A retired assassin gets pulled back into the one trade he never fully left in "Mantis," a 2025 South Korean crime thriller from director Lee Tae-sung.
What is Mantis about?
Known in the underworld simply as Mantis, the film's central killer had stepped away from contract work, but a hiatus in that line of business rarely stays permanent. His return puts him back in contact with Jae-yi, once his trainee and now someone navigating the same violent economy on different terms, and with Dok-go, a onetime legend of the trade who has traded fieldwork for running the organization that employs them both. The setup pushes old loyalties against present-day orders, with Mantis caught between the discipline that made him effective and the ties that complicate every job he is handed. Yim Si-wan anchors the title role opposite Park Gyu-young as Jae-yi, while Sul Kyung-gu's Dok-go supplies the weight of someone who has already lived through everything the younger characters are still learning. The film moves through the tightly controlled world of contract killing as an industry with its own rules, hierarchies, and unspoken debts, rather than treating each hit as an isolated set piece.
About the cast
Yim Si-wan carries the title role with a controlled, watchful presence that suits a character defined by restraint as much as by violence. Park Gyu-young's Jae-yi provides the emotional throughline between past and present, and Sul Kyung-gu, alongside Jeon Do-yeon in a supporting turn, gives the older generation of the story real weight without tipping the film into melodrama.
Context & significance
Lee Tae-sung frames the criminal organization at the story's center less as a shadowy abstraction and more as a functioning workplace, complete with its own chain of command and internal politics, a choice that grounds the thriller elements in something closer to procedure than spectacle. South Korean crime cinema has built a strong reputation for exactly this kind of morally layered underworld drama, and "Mantis" fits into that tradition through its focus on the relationships between killer, trainee, and boss rather than on body count alone.
Watching Mantis on Ktime
"Mantis" streams on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, giving Farsi-speaking audiences full access to its dialogue-driven tension. A free K-Time account unlocks playback, and the Farsi-language experience covers everything from menus to subtitles for viewers who want the whole platform in their own language.