Synopsis
True crime meets global spy thriller in this gripping account of the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean leader. The film follows the trial of the two female assassins, probing the question: were the women trained killers or innocent pawns of North Korea?
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Cast
- Siti AisyahSelf
- Doan Thi HuongSelf
- Hadi AzmiSelf
- Anna FifieldSelf
- Kim Jong-namSelf (archive footage)
- Kim Jong-unSelf (archive footage)
- Donald TrumpSelf (archive footage)
- Ri Sol-juSelf (archive footage)
- Moon Jae-inSelf (archive footage)
- Kim Yo-jongSelf (archive footage)
Recommendations
- 88
The Associated Press
Although the event and aftermath were widely, exhaustively covered, I don’t think I’m the only one who lost the thread early. This not knowing is part of what makes Ryan White’s extraordinary documentary Assassins, about the trial of the two young women, so compulsively compelling. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
Ryan White crafts a piercingly observant investigative documentary that methodically pieces together a complex collage of incriminating evidence outlining a carefully orchestrated attempt to conceal the sinister implications behind Kim’s assassination. - 80
Variety
Assassins is a terrific true-crime story, but it’s also a documentary thriller about the new world disorder. - 80
CineVue
American filmmaker Ryan White, director of the acclaimed Netflix mini-series The Keepers, spins a web of riveting, murderous intrigue in his latest documentary Assassins. - 75
IndieWire
The story is so outlandish — and the film so dry — that it’s hard not to be impressed by the discipline White showed in refusing to have more fun with it. - 75
Movie Nation
White, who did “Ask Dr. Ruth” and a “Serena” documentary, is very good at getting the blood boiling over the injustices at every turn, the feigned outrage of North Koreans trying to bully their way out of blame and Malaysians who let the world know that they know who was involved and how, and just what they were willing to do about it. - 75
RogerEbert.com
White plays it straight, and deftly untangles the different webs of meaning and implication, political, social and otherwise, to draw us into Siti and Doan's worlds, to understand how the girls were tricked and used as pawns in a deadly North Korean family feud. - 70
Los Angeles Times
While Assassins may be somewhat unsatisfying as a true-crime story, it’s provocative as an examination of power.
