Tiger: An Old Hunter’s Tale, The (2015) Review

"The Tiger: An Old Hunters Tale" Korean Theatrical Poster

“The Tiger: An Old Hunters Tale” Korean Theatrical Poster

AKA: The Tiger
Director: Park Hoon-Jung
Cast: Choi Min-Sik, Jeong Man-Sik, Kim Sang-Ho, Sung Yoo-Bin, Ren Osugi, Jung Suk-Won, Ra Mi-Ran, Yoo Jae-Myung, Kim Hong-Fa, Woo Jung-Kook
Running Time: 139 min.

By Paul Bramhall

In 2015 Korean history was a hot topic, mainly due to President Park Geun-hye’s hugely unpopular decision to replace all high school history text books, currently produced by private publishers, with anonymously written government-issued ones by 2017. The decision is largely looked at as one which will whitewash much of the countries less pleasant history, and lead to an education system much like Japan’s, in which anything that presents the country in a negative light will be conveniently glazed over. While the newly authored books are still being written, it seems that the current trend for historical revisionism in Korea has already become apparent in its mainstream cinematic output.

Recent productions such as Ode to my Father, The Admiral: Roaring Currents, and Northern Limit Line, all play fast and loose with historical facts to paint a picture of a Korean national identity which is unwaveringly patriotic and pure of heart. How long this trend will continue for is difficult to answer, however with two of the three titles mentioned holding their place in the top five most successful Korean movies of all time, it’s safe to say it’ll continue for a while.

The Tiger has Choi Min-sik on patriotic duty again, after his star turn as the revered Admiral Yi Sun-shin in the previous years The Admiral: Roaring Currents. This time he’s under the direction of Park Hoon-jeong, the man responsible for writing and directing The New World (which also starred Min-sik), as well as penning the scripts for the likes of The Unjust and I Saw the Devil. Min-sik, as expected, proves to be the perfect fit for the role of a rugged tiger hunter, both conveying a sense of authority and world weariness from under his hulking frame, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else as the character.

The tale is set in 1935 under Japan’s occupation of Korea, and revolves around Min-sik’s hunter, who’s been retired since his wife passed away. The Japanese have set about killing every native Korean animal they can find, on the orders of a bloodthirsty commander played by Ren Osugi (recognizable from many pre-2000 Miike Takashi and Beat Takeshi movies), who has a particular liking for displaying stuffed Korean tigers. When the tiger population is completely wiped out except for one, a one-eyed male whose ferocity is legendary, Min-sik finds himself in a dilemma – let the Japanese eventually find and kill it, or give it the dignity of a Korean hunter sending it off into tiger heaven?

There are of course other plot threads introduced throughout, such as the son of Min-sik’s character wanting to marry a girl from the nearby town, however the narrative never strays far from the central goal of killing the tiger. This is of course the movies first big challenge, in that with such a simplistic plot, there is never any doubt that proceedings are going to finish with a Min-sik vs. tiger confrontation. Just like we know Titanic will end with it sinking, the important part becomes about the journey that will take us to that point. Weighing in with an epic 140 minute runtime, you’d hope that Hoon-jeong has a strong narrative structure in place to keep us gripped until the penultimate showdown.

Unfortunately, it becomes apparent some time before the mid-way point that this isn’t the case. Hoon-jeong weighs his script down with a numerous pieces of dialogue depicting Min-sik’s dedication to the mountain that he resides on, constantly mumbling such words of wisdom as “It’s up to the mountain now” and “We must respect the mountain”. The heaviness of his character is in stark contrast to the two dimensional treatment the Japanese antagonists are given. Once again, as was the issue with The Admiral: Roaring Currents, the Japanese are portrayed as almost cartoon like villains, and by the end of the movie are recklessly blowing up whole forests while murdering any animal they come across. The only Japanese character given even a hint of humanity, is a high ranking officer played by Jeong Sok-won, who’s looked down upon for being a native Korean. Subtly isn’t a word which applies to The Tiger.

From a technical standpoint however, the movie is a gorgeous affair, with stunning cinematography of the Korean mountains, and the tiger itself comes in the form a particularly impressive CGI creation. It’s not perfect, but the technology has certainly come a long way from the CGI tiger found in 2011’s War of the Arrows. While the tiger may look and move remarkably naturally, its instincts seem anything but, armed with an amazing ability to single out Japanese officers and subject them to the grizzliest deaths. The actions of the title animal become increasingly ridiculous, and equal parts laughable, the more the movie chugs towards its finale, as it gains the ability to rescue Koreans from a pack of hungry wolves, and seemingly drop by to visit Min-sik at will.

Working with such an epic scope appears to work against Hoon-jeong’s directorial style, as several other instances that stretch believability pop up with a disengaging regularity throughout. The reason behind the death of Min-sik’s wife isn’t revealed until around the mid-way point, however what should be a revelatory moment is quickly squandered by the contrived nature of the reveal. With the Japanese having spent so much time emphasising how vast the mountain area is, the sudden appearance of three key players convening in the same spot by chance goes against everything the narrative has established thus far. It’s moments like this which do damage to Min-sik’s dedicated performance, laden with a director who, while evidently a talented storyteller based on past efforts, seems to have bitten off more than he can chew here.

In the last hour things really go off the rails, as it consists of an increasingly frustrating series of false climaxes, each one seemingly bringing the movie to its close, before revealing that it’s still not over. By the time the Japanese army find themselves being stalked by the tiger, it almost feels like we’re watching a sequel to Predator. The beast is briefly glimpsed speeding through the shadows, and before you know it arms are being ripped off, bodies are randomly falling out of trees, and the only thing missing is Bill Duke turning up with a mini-gun. Even when the tiger has been riddled with countless bullets, it still seems relatively unfazed, like any true Korean tiger should be.

By this point it seems to have made the decision itself to die at the hands of a Korean, so strolls off to meet with Min-sik for a session of exchanging intense stares set to a sweeping choral soundtrack. In fact the choral soundtrack plays in every scene involving Min-sik and the tiger during the last hour, practically demanding that we feel their emotional connection to each other. Unfortunately, at least for a non-Korean audience, the feeling of forced emotions is one that permeates throughout the production. There are scenes at the beginning which seem like they were filmed purely to be used as flashback fodder later on, and sure enough they are. It’s this type of blatant commercial filmmaking that earmarks these recent Korean productions, which come with a checkbox list of histrionics, two dimensional foreign villains, and self-sacrificing heroes.

While The Tiger continues to deliver the high end production values we’ve become accustomed to from Korean cinema, it also long outstays its welcome. At one point, the Japanese commander yells at one of his soldiers – “How can it be such a hard battle?” With such an epic runtime, trying to get to the end of The Tiger will likely result in you asking yourself the same question.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 5/10



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10 Responses to Tiger: An Old Hunter’s Tale, The (2015) Review

  1. HKFanatic says:

    Ouch! After having recently watched “The Admiral,” which was a decent enough time waster but nothing particularly memorable, I don’t know if I can muster up much enthusiasm for what sounds like the complete spiritual sequel to that film. I wonder what’s with Choi Min-sik – is he on a nationalistic kick himself or does he just recognize that these are the kinds of movies that make money these days?

    It’s a shame about Park Hoon-jung. He wrote two of the best Korean films of the last ten years with “I Saw the Devil” and “The Unjust,” but he’s another one of these screenwriters that seems to have a difficult time transitioning to the director’s chair. I watched “New World” last year around this time and was decidedly unmoved by it.

  2. Paul Bramhall says:

    It’s hard to tell with Min-sik, but I think it probably has more to do with broadening the type of roles he’s taking on. I remember reading in an interview that, after ‘Nameless Gangster’ and ‘The New World’, he’d become tired of gangster movies. Considering the only period piece he’d really starred in until that point was 2002’s ‘Strokes of Fire’, it’s easy to see the appeal of the roles on offer in both this and ‘The Admiral’.

    As for Hoon-jeong, I’m actually a big fan of ‘The New World’, and consider it a superior entry in the Korean gangster genre. I’m curious to check out his 2010 directorial debut, the period action movie ‘The Showdown’, which also features the similar three-way character structure which he crafted with the script of ‘The Unjust’. It’ll be interesting to see it applied to a period setting, and the scope of it is much smaller and intimate than the sprawling nature of ‘The Tiger’.

  3. Nic says:

    This has been on my radar since I saw ‘The Admiral’ (I loved it), and I’m hoping that one of the usual suspects will pick it up for US distribution. Or at least home video.

  4. Jackyvoe says:

    I get the feeling this is not a movie for animal lovers.

    Considering the backlash against hunters on social media, The Tiger doesn’t seem very welcoming to many.

  5. Marco says:

    Here it is March in the U.S. and I can’t find this film anywhere. Straight to DVD in the U.S.? Limited release and then GONE?

  6. Ben says:

    great movie! had me holding back the tears, very upsetting, very dark. Don’t expect some spiritual awakening, but it will make you feel empathy for all people and things that suffer horribly because of the stupid things mankind does. Maybe it tells us that we should live by rules, we can’t just storm through life blind and without regard for our actions. Fairly simple ideals here.

    • HKFanatic says:

      I’m with you! I just watched this film – on Christmas Day, of all days – and found it to be extremely entertaining as well as oftentimes moving. It’s not the film I expected at all: this could have very easily been an action movie about hunting a CG tiger on top of a mountain, but no. It’s a rather somber and solemn story, and I think it drives home this idea you find in a lot of Eastern spirituality, of not taking more from nature than one needs. Choi Min-sik’s character displays this when he spares the two tiger cubs…one of which grows up to be Mountain Lord himself.

      I have to respectfully disagree with Paul’s review. For me, this ranks somewhere close to an 8 out of 10.

  7. Jo says:

    No offense… but this review is one dimensional. The story is a reflection on many things, such as the importance of Tigers in Korean mythology, the Japanese’s attempt to wipe Korean culture, the Korean ideology behind mountains as the founder of the first Korean Kingdom is rooted in mythology and divinity who becomes a mountain. One of the biggest casualties of all the wars surrounding the peninsula that Korean can never get back, are the Tigers… the Korean Tigers… the national animal. The effects of constant war on the Korean Peninsula, caused the Korean Tigers extinction, as well as Korea’s economic standard dropping lower than the continent of Africa. However, as Korea rebuilt itself, establishing itself as one of the most technologically advance and wealthy, Korean Tigers reappear, but in Russia or historic Korean territory… so they renamed them Siberian Tigers. It’s funny because the Tiger and Korea metaphorically reflect each other… The desolation of Korea was reflected in the “extinction” of the tigers… then as Korea rebuilt itself, the Tigers reappeared… but is now labeled a new name… symbolizing how Korea will never be the same again in terms of traditional culture as they are hyper modern now

    • If a review is one dimensional from judging ‘The Tiger: An Old Hunter’s Tale’ on its merits purely as a movie, then I guess I agree. I’m familiar with Korean history, and enjoyed reading your comment, but a movie shouldn’t be considered any better based on how interesting the history that it’s based on is. ‘The Admiral: Roaring Currents’ is another example of an inspiring part of Korean history, but similar to Park Hoon-jeong’s movie, it misses the mark in terms of how its adapted for the screen.

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