The Assassin(s) Review (TIFF 2026)
I ended my 2026 Toronto International Film Festival run with The Assassin(s), a new political thriller by director Hur-Jin Oh. Like a few other films this festival, I went in knowing nothing, no expectations, the name sounded cool and the picture on the TIFF website looked interesting so I went in, and I came out with my favourite film of the festival.
The Assassin(s) is set in August of 1974, when First Lady Yuk Young-soo was assassinated. A fictional story (as is said in the disclaimer before the film begins), it follows the investigation into the assassination, framed across a political thriller about the necessity of a free press as they try to solve it and come across governments and businesses working in tandem to hide a darker truth.
The first thing one will notice about this film is that it’s relentless. It’s rare that you’re given breathing room to process the information that is presented, as it goes from beat to beat in an increasing tempo that occasionally diverts into an action romp for a scene amidst all of this investigation. As a viewer, you won’t really have the time to fully process the information given to you (and I imagine even less if you’re watching it via subtitles, as I did), but that flow works in tandem with where the movie is at. Just like us, our protagonists – Superintendent Park Cheol-gu (played by Yoo Hae-jin ), Editor Kim Jae-hwan (played by Park Hae-il) and rookie reporter Han Young-il (played by Lee Min-ho) – are also given all of this information at a fast pace, and they too have to investigate what these mean quickly as they try to solve the murder and find the truth.
That relentless pace is what makes this film so electric. I never found myself bored once during its 131 minute runtime, as every new piece of the puzzle kept me engaged. The film finds itself split into two different plots, one with the reporters and one with the police, which converge at points, before splitting into three, with Han Young-il going to Japan to investigate further, which all culminates in one cathartic climax. There’s so many moments in this film where I found myself having to hold back from hooting and hollering, as they made their little victories, and especially at Kim Jae-hwan’s speech during the film’s third act.
Everyone in this film is phenomenal in their roles, but the three leads really are the real superstars. Yoo Hae-jin plays a cop whose belief in the system is completely shattered by the end, Park Hae-il;s performance as the editor who has been through a lot of shit but still remains in pursuit of the truth even within a broken system, and Lee Min-ho as the young reporter who remains optimistic about all this are three fantastic performances that I will think about for a while.
It’s all directed and shot so excellently too. This is my first Hur Jin-Ho flick, but this has me already wanting to check out more of his work. This is also cinematographer Lee Mo-gae’s third time working with him (first April Snow, and then Forbidden Dream) and his framing for what is a journalist drama is so excellent, dark scenes are lit well, it’s all phenomenal. Jo Yeong-wook (who you might know from Park Chan-wook’s films) scores this movie, and it’s such a damn good score.
At TIFF, I saw a film about the state of journalism (Ink) and one about life after living under Japanese occupation (The Violinist), but The Assassin(s) takes both of these and frames them in such interest
ing ways. The timing of the release of this film is funny too from an international perspective, given the US President just banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House. We need a free press more than ever, and we need the truth.
The Assassin(s) is phenomenal from beginning to end, and I implore you to watch it when it hits theaters. It’s already screening in South Korea as of writing this.
