REVIEW: ‘My Dearest Assassin’ Fails To Land A Killing Blow

My Dearest Assassin (Lueat Rak Nakkha), directed by Taweewat Wantha and written by Watthana Veerayawattana, is a tragic action film that follows Lhan (Pimchanok Luevisadpaibul), a woman with the world’s rarest blood type. This trait has made her the mark of assassins, whose sponsor needs her blood at any cost. When she is taken in by another group of killers, her life seems to stabilize, only for death to come looking for her again.

At its core, this movie tries to tell a heartbreaking story of loss, love, and murder. While these narrative ingredients can certainly go together, they require the right balancing, or the flavor becomes lost. Rather than the poignancy of loss, the warmth of love, and the burn of murder, they can become muddled together, leaving no clear taste at all. This is where My Dearest Assassin finds itself by the time the credits roll.

Perhaps the film’s biggest failing is its handling of Lhan. It tries to do so much with her, develop love interests, showcase her struggle to become her own person despite her circumstances, as well as eventually search out the strength to end the threat to her life, that we never get to understand who she is, so much as what she is trying to do. She is such a blank slate that I couldn’t tell you a single thing about her beyond the plot points that affect her. 

My Dearest Assassin gives Lhan a lot to do, but does little to develop her as a fleshed-out character.

Adding to this dilution of focus is the plethora of other plots surrounding the rest of the cast. Family struggles within the group that takes Lhan in, a budding love triangle, and the villain’s search for Lhan all take up focus over the movie’s just over two-hour runtime. 

Of all the underdeveloped plots in My Dearest Assassin, the relationship between Lhan, Pran (Tor Thanapob Leeratanakachorn), and M (Porsche Sivakorn Adulsuttikul),  the latter two younger members of the group that takes Lhan in, is one that needed more time. There is the foundation of a deep, meaningful friendship among these three that is touched on here but not fully explored. How the writing avoids some obvious pitfalls in their mutual development and sets them up to become something special begs for more exploration. 

Along with the plot, there is ample action.  The fight sequences are generally solid in My Dearest Assassin. The choreography delivers some hard hits, and the camera work always helps create a clear image of the action as it unfolds. As someone who hasn’t watched much Thai cinema, the moves, attacks, and approaches are unique from much of the other action fare I’ve enjoyed in the past. 

Brushing aside the film’s convoluted plot, the action is solid and delivers what it needs to.

The big stumbling block for the action comes through a couple of critical, unforced errors. Multiple times, villains have easy opportunities to kill the protagonists that they fumble. Despite being touted as deadly hitmen, these moments suck much of the aura of threat from the opposition forces in general, though the central baddies manage to avoid this unfortunate fate. It would’ve been so easy to simply avoid these undermining mistakes.

The final error that My Dearest Assassin comes at the worst time: the end. Believing the situation has resolved itself, the film jumps back from the final credits into the story to deliver one of the most unnecessary epilogue scenes ever. It sees a moment you once saw play out, undone, only to be redone. While the mid-credits version of the scene has a bit more flair, it also undercuts the emotional payoff of the first experience, making it feel far more harmful to the film than anything else. This is not how to end a picture. 

When all is said and done, My Dearest Assassin is fine. It tries to do a lot, but struggles to stick the landing. Coupled with some poorly thought-out moments in the action, undercutting what is otherwise solid fight scenes, and you have a fine film that action lovers may enjoy, but have undoubtedly seen better, more memorable examples of the genre. 

My Dearest Assassin streams exclusively on Netflix May 7, 2026.