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The first two or three major set pieces in the South Korean action film "The Villainess" feel like a tossed gauntlet. In these early scenes, writer/director Byung-gil Jung confirms his status as a filmmaker to watch through his brazen, often effective use of long takes, trick photography, copious gore, and ostentatious fight choreography. We watch as mysterious killer Sook-hee (Ok-bin Kim) slaughters her way through rooms full of hired assassins, then races through a disorienting labyrinth of nearby rooms. We don't always literally see through Sook-hee's eyes in these opening minutes, but there's often a "you are there" immediacy to the film's photography, an impression that's further emphasized by Jung's use of distorted fish-eye lenses, his camera's in-the-thick-of-it physical proximity to Kim, and the extras that her character so handily massacres. These scenes will get you drunk on the possibilities of what's to come. They also feel like Jung's way of acknowledging his forebears while one-upping them. "Kingswha?" "Oldwho?" "Hardcore Whozee?" Never mind those guys, here comes "The Villainess."