Runtime

92 Minutes

Director

Lee Chung-hyun

Writers

Lee Chung-hyun