Netflix just dropped a new trailer for their upcoming action film Ballerina, starring Jeon Jong-seo. The film is a classic revenge story with apparently a lot of brutality and gore to top it up. Taking a good hard look at the trailer, we’ve noticed particular elements of the movie that can’t help but remind us of Max Payne and The Last of Us: Part 2.
Both of these games revolve around revenge as their central plot point. However, they tackle it in different ways and with varying emotional weight. Ballerina‘s action corresponds more to Max Payne, with its bullet hell shootouts and combat. The titular character, Max, also has something in common with Jong-seo’s character from Ballerina: they both lost someone they failed to protect.
The movie’s description offers us more insight into its plot and characters: “Grieving the loss of a best friend she couldn’t protect, ex-bodyguard Ok-ju sets out to fulfill her dear friend’s last wish: sweet, sweet revenge.”
Where The Last of Us: Part 2 comes into play is the sheer brutality and visceral emotional weight of these revenge stories. Ballerina and TLOU 2 take an uncompromising approach when showcasing the raw and gut-wrenching feeling of avenging lost ones. Whereas in Ballerina, that was the explicit request of the main character’s friend, TLOU 2‘s Ellie goes on a personal, rampaging vendetta, sparing no lives on her way.
What little we’ve seen from the trailer also makes us look at other action flicks ingrained in public memory. John Wick and Kill Bill seem to have inspired the upcoming Korean thriller. The main character embarks equally on silent assassinations and high-octane vehicular chases, using a varying arsenal of weaponry along the way.
At any rate, it seems that Neflitx’s Ballerina is shaping up to be an homage to the greats of the action genre. Ballerina hits Netflix on Oct. 6.
