Latest news with #JeonJong-seo
Tom's Guide
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
3 best Netflix action movies you (probably) haven't seen
From "Havoc" to "Bullet Train Explosion" to "Exterritorial", Netflix is chock-full of high-octane action movies to get your pulse pumping and your energy up. However, the sheer breadth of options available on that top-rate streaming service — especially when it comes to the streamer's original content — can make it easier said than done when narrowing that selection down to one quality action-packed flick. So we've made things a bit easier for you by spotlighting a trio of action movies that you might've missed the first time around. These underrated Netflix titles range from a French action thriller about a skilled female soldier who seeks out revenge for crimes against her family, to a gory and guns-blazing South Korean film about a bodyguard-turned-assassin. If it's fast-paced chase sequences, bloody fight scenes, expert stunt work and fiery explosions you're after, here are three Netflix action movies you (probably) haven't seen yet but definitely should. When it comes to action movies, nothing tastes quite as sweet as revenge — and Jang Ok-ju (played by "The Call" star Jeon Jong-seo), a former bodyguard for elite VIP clients, is out for just that after her best friend Choi Min-hee (Park Yu-rim) commits suicide and leaves behind a final wish of getting vengeance against Choi Pro (Kim Ji-hoon), the sex trafficker who abused and extorted her. Ok-ju tracks down Choi's address and sets off to brutally do her dearly departed friend's bidding. Written and directed by Lee Chung-hyun, "Ballerina" (not to be confused with the recent "John Wick" spinoff) has a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and pulled in 14.7 million views and 23.1 million hours of viewing when it debuted on Netflix in October 2023, earning it the number one spot in Netflix's top 10 list of most-watched non-English films. Rohan Naahar of The Indian Express wrote of the "bone-crushing" thriller: "Neon visuals and a thumping soundtrack elevate Netflix's slickly packaged Korean revenge thriller that substitutes plot in favour of pure vibes." Watch "Ballerina" on Netflix now Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Written and directed by Nic Mathieur, this 2016 sci-fi action flick is set in a civil war-ridden Moldova, where US forces have been engaging insurgents of the former regime—that is, until a new threat emerges: an invisible and unknown entity that kills almost instantaneously any living being caught in its path. Leading the special-ops team dispatched to fight the supernatural beings is James Badge Dale as DARPA scientist Mark Clyne; Emily Mortimer also stars as CIA officer Fran Madison, with Max Martini, Bruce Greenwood and Clayne Crawford in supporting roles. Over on Pajiba, Jodi Smith writes of the film: "Instead of going for huge stars, awkward and unneeded backstories, and bloat, 'Spectral' manages to pack in just what a viewer needs to enjoy the plot and journey placed before them." Watch "Spectral" on Netflix now Dubbed "John Wick on the Riviera" by Vulture critic Bilge Ebiri, the Julien Leclercq-directed "Sentinelle" centers on Klara (Olga Kurylenko), a highly-trained French soldier who has returned home to Nice from serving in the Middle East traumatized by the harrowing experience. But unfortunately, the hits keep coming for Klara. After her sister Tania (Marilyn Lima) is horrifically raped and left in a coma, Klara users her lethal military skills to hunt down the men who hurt her sibling. Though some critics have pointed out that the lean-and-mean script (co-written by Leclercq and Matthieu Serveau) suffers from some cliches, Decider reviewer Johnny Loftus praises the action movie for balancing "its beats of emotional trauma against the darker forces of vigilantism," adding that the film "doesn't forgive its main character's drastic actions, but it illustrates pretty well how she got there." Watch "Sentinelle" on Netflix now
South China Morning Post
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Beauty beyond borders: the rise and rise of South Korea's plastic surgery empire
Last December, a series of plastic surgery ads were splashed on the side of buses and bus stops around Seoul. While this is nothing new for South Korea, a country that accounts for nearly 25 per cent of the global aesthetic surgery market and where nine in every 1,000 people have received some form of alteration, it was the faces of actresses Jeon Jong-seo and Jang Yoon-ju on the posters that caught the attention of many. Advertisement Gangnam Unni, responsible for the campaign with the tagline 'Accurate information to be beautiful', is South Korea's leading beauty and medical information platform that links more than 6.7 million users with 3,700 dermatology and plastic surgery clinics across the country and Japan. The beauty company is being touted as a potential unicorn start-up, as its parent company, Healing Paper, posted a revenue of nearly US$29 million in 2023 and is entering markets in Japan and Thailand. That same year, it also launched Unni, a multi-language cross-border service allowing patients from 104 countries to access South Korean clinics. A screenshot of Gangnam Unni, South Korea's leading beauty and medical information platform. Photo: Handout Gangnam is the district in Seoul in the middle of the plastic surgery empire. Unni is Korean for 'big sister'. According to the Korean Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, about 55 per cent of the more than 600 plastic surgery clinics in Seoul are concentrated in Gangnam. As Gangnam Unni's most recent ad with top actresses has shown, the willingness of South Korean celebrities to be aligned with the industry or open about their experience going under the knife has elevated the image of plastic surgery in the country. Lee Si-an, a highly popular female contestant from the latest season of Netflix's Singles Inferno, is one of the many stars who received even more support and interest from fans after she was very comfortable in revealing her past procedures on her face. The fact that she was the most popular contestant on the dating show also signalled a win for plastic surgery clinics. Advertisement Lee Kun-hee, president of the Korean Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and a practising surgeon in Seoul, said when ultra-competitiveness emerged in South Korea from the 2000s, people began associating a strong physical appearance to having a competitive edge in society.
