With “Ballerina,” a “John Wick” spin-off starring Ana de Armas will hit theaters on June 6, 2024. A film with the same title and a similar story will be available on Netflix from October 6 this year – and the trailer is already shredding:
Attention, now it gets confusing: While the theatrical release of “Ballerina” (June 6, 2024) is still nine months away, “Ballerina” is already available on Netflix from October 6. The fact that these are two different films is one thing. But the fact that they are also quite similar in terms of content is likely to cause some confusion among action fans at first…
In a nutshell: The feature film is a spin-off of the popular “John Wick” series, in which Ana de Armas, known from “Knives Out”, “Blonde” and “The Gray Man”, among others, is trained as an assassin to go on a revenge spree. The Netflix film, on the other hand, comes from South Korea – and, as it seems, not only tells a similar story, but is also likely to end up burning itself into the memory of its audience with bone-crushing action. That’s what the first trailer suggests, which you can see at the beginning of this article.
BETWEEN “JOHN WICK”, “KILL BILL” & “THE RAID”: THIS IS NETFLIX’ “BALLERINA “
An ex-bodyguard sets out to fulfill her dear friend’s last wish: sweet, sweet revenge.Ballerina is coming October 6, only on Netflix pic. twitter.com/zkx5cczZ21
– Netflix K-Content (@netflixkcontent) September 7, 2023
The Korean Netflix production centers on former bodyguard Ok-ju (Jeon Jong-seo), who has only one goal after the death of someone close to her: Revenge. And in order to achieve her goal, she is willing to walk over dead bodies…
The trailer is only a little more than 30 seconds long and thus functions more as a teaser – which makes you want to see the film, but doesn’t reveal too much yet. Because it doesn’t have to. In this half minute, Netflix makes it more than clear in which direction “Ballerina” is heading – and who the target audience of the action thriller is likely to be:
The story could just as easily come from the popular “John Wick” universe, where it will actually take place next year. A woman who seeks revenge and lets her fists fly in spectacular fashion? That reminds per se of Quentin Tarantino’s action masterpiece “Kill Bill” – and if you look at the short action snippets in the trailer, of course, relentlessly brutal, hyperkinetic martial arts thrillers like “The Raid” or “Carter”, which was also released by Netflix, come to mind, which hurt just watching them.
And chances are good that “Ballerina” will be more than just an entertaining action battle fest. The director’s chair is occupied by the 33-year-old Korean Chung-Hyun Lee – who has already impressively proven with “Call” (available on Netflix) that despite his young age he already has a lot to offer.
And then, of course, there’s lead actress Jeon Jong-seo, who is far more than a mere action actress – and not only has already starred in “Call” as well as the Korean “House of Money” remake, but most notably shone with a haunting performance in the mystery masterpiece “Burning.” If all these components mesh coherently in “Ballerina”, we could be in for one of the action highlights of the year next month – which is not stingy with spectacle outside of the action either…
