Ballerina (2023) VS Ballerina (2025)

Two films. One title. The United States vs South Korea. Two years apart. Who will win in a fair fight?

"Ballerina" (2023): Jang Ok Joo is a former elite bodyguard. She has no one except her very close friend Choi Min Hee. But one day, after receiving a distressed call, she arrives and finds that the former ballerina has taken her own life. In her suicide note, she asks for revenge. Ok Joo learns that Min Hee fell into the hands of a cruel fetishist human trafficker who broke her. Which means there's only one way to honor her past and avenge someone dear... through murder.

"Ballerina" (2025): Eve Macarro is a young woman who belongs to a ballet troupe that is actually the Ruska Roma mafia. Her father was brutally killed by members of another criminal group, and she seeks revenge. But to do that, she'll have to go against the rules of the family that took her in. Will she be able to complete her path of vengeance and reach the heavily guarded leader of an isolated clan?..

Damn, I honestly don't know. Two films with a similar concept, the same genre, but such different execution... it's surprising. One of them is just solid genre cinema. Reflective, alive, fast, and brutal. Extremely logical and convincing. A story of revenge for someone who will never open their eyes again. The other is just a commercial movie with decently (and only that) staged action scenes, but a one-dimensional plot, where something meaningful only appears toward the end. Every character has literally five pages of simplistic dialogue, and the story itself was chopped up just to cram in the invincible hero from the previous four (?) films of the series. Compared to its Korean predecessor, it's devastatingly bad.

Yes, an action movie doesn't have to be talky. But characters matter in a story, right? In the 2023 "Ballerina," there aren't many of them, but they're vivid. Ok Joo is quiet, searching for peace, but still angry. Fierce and unstoppable. Min Hee is a narrative trigger, a bright memory, a broken soul. Choi Pro is a vile abuser, a henchman, a slave to his desires. The bare minimum that's enough for ironclad motivation: one is ready to kill everyone, the other believes he's right and is ready to defend himself.

What about the world of John Wick? Ana de Armas's heroine is a sullen girl taking her first steps in the murky waters of contract killing. The head of the Ruska Roma (Anjelica Huston) just sits there charismatically and commands. Keanu Reeves appears in two scenes and doesn't just steal attention---he takes over the narrative ("heroic man saves a foolish woman"). There are no stakes at all: we already know no one will kill John Wick (...), and Eve Macarro will most likely reach the finale with a couple of scratches, unlike the hundreds of extras and the villainous villain with a hint of philosophy as empty as a beer can.

But what about the fights? Maybe Chad Stahelski's talent and his stunt team will carry a film whose existence is questionable---one that makes even Marvel's "Black Widow" look slightly more thoughtful? I'm not sure. I deeply respect the technical mastery of everyone involved in complex action scenes. John Wick's "Ballerina" almost always looks... competent, especially in the (too rare) creative moments like (minor spoilers!) the siege of the gun shop, the ice skate scene, or the now-famous flamethrower duel, which is executed brilliantly. But the general fights...

Look, the problem is conceptual. In America, fights are choreography of "hero vs a crowd of extras": someone like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stands there while people attack him one by one, he beats them all, chairs, bottles, lots of weapons, hero wins (it's in the actor's contract). In Korea, it's different: first, weapons are often harder to come by (firearms are banned), and second, a typical fight is knife combat. Tactile strikes, recoil, broken bones, dislocated joints. Every movement has weight, force, consequence. The hero can feel pain, can be beaten half to death. Not just a couple of scratches like Ana de Armas. (I'm not even mentioning the infinite ammo.) For some reason, fights in Korean series like "Bloodhounds" or "Good Boy" feel much more tactile and impactful than the safe brawls with a very условный R rating in films like "John Wick." And that's a big problem: in both cases, skilled professionals perform these stories, risking their health and giving their all. But the results differ.

That doesn't mean the American "Ballerina" is completely unwatchable. The production designers did an excellent job (the composition is sometimes very good), the lighting can be interesting, and the locations of old Europe and the snowy town at the end are beautiful. The Korean "Ballerina" is a bit paler in that regard. And the music: in the 2023 film it doesn't play a major role, while in the newer one Tyler Bates's compositions try to create a "stylish" atmosphere.

But it doesn't save the film much.

You can tell that the Ana de Armas "Ballerina" was originally some other, more original story (though with shades of "Black Widow") that was stripped of its identity and attached to the sprawling world of a bearded Belarusian from Hawaii whose dog was "just" killed. The script problems likely stem from the John Wick concept itself, which turned from a finished story into an almost endless series with its own mythology that doesn't feel realistic (a hotel for assassins? special rules? secret societies?? come on---as if real Freemasons or Illuminati aren't just groups of slightly odd people in embroidered robes). The "Ballerina" with Jeon Jong Seo, as an eclectic story of brutal yet morally justified revenge, doesn't have this problem. It simply works better emotionally.

So there it is. In the clash between an expensive, producer-driven film packed with cameos and aimed at a global audience, and a more modest Korean movie about fighting sex and drug trafficking by one very desperate girl---the latter wins. The battle was fair, and the victory well deserved. Keep it up, Ok Joo; Eve Macarro---sorry, but it just wouldn't have worked out between us.

Rating: "Ballerina" (2023) --- 7.8/10, "Ballerina" (2025) --- 5.5/10.
While watching, I was reminded of "Kraven the Hunter"... and a bit of "Madame Web." You get the idea, right?
This really isn't Ana de Armas's role. Not her level. She's too good for the role of a perpetually gloomy doll with a katana, improvisationally blowing up bad guys with grenades.

P.S. "Ballerina-cappuccina..." 🩰☕