← Back to Directory
Miss Butcher
Movie

Miss Butcher

2017 • Unknown

Woke Score
5
out of 10

Plot

Soon-Ae (Seo-Young) opens a butcher's shop. The butcher's shop is popular due to its flavorful meat. Most of the store's customers are male. Meanwhile, man’s body is found at a hotel near the butcher's shop. The man was brutally murdered. Soon, more murders are found with similarities to the first murder. One day, Detective Kim (Kim Min-Jun) stops by the butcher's shop and meets Soon-Ae. Since then, Detective Kim keeps a watch on Soon-Ae.

Overall Series Review

Miss Butcher is a South Korean thriller that follows a beautiful and skilled butcher, Soon-Ae, who becomes the prime suspect in a series of gruesome murders of men. The film's core narrative is a revenge plot against powerful male figures—specifically doctors—who used their systemic power to commit horrific sexual violence without consequence. The protagonist is depicted as an emotionally strong, capable female avenger who uses her butchery skills to mete out vigilante justice. The male characters are overwhelmingly portrayed as either corrupt sexual predators or bumbling, secondary figures like the investigating detective. The film is a dark exploration of gender-based injustice and the failure of institutional systems to protect women, which is resolved through extra-judicial violence. The entire conflict is a secular matter of power dynamics and personal vengeance.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics6/10

The plot's entire motivation is rooted in a clear intersectional dynamic: female victimhood and systemic oppression at the hands of male power. The narrative relies on this hierarchy of gender and status to justify the serial killings. The focus on a systemic failure by high-status men to escape justice elevates the theme beyond personal crime.

Oikophobia2/10

The film is a South Korean production and critiques corruption and crime within its own society's medical and justice systems. The focus is on a specific, localized social ill rather than a broad hostility toward a civilizational home, ancestors, or a Western framework.

Feminism9/10

The score is very high because the protagonist, Soon-Ae, is the ultimate 'Girl Boss' figure: a perfect, skilled killer enacting a righteous, brutal revenge on male sexual predators who abused their power. The men in the story are depicted as vile, corrupt, and deserving of a violent death, serving to emasculate and vilify the masculine principle. The narrative positions the female avenger as the superior moral and physical force.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative is focused entirely on the traditional male-female sexual and power dynamic (sexual assault, revenge, male detective and female suspect). No themes of alternative sexualities, deconstruction of the nuclear family, or gender ideology are present in the plot.

Anti-Theism5/10

The conflict and its resolution are completely secular, revolving around crime, institutional corruption, and personal vengeance. The morality of the revenge is entirely subjective and extra-legal, reflecting a belief in 'might makes right' justice and a rejection of objective legal or moral authority, though the film does not specifically target any traditional religion.